Delicious Italian Braided Easter Bread Recipe! | Video & In Depth Blog Post |

Hello friends! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. I thought now would be a great time to share this delicious Easter bread recipe! Now I know Easter is right around the corner but this can be made the day before or even the morning of Easter you could start this and serve it fresh out of oven at dinner! So there is time!! I think it's perfect for any Easter table or even a great hostess gift if you are eating somewhere other than home. This is a sweet bread just like brioche and kids love it! I did use my bread machine to make the dough easier but below I share how you could do it with either a mixer or completely by hand.  The video shows you everything and the step by step written out recipe and instructions are below!

Here's the recipe:

Ingredients:

1⁄4 cup water, - 110degrees

2⁄3 cup milk, - 110dregrees

3⁄4 cup softened butter

2⁄3 cup granulated sugar

3⁄4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

juice of one lemons or 1 teaspoon butter flavoring, as desired

2 eggs, beaten

5 cups unbleached flour

2 1⁄4 teaspoons yeast

colored raw egg
Egg wash
Sprinkles or colored sugar

For this recipe you will need some died raw eggs. Don't worry! They cook in the oven as the bread is baking. Just dye them as you would die hard boiled eggs but be careful because they will break! I like to let the color sit for a while and then easily transfer them to a plate to let them dry. 

For the bread machine method add in the ingredients to the bread machine in the order listed above. Then turn it on it's dough setting and let it do it's thing. It should take close to 2 hours to complete the cycle. 

For the other method: 

In a small saucepan, warm the milk and butter together, just till butter melts.    In a large mixer bowl, combine yeast, salt, eggs and sugar.  Add the warm (not hot - it will kill the yeast) milk and butter. Add about half the flour and beat until smooth with dough hook.   Slowly add the remaining flour to form a stiff dough.    Knead until smooth with either dough hook attachment or turn out on floured board and knead.  Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour. 

Punch dough down, cut into 12 pieces.  Roll each piece to form a 1 inch thick rope about 12 - 14 inches long. Then pinch the one of the ends and twist together. Then take the two piece and braid them.. just taking them over one another as I demonstrated in the video above. Loop the braid into a circle and pinch and twist the two ends together. Continue until you have 6 braided bread rounds.

Place on two baking sheets lined with parchment paper or Silpats.  Cover and let rise until double, which should take about an hour. I like to put the baking sheets the stove with the oven on low and door cracked

Once they have risen,  brush each braided bread round with beaten egg wash.  Put on the sprinkles or sugar.   In the middle of each bread ring, gently place an Easter egg. Try to make sure the dough is touching the sides of the bread dough. 

Make sure you are using parchment paper or silpats so your braided bread rounds don't stick. I like to have the two oven racks at the top of the oven. Bake at 350 degrees for 20-25 minutes until golden brown. Your home will fill up with an amazing aroma while they bake. Cool and if you are serving immediately, you can eat the egg. However if you make these early, skip the eating the egg...just in case! 

The bread is amazingly sweet and delicious. This is a recipe that is fun to make with your kids because they can help die the eggs and roll out the dough. I think it's a great tradition that you can start too! Let me know if you have any questions.

Also if you want to see more....I made an adorable Easter Display last year that was super easy.

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Cee ya tomrorow!