Tuesday Dinners

Easter Bread

Because why not have a hard boiled egg with your carbs?

⏲️ Prep Time
140 minutes (120 proofing)

⏲️ Cook Time
20 Minutes

🍴 Makes
4

Ingredients

Bread Dough

  • 2 1/2 cups flour
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • Zest of half a lemon
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup milk
  • 1/2 tablespoon yeast
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter
  • 0 – 4 raw eggs

Egg Wash

  • 1 egg
  • 1 1/2 tablespoon water

Directions

  1. Combine the flour, salt, lemon zest, sugar, milk, yeast, and 2 eggs in a bowl. Mix until combined. Knead for around 2 minutes
  2. Let dough proof for one hour
  3. Chop up butter and mix into dough until dough is uniform in texture, add more flour if necessary
  4. Let dough proof for an additional hour
  5. Divide the dough into 8 pieces, pinch the end of two strands together and then twist the dough together and then pinch other end of tough. Touch ends of dough together to form a ring. Repeat with all dough.
  6. Beat together an egg and water to make an egg wash. Transfer egg wash to top of uncooked dough. If desired place an egg in center of ring.
  7. Bake in a 400 degree oven for 20-25 minutes.

Step by Step Directions

Combine all of your ingredients save for the butter. For the lemon zest there’s no real thing as “too much lemon”, so if you want to use the entire lemon for zest then feel free.

Mix everything together until a loose dough forms.

Knead the dough together until it becomes a tight dough. The added benefit of this recipe is that while kneading you’re expressing the oils in the lemon zest so your entire kitchen should smell very good.

Cover and let rise for an hour.

Take your butter and cut it into a bunch of tiny pieces, you’ll want to incorporate these into your existing dough, almost like you are making biscuits. You might find that the butter overpowers your dough, if this is the case then add some more flour.

Knead your dough again, the aim is to create a uniform consistency throughout your dough.

Let the dough rise for another hour.

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees.

Now we are going to be making 4 rings of dough, so we’ll need to divide our dough into 8 pieces (2 per ring). We’ll want to pinch the ends of the dough together and then twist the strands around each other. Once we’ve reached the end of the dough strands you should pinch the ends together and then join the two pinched ends together to form a circular object.

The picture below just shows the egg for visual aid. It should be ideally nestled within the ring of dough. I’ve found that strands of twelve inches work for the shape we’re trying to create, but the longer your initial strands the more intricate your dough will look.

Crack an egg into a bowl and add a splash of water. Stir until the egg is completely whisked. Congratulations, you made an egg wash. Now apply that egg wash to the top of the dough and then, if desired, place your egg inside the ring.

Bake in your 400 degree oven for at least 20 minutes. The eggs placed inside the dough ring should now be completely cooked and ready for consumption as well.

Enjoy.

Variations

  • You don’t have to make four rings of bread. You can make three pieces of dough and braid them, you can twist together 4 strands of dough, it’s up to you.
  • You can add sprinkles on top of the dough, they will stick to the egg wash and add a nice pop of color.
  • You can (and probably should) dye your eggs if they are going to be added to this recipe.

Unsolicited Feedback

  • HD: Are you telling me a bunny laid that egg?
  • CI: What does this have to do with Easter?
  • HC: Who decided that lemon was a good flavor for bread?