This chicken on a brick recipe is quite simple. You may brine the chicken beforehand or add more herbs or spices to the seasoning.
| Prep Time: | 30 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 5 mins |
| Servings: | 6 |
| Yield: | 1 loaf |
Ingredients
- 5 eggs
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- ⅔ cup milk
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup mixed candied fruit
- ⅓ cup chopped blanched almonds
- ½ teaspoon anise seed
- 2 tablespoons melted shortening
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon whole milk
- ⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract
- 3 tablespoons multicolored sprinkles (jimmies)
Instructions
- Color the 5 eggs with egg dye. In a large mixing bowl, blend the white sugar, salt, and yeast well with 1 cup of the flour.
- In a saucepan, combine 2/3 cup milk and butter, heating slowly until liquid is warm and butter is melted. Pour the milk into the dry ingredients and beat 125 strokes with a wooden spoon. Add eggs and 1/2 cup flour or enough to make a thick batter. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes. Stir in enough flour to make a ball of dough that draws away from the sides of the bowl.
- Turn out onto a floured board and knead for about 10 minutes, working in additional flour to overcome stickiness. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and put in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
- Meanwhile, combine the fruit, nuts, and anise seed.
- Punch down the dough and return it to a lightly floured board. Knead in the fruit mixture, keeping the syrupy pieces dusted with flour until they are worked into the dough. Divide the dough in half.
- Carefully roll each piece into a 24-inch rope–the fruit and nuts will make this slightly difficult. Loosely twist the two ropes together and form a ring on a greased baking sheet. Pinch the ends together well. Brush the dough with melted shortening. Push aside the twist to make a place for each egg. Push eggs down carefully as far as possible. Cover the bread with wax paper and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
- Bake the bread in a preheated 350 degree F (175 degrees C) oven for about 35 minutes or until a toothpick inserted in a twist comes out clean. Place on a wire rack to cool.
- Once the bread is cool, drizzle the icing on top between the eggs, and decorate with colored sprinkles. To make icing: mix together confectioners’ sugar, 1 tablespoon whole milk, and vanilla.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 655 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 101 g |
| Cholesterol | 251 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 3 g |
| Protein | 17 g |
| Saturated Fat | 6 g |
| Sodium | 564 mg |
| Sugars | 35 g |
| Fat | 21 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This was a very good recipe. The instructions were very helpful. My bread turned out delicious. I had tried a previous recipe, and I wound up throwing it out, because the dough was too sticky. Now mind you I’ve never made bread before, and I didn’t know that by adding a little flour while kneading would help (sounds stupid I know) but, nonetheless I didn’t know. However, this person told me to do that just in case it was sticky and I was able to complete my bread, of which I was very proud of. Therefore, I am giving this rating a 5 star.
I have been making this bread for many years. However I do not add the candied fruit or nuts but anise flavoring instead of seed. I have found that the egg coloring tends to bleed into the dough while cooking, so the past two years I have left them white. Delicious though!
Very very good! I skipped the candies fruit and mixed extra almonds and vanilla but it was very good and first time making Easter egg bread ever! The waiting and rest times are tedious but worth it!
yummy
I made this for Easter and it was a big hit! I made a couple changes after reading other reviews – omitted candied fruit (family doesn’t like it) and substituted raisins and used Anise extract instead of the seed. I also needed to add a few more TBS of milk to make the right consistency glaze. I baked with white eggs to prevent dye transfer onto the bread, and then when the bread was done I removed the white eggs and replaced them with dyed because it really makes this bread POP! I will definitely make again.
