Easter Bread

I legit cannot believe Easter is this Sunday! Its definitely early this year, that’s for sure! Now, I don’t know what Easter looks like for you this year or if you even celebrate it, but I DO know that this bread is SO freakin’ good and worth the time to make! I’ll spare you the chit chat and get right to the recipe!

Ingredients

Bread:
1 (1/4 ounce) package active dry yeast
1/4 cup water (room temp)
3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup milk
4 eggs (room temp)
1 1/2 tbs vanilla extract
1 1/4 tsp salt
2tbs vegetable oil
6tbs melted butter
4 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Icing:
1 cup confectioners sugar
2tbs milk

Directions:

The Night Before:

Dissolve the yeast in a large bowl with the warm water with a small pinch of the sugar. Let sit 10 minutes until foamy. Whisk in the remaining sugar, milk, eggs, vanilla extract, salt, oil, and melted butter. Combine well with a mixer. Once everything is well combined, mix in the flour, one cup at a time, to form a wet, sticky dough.

Turn onto a lightly floured surface. Knead for about 5 minutes, adding flour as needed to keep the dough from sticking to the surface. Spray a bowl with oil and place dough in it then spray the top of the dough and cover with a damp towel. Place in the oven with the light on (but no heat). The dough needs to rise until doubled in size, about 6-12 hours or overnight.

The Next Day:

When doubled, punch dough down, turn out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into four pieces. Take one piece and cut it into three strips and braid. Repeat with remaining dough. Place the loaves on a silicone mat or parchment-lined baking sheets. Cover very loosely with lightly greased plastic wrap and let rise for 2 hours. Preheat oven to 350F and once loaves have risen, bake for 25 minutes or until golden brown. Remove and cool on wire racks.

Stir confectioners sugar and milk together until smooth and drizzle over bread and enjoy!

Adapted from The Spruce Eats

A Couple Notes:

You can add the hard boiled eggs into the bread like they traditionally do, but I prefer it this way. You can also braid the dough into a wreath like a lot of people do. This recipe will make four loaves so I like to gift them to friends, family and neighbors. It goes GREAT with coffee fyi 🙂

I hope you love this bread! Its such a nice treat year round, but especially at Easter! If you do give it a go, tag me in your pics @jillianrosado – can’t wait to see!

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