Not just for Easter, but throughout the year, this is a very nice bread to serve. I was finally able to receive the recipe from my mother, who always made this dish around Easter. Now I want to tell you about it. The recipe yields two loaves.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 25 mins |
| Additional Time: | 3 hrs |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 45 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 2 loaves |
Ingredients
- 5 ½ cups high-gluten flour, divided
- 2 ½ teaspoons active dry yeast
- 1 cup milk
- ½ cup butter
- ½ cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
- 3 tablespoons orange juice
- 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
Instructions
- Mix 2 cups flour and yeast together in the bowl of a stand mixer.
- Stir milk, butter, sugar, and salt together in a saucepan; heat and stir over medium-low heat until the mixture is smooth and the temperature is between 90 degrees F (32 degrees C) to 100 degrees F (37 degrees C).
- Pour the milk mixture into the flour mixture, add eggs, and beat on low speed for 30 seconds. Increase speed to high and beat for 3 minutes more. Add 1 cup flour and 3 tablespoons orange juice to the mixture; mix on high for 3 minutes more.
- Fit the mixer with a dough hook. Add remaining flour to the mixture; beat with dough hook until the flour is completely incorporated.
- Grease a glass bowl. Put dough into the bowl. Let dough rise until doubled in volume, 1 to 2 hours.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Punch dough down. Divide the dough into two halves. Split each half into three even pieces, roll each piece into a cylinder, and braid into loaves. Put loaves onto a baking sheet. Let rise, about 1 hour.
- Bake in preheated oven until the middle is baked, 25 to 30 minutes.
- Stir confectioners’ sugar and 1 tablespoon orange juice together in a bowl; brush onto the tops of the loaves.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 312 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 31 g |
| Cholesterol | 40 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 0 g |
| Protein | 28 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 202 mg |
| Sugars | 15 g |
| Fat | 7 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
This holiday bread looks delicious and tastes wonderful. I substituted a few ingredients to make it vegan compliant and it turned out light and very tasty. I embellished with orange zest and almonds. Yummy!
A good breakfast bread, more like a sweet roll bread. Not great for dinner.
Pretty easy to follow the recipe and no crazy or out of the ordinary ingredients except that flour. Due to pandemic, I wasn’t going to go out and find the high gluten flour last minute so used regular all-purpose flour and it turned out great. Whole family loved it and made a great addition to the Easter dinner. Thanks for the recipe. Will be making again.
I am the one who submitted this recipe. Not sure why it doesn’t say to make the loafs, then let rise again. The website changed up my recipe. Also do not over bake this! Also, the first rise should only take 1 to 2 hours, not 3 to 4.
Great recipe. Moist and really good. It would be great with or without the glaze. I recommend letting the bread cool before eating it, and letting the glaze set, or the texture is a bit too moist (like a quick bread). That said, it’s hard to resist warm bread.