I actually came to All Recipes today looking for this recipe. An old friend used to make this for us when my kids were small and I haven’t had it in years. After trying this, it’s exactly what I was looking for! I did use less salt ( I usually do no matter the recipe). I had golden raisins and dates and sliced almonds on hand so I used those instead running to the store for the candied fruit. It turned out wonderful. I did have anise seed and I used it, and I was pleased with the taste. For me this flavoring is what makes it stand out from the rest. I did cheat and used my Kitchen Aid mixer instead of doing the work by hand. I started with the batter paddle and then switched to the dough hook for the ten minute knead. Do be careful about not adding too much flour as I feel that this is just on the border of being too dry. If you add a touch too much flour I suspect it will make a difference. Even so I was very pleased with the consistency and the taste, oh and the look of it too. I’d have taken a picture but we started tasting it and had trouble stopping so there is isn’t much left, it was supposed to be for Easter. Oh well.
I’m excited to try this again next Easter. My bread turned out a little dry and the icing was too watery, but I think I just need to practice. Making the dough and twisting it into a ring was pretty easy, and inserting the eggs in the ring also went well. My dad was very impressed, since his family always bought their Easter Bread.
My father used to make this EVERY year.When he passed away,he took that recipe with him.For thirteen years I have tried to find this bread and here it is! Five stars for bringing back my childhood memories!
This turned out great! It is a bit of work, but well worth it. This was my first time making a bread ring and it looked absolutely gorgeous. I could not find candied fruit anywhere, so I used a mix of candied pineapple, candied cherries and raisins. It worked out really well, and it was delicious. I will make this every Easter from now on. Thanks for the recipe(:
bread was good, however, I left out the dried fruit, anise and almonds, since it’s not a ruitcake. And, it did not double in size at all and I followed directions step by step. But everyone loved it.
I’ll give this three b/c it did turn out as a bread. However, I can’t give it more than that b/c I didn’t follow the recipe. I didn’t add the dried fruit or anise seed or colored eggs; instead I added anise extract and it still wasn’t enough for my tastes. I was hoping this would be like my Sicilian grandma’s Pigna but it didn’t come close. If you’re not Italian and not used to authentic Pigna then this may satisfy your needs but it just didn’t do it for me. I crumbled it up and gave it to the birds.
This was my first attempt at an Easter ring & I was thrilled with the result! I brought this to an Easter dinner & everyone raved about how good it was. The kids loved dyeing the eggs. I’m going to make this a new Easter tradition.
Followed recipe as written–love it! I use kosher salt, and didn’t notice a salty taste. Everybody raved about this last Easter. It tastes sweet–more like a cake bread. Excellent!
Easy. The children and the adults love this bread at easter.
Bread was very easy to make, although I had to add more flour because the dough was way too sticky and the cooking time was only 25 minutes. Other thatn that I handed out the printed recipe to the girls at work along with a miniature braided wreath with one egg in the center. Everyone was very impressed. This one’s a keeper.
My mother and I have been making this bread since I was 3, it’s a Good Friday tradition. I have found it easier though over the years to use anise extract, I think it gives it a little more flavor. Also if you’re not into the dried fruit, Raisins are a great if not better substitute.
This recipe was absolutely FANTASTIC!!! I love baking from scratch and this old Italian favorite definitely impressed my Grandma. Infact she says that from now on, I can do the baking. Thanks for this recipe. It was truely delish!!!
Fun bread to make! Very good and authentic!
I made this yesterday for Easter and it was a hit. I used tha amount of salt that was called for in the recipe and we were not able to taste the salt as others said they were able. I was not able to find any dried fruit that said it was candied so I used a dried tropical fruit mix. The only other thing I did not use was the anise seed. I could only find anise extract and that is so strong that I didn’t want to try and substitute so I left it out. Even with all these changes it was very good. The bread itself was not sweet (due to no candied fruit?) but the icing was plenty sweet. A+++
I have used this receipe for years. Usually people have never seen anything like it, but once they try it, they absolutly love it. I am now living in Italy and can’t wait to try it out on my Italian neighbors.
Really good recipe. However for the advanced baker since it’s a yeast bread with multiple rising periods. Overall, very authentic– and I’m 100% Italian!