I love any sort of sweet bread. Coco bread, Pao Doce (Portugese sweet bread), Pan de Muerto (Day of the Dead bread), which is why I was excited to make this Easter Bread. You put a little butter on it ....maybe sprinkle some cinnamon (I got this idea from my culinary fairy Godmother Ina Garten). Easter bread is such a simple thing to make to beautify your table-setting. I got this recipe from the back of a Five Roses flour bag yeearrrrssss ago and it makes more of a dense bread, but next time I will try it with less flour and I'll add some baking powder.
Quick Tip - To marble your coloured easter eggs like I did in the above picture, follow the directions on your kit but add about a tbsp of olive oil to the coloured water before you drop your egg in. If you want to do a multi-coloured egg make sure you start with the lighter colours because it will be harder to cover a darker colour with a lighter colour.
Ingredients:
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 envelope (about 1 tbsp) of Fleishmann's Quick Rise Instant Yeast
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup milk
1/3 cup butter
2 beaten eggs
1 beaten egg for the egg wash
At least 3 hard boiled eggs decorated with paint that is safe to eat
Directions:
Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F.
Set 1 cup of flour aside and mix the remaining 2 cups with the yeast, sugar, and salt.
Heat the milk and butter together until the butter is melted, and then mix into the dry ingredients.
After everything is mixed add the eggs.
Slowly add more and more of the flour you set aside until the dough doesn't stick to the bowl.
Set the dough on a floured surface and knead for about 8 minutes, adding a little flour as you go to make sure the dough doesn't stick to the surface and it has a smooth and elastic texture.
Once you're done kneading, let it rest in a warm/room temperature area, covered, for 10 minutes.
After the 10 minutes, split the dough into three pieces and roll the three pieces into about 24-inch long ropes.
Braid the ropes together and connect the ends. You can press the ends together but I slightly rested one end on top of the other and poked the end into the braid to look like the braid doesn't end.
Press your decorated eggs into the bread wherever you wish.
Set the bread on a greased baking sheet and let it rise covered for about 30-45 minutes in a warm/room temperature area until it is doubled.
Brush the bread with the beaten egg until it is completely covered.
Bake in the oven for about 30-35 minutes until golden on top. At about the 20-minute mark, create an aluminium foil tent and place it on top of the bread so the bread cooks but it doesn't burn on top.