Easter Bread Redoux: Simply Good

I first published this several years ago, and did a re-do of it a couple of years back, but it's a "shouldn't be forgotten" favorite at our house... Frosted sweet bread, decorated with jelly beans or tinted coconut... Always something to love, either way! 

I'm in Dallas this week, having Holy Week and Texas Ranger baseball and Chip and Joanna and the Silos with my husband "Farmer Dave", my youngest son Luke and meeting up with Mindy Obenhaus in Waco with her wonderful husband. How exciting is that?  But it's also Holy Week here, just like it is back home, and this week is the culmination of the thoughtful and introspective days of Lent. How out of great sadness comes the greatest of joys: The Resurrection. 

So I'm sending hearty blessings to you and praying for you, that this Easter week, this Holy Week, this Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday will draw you closer to the one who gave it all... for sinners like you and me.

May we believe, may we trust, may we hope and never be afraid to embrace a sacrifice of our own. God is good!

Today is a re-do of a big Easter and Christmas favorite, homemade Easter Bread using Grandma Eichas's As-Told-To-Me and then reconstructed sweet dough recipe... and Grandma Eichas and the Eichas family of strong women were part of the inspiration for my historical prairie novels... I just moved the family west to South Dakota, LOL!  Youse know that I love championing strong women and giving my prairie heroines the Eichas name was just way fun! You can find them in the wonderful historical anthology "The Sewing Sister's Society" 

And in the first full-length historical novel "A Most Inconvenient Love" featuring Rachel Eichas and the absolutely swoon-worthy hero Sebastian Ward...

So here you go, a delightful homemade bread that makes everyone smile... and think of simpler times.

EASTER BREAD 

I blame Mandy.

She called and said, "When are you going to make Easter Bread? Because I need Easter Bread!"

I may have said something snarky like, "Great. Make some and bring it to me!"

To which she laughed.

GUILT BUTTON ENGAGED.

So when I finished writing Sunday morning, and I'd gone to Palm Sunday Mass the evening before... I made the dough for Easter Bread. I don't put hard boiled eggs in mine because I don't like hard-boiled eggs. (stop gasping!!!) And if I had jelly beans, I'd have decorated with jelly beans, but I can't stop eating jelly beans when they're in the house.

And not those fancy weird-flavored jelly beans. Good old fashioned fruity... or spice, but never mixed.... jelly beans.  But enough of that, because you are going to love this recipe. I confirmed amounts by checking a few recipe sites including "Taste of Home" because I'm famous for not measuring and didn't want to mess you up!

Here it is, and it's not even hard. You really have no excuse, and the dough is amazing. Not that I know that personally, I heard it from a friend. :)

Also, I left out the cardamom that Taste of Home suggested, I didn't use hard-boiled eggs, although that's festive for Easter, and I didn't use any oil. I'm a butter gal. I did add one tablespoon of vanilla to the flour mix before adding the warm milk/butter to the dry ingredients.

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 cup sugar
2 packages yeast (I buy in bulk so I used two full tablespoons)
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon salt
6 1/2 cups flour (I use bread flour, but all purpose works fine)
1 1/2 cups whole milk (I use whole milk, I don't know if it matters if you've got 2%)
6 Tablespoons butter, cubed
4 eggs (3 for recipe, one for glazing)

Mix sugar, yeast, vanilla, salt and 2 cups of the flour.

Heat milk and butter to about 120° - 140° in small kettle (I love that word!) on stove.

Slowly add butter/milk to dry mix while blending.

 (KARO SYRUP PHOTO-BOMB! A HINT TO MAKE SPONGE CANDY FOR EASTER!!!! OH, YOU KIDS!!!!)

Add  three eggs and remainder of flour and knead (either by hand or with handy-dandy dough hook) until dough is smooth, and elastic.

This is great dough, and might need to be tested at this point. Wait. Did I say that out loud??? Don't eat raw eggs, you sillies....

But it's okay if I do it!!! :)

Put dough into buttered/greased bowl. Flip the dough so surface is greased. Cover and set in warm spot for rising.

When dough has doubled in size, punch down.

Heat oven to 375° cut dough into three equal pieces.

With hands, roll dough into 24" long ropes.

Set on greased cookie sheet.

Braid, bringing outside ropes to inside, alternating sides. (Just like braiding hair, here's a great pic!)

Form braid into circle, pinch together.

Allow to rise about 15 - 20 minutes. Brush with beaten egg.

Bake.

Frost, if desired, using plain white frosting. Usually then I decorate it with sprinkled fruity jelly beans or tinted coconut to give it the spring nest look... Either works, and both are delicious.




White Glaze for Bread:

2 cups powdered sugar
Enough milk to make glaze consistency.

Drizzle 1/2 onto warm bread. Let sit. Drizzle more onto bread. Drizzle as much as you want onto bread. :)

Oh my stars, it did not take those vultures long to dive in! I left half unfrosted because Jon cut sweets out for Lent, but Mom's home-made bread doesn't count, and this recipe made a great bread-and-butter treat, too.

A family history note: I took this recipe idea from Taste of Home, but it's virtually identical to the recipe Grandma Eichas (Ol' Dave's maternal grandmother, a great woman who emigrated at age 11 and crossed the Atlantic with her 13 year-old brother. Dad was in America, Mom refused to get on the boat. She stayed in Germany, and the two kids sailed on their own to Ellis Island. A young couple on board kept an eye on them. Today you get in trouble if your kid walks to the park alone. Sigh...)

Grandma's words were like this in her quaint and lyrical German accent: "Some say I brought recipes from Germany." She gives me a look that says otherwise. "I was eleven, what recipes did I know? No, it was when I was married with a farm and a job and I had to make do with what we had. There were no eggs through much of the Depression. We had chickens, yes, but no money for laying mash. And to make the cheese for the kuchen (using the dough recipe above for the base) I took the milk, clabbered it on the counter (soured it into curds) and then I hung it out in a cheesecloth bag, squeezing the water out of it. When it dried (and we had to wave flies off it in summer) I would mix in some sugar, an egg or two if we had extra, and maybe cream if needed until it was the right texture. And then I'd fill the kuchen with the cheese."

Grandma's recipe, made on her own with hit-and-miss for a young hard-working housewife who raised 11 children to adulthood... From her heart to ours.

Here's the carrot cake Xavier helped me make for Brody and Elijah's birthday:

It's for you, Grammy!!!  Oh, Finn.... :)

(Look how little he was!!!! He's 5 and a half now!!!)