A lovely centerpiece for your holiday table is this Easter bread. Whole eggs that bake with the bread are used to embellish the braided dough. Before baking, you can add more color by dying the whole eggs.
| Prep Time: | 40 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Additional Time: | 1 hr 55 mins |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 10 mins |
| Servings: | 10 |
| Yield: | 1 1-pound loaf |
Ingredients
- 3 cups all-purpose flour, divided
- ¼ cup white sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast
- ⅔ cup milk
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 large eggs
- 5 large whole eggs, dyed if desired
- 2 tablespoons butter, melted
Instructions
- Stir 1 cup flour, sugar, salt, and yeast together in a bowl until well combined.
- Heat milk and 2 tablespoons butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat until milk is warm and butter is softened but not melted, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Gradually add milk mixture to flour mixture, stirring constantly. Add 1/2 cup flour and two eggs; mix until well combined. Add remaining 1 1/2 cups flour in three batches, stirring well after each addition, until dough pulls together. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes.
- Place dough into a lightly oiled bowl; turn to coat all sides. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
- Punch down dough, then turn out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide in half and gently form into rounds; cover and let rest for 10 minutes.
- Meanwhile, butter a baking sheet.
- Roll each dough round into a 36-inch-long roll about 1 1/2 inches thick. Twist dough loosely and form into a ring on the prepared baking sheet, leaving five spaces for eggs. Seal the ends of the ring together, and set whole eggs into the spaces in the dough. Cover loosely with a damp towel and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 45 minutes.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Brush risen loaf with melted butter. Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown, about 30 minutes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 234 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 30 g |
| Cholesterol | 144 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 9 g |
| Saturated Fat | 4 g |
| Sodium | 322 mg |
| Sugars | 6 g |
| Fat | 9 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
Lovely recipe. Simple but elegant. I used 1/3 cup sugar and an egg wash to brush over the top for the glossy finish. Nice light crumbly bread but not dry. Thanks so much!
Came out great! I added a half cup of flour more to allow for the dough to be more workable.
My guests loved it! It was ok, easy to put together.
Awesome.
I started using this recipe in 2018 and have since been making it for Easter every year. It’s become part of my family’s Easter tradition. We all love it!
It was perfect as is! It freezes really well. I made 4 smaller “rounds.” The leftovers make a wonderful french toast!
First time making it I was shocked by how sticky the dough was when I started to knead it. But it turned out perfect. Just keep some flour on the side to dust when kneading and a pastry scraper to de-stickify from the counter.
Excellent results for a brioche like bread. A few tweaks: Definitely add 1/2 cup of flour when kneading. I also added zest of 1/2 orange and 1 tsp. Of anise extract to milk and butter liquid before adding to flour. I also added orange zest and anise extract to confectioners sugar for a citrus glaze. Impressed my very picky Italian family. Taste like the one my Zia used to make. Makes the house smell amazing. Do not skip the rise times. Dough will puff up when placed in the oven.
No changes to bread recipe but I glazed it with a confectioners sugar/milk glaze. I made this for my grandsons and did dye the eggs before placing them in the twists. Both of my grandsons ages 12 and 9 enjoyed the bread a lot and they both ate one of the hard boiled eggs with their Easter dinner. I think this will now be a every year occurrence at Easter dinner. Their parents and I enjoyed the bread too! YUMMY!!!
First time trying To make Easter Bread and it turned out beautiful and tasty!
We did not care for it at all. It was very dense and did not have any flavor. I followed directions to a T. It did look pretty, but took too much time to ever try again. Also, my eye color ran a little. I died my eggs the day before but as soon as the melted butter came near them they ran. Helful tip – do not brush the butter near the eggs.
Made this in a stand mixer. Turned out with a delicious flavor, eggs fully cooked but the inside of the bread was a tad undercooked. Would 100% make again but next time cook for longer
This was my daughter’s first try at bread making, and it came out perfectly. The instructions and recipe were perfect. We used 2 1/4 tsps yeast from a jar, because we had no packets, and it worked out fine.
I had to add almost double the flour as the dough was extremely sticky. The dyed eggs smeared. I added honey butter to the top prior to baking and added more sugar to the original recipe. Overall the taste was great but it didn’t look like the picture!
To anyone making this recipe with sleepy yeast! Take milk required and heat to 110 degrees, add to bowl and stir in sugar. THEN add 2 1/4tsp of yeast and let bloom. Add when liquids are combined. Then continue following recipe.
This was my third recipe for Easter Bread, it was a hit. It was soft , tasty and easy to make.
The hints in the reviews were helpful. I used my mixer which worked out well adding an extra amount of flour to equal what would have been used to hand knead it. Also used 3 teaspoons of yeast instead of the 2 1/4 tsp. packet. Added lemon zest and will add more sugar and maybe fennel next time. I also found it difficult to roll the dough so I used the “squeeze and stretch” method to shape into two ropes. It was darker than I wanted at 10 minutes in the oven so I covered it with foil and took it out at 25 minutes. To keep the bottom lighter, doubling up the baking sheets will help, which I usually do with cookies. I baked it with white eggs and replaced them with colored eggs after the bread cooled. Before baking it got an egg wash and after, a coating of honey so the sprinkles would stick. It was a bit dry but still good. Anxious to try again and perfect it to my liking.
The bread was easy to make and tasted very good. My only negative was the instruction to brush the raised loaf with melted butter before baking. I know you need to use an egg to get that great shine but this said melted butter. I figured there was some magic I didn’t know about. Well guess what, no magic. It’s a typo. It should be brush loaf with an egg then bake. The loaf tasted good but looked horrible. Lesson learned.
Worked well and the flavor is very milld. The colored egg is optional..
Did anyone have trouble “rolling” this into two 36″ pieces? I did. Also, the egg dye bled onto my damp dishtowel when the ring was rising. I dried the eggs before inserting into ring. I agree with others, this bread did not rise well and I think it’s because of the fact that you really must put yeast in warm water first to “proof”. I’m hoping it tastes good.
We made this today and it turned out amazing! I definitely recommend trying this recipe. It’s easy, simple and delicious!