This very festive and impressive Italian Easter Bread, minis or a large one, is baked with eggs tucked in the dough! Most often you see it drizzled with a glaze and sprinkles on top. It is one of my favorite sweet breads! It’s nice and soft and fluffy, sweet and delicious! It is one of my favorite Easter food traditions!
It is definitely worth the effort and comes out perfectly every time! I love this recipe!
With this recipe you can make one large ring or 4 or 5 mini rings.
I use raw eggs to decorate the bread on top rather than hard-boiled eggs. And I don’t color the entire eggs on top of the bread because I don’t like the coloring to get onto the bread. Just rubbing the egg with food coloring after the bread has cooled works fine for me!
Enjoy!
Italian Easter Egg Bread, Minis or Large
A very festive and impressive Easter bread with colored eggs on top! The bread is soft and delicious and worth the effort!
Servings:
Calories: 219
Ingredients
FOR THE BREAD:
- 6 cups flour
- 1 cup sugar heaping
- 2 packages (1/4 ounce each) yeast
- 2 teaspoons lemon peel
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1½ cups milk
- 6 tablespoons butter
- 3 eggs
FOR THE EGG WASH:
- 1 egg for the egg wash on top of the dough
- 1 tablespoon water
FOR THE DECORATIVE EGGS:
- eggs raw, for decoration, use 3 -6 eggs, your choice
FOR THE EGG COLORING:
- liquid coloring your color choice, optional
FOR THE GLAZE:
- 2 cups confectioner's sugar
- 3 -4 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- sprinkles optional
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350°.
- Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper, or grease it or use non-stick spray.
- In a mixer on lowest speed, or by hand, combine 2 cups of the flour, sugar, yeast, lemon peel, and salt. Set aside.
- In a saucepan on top of the stove, heat the milk and butter to 120 – 130°. Use a candy thermometer to get an accurate temperature. Add it to the dry ingredients and mix on low speed just until moistened.
- Add the 3 eggs and mix until smooth.
- Change to a dough hook attachment, add the remaining 4 cups of flour and mix it on low speed until it forms a soft dough that is smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Alternatively you can knead the dough by hand. This can be kneaded by hand instead.
- Place the dough into a large greased bowl, turning it once over to grease the top of the dough.
- Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let it rise in a warm place until doubled, about 45 minutes.
- Turn the dough onto a lightly floured surface and divide the dough into thirds.
- Shape each dough portion into a 34-inch rope. ( If you are making 4 mini breads, divide the dough into eighths. Roll them into a 12-inch rope. Use 2 ropes to twist into a ring. Seal the ends together with moistened fingers.)
- Place the ropes onto the prepared baking sheet and braid the ropes. Bring the ends together, pinch them with moistened fingers to seal and form a ring.
- Gently separate the braided ropes to tuck in the decorative eggs into the openings. (For the mini breads, tuck a raw egg into the center of each ring.
- Cover the bread with a tea towel and let it rise until doubled, about 20 minutes.
- In a small bowl, make an egg wash by beating together the tablespoon of water and one egg. Use a pastry brush to brush the egg wash over the dough.
- Bake at 350° for 28 – 32 minutes or until golden brown.
- Place the pan on a wire rack for a few minutes. Remove the bread from the pan to the wire rack to cool for about 20 minutes.
- Using a paper towel and food coloring, squeeze a few drops of food coloring onto the paper towel and then rub the tops of the hard-boiled eggs. Be careful not to touch the bread with the food coloring.
- When the food coloring is dry on the eggs, use a knife around edges of the pan to loosen the bread and carefully invert bread upside down on a wire rack, then quickly invert bread onto a serving plate.
- In a small bowl, mix the glaze ingredients and drizzle over the bread, being careful not to have the glaze touch the eggs. Add sprinkles on the glaze if you'd like.
- Store the bread covered at room temperature.
EXTRA TIP:
MINI BREADS: You can make 4 or 5 mini breads instead of one large one. Follow the instructions in the directions for the mini breads.
EGG DECORATION: You can color the entire eggs beforehand if you prefer. Just be sure they are completely dry before tucking them into the dough. And you can use hard-boiled eggs instead of raw eggs. YEAST: You can use any active dry yeast or any rapid-rise yeast.
EGG DECORATION: You can color the entire eggs beforehand if you prefer. Just be sure they are completely dry before tucking them into the dough. And you can use hard-boiled eggs instead of raw eggs. YEAST: You can use any active dry yeast or any rapid-rise yeast.
Calories: 219kcal | Carbohydrates: 35g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 6g | Saturated Fat: 3g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 1g | Monounsaturated Fat: 2g | Trans Fat: 1g | Cholesterol: 68mg | Sodium: 177mg | Potassium: 88mg | Fiber: 1g | Sugar: 6g | Vitamin A: 218IU | Vitamin C: 1mg | Calcium: 36mg | Iron: 2mg