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Sweet Italian Easter Bread is a tender bread with a hint of sweetness. Baked in the center is a beautiful colored egg. Top the bread with powdered sugar, sprinkles, or even a drizzle of my brown sugar syrup.

You will be hooked at the first bite! If this is your first time making this bread, you will be in awe of how amazing it tastes.

The Easter holiday is right around the corner, so what better way to celebrate than making bread? It literally has become my absolute favorite thing to do.

These braided Easter breads, which in Italian is Pane di Pasqua, would make the perfect hostess gift to give for this special holiday. Not only that, but you can make these and give them out to everyone at the Easter dinner table this year.

You won't find these bread loaves at the grocery store! They take no time to throw together and braiding the bread is really fun.

How to Make Traditional Italian Easter Bread Recipe

Ingredients

For this recipe you will need the following ingredients —

• 5 tablespoons of butter
• 1 1/4 cups of milk
• 2 1/4 teaspoons of instant yeast
• 1/2 cup of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 3 large raw eggs (2 eggs for the recipe and 1 egg for the egg wash)
• 1 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract
• 3 1/2 cups to 4 cups of flour (all purpose or bread)
• Colorful Sprinkles
• 3 to 6 large eggs uncooked and colored

Make the Dough

In a small saucepan over medium heat, add the milk and butter. Warm the milk through until the butter melts but do not heat the milk too hot.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, add in the salt, sugar, and yeast. Now, add in the two eggs along with the vanilla and mix well.

Slowly add in the milk and butter mixture to the yeast mixture.

Add in the flour. Add the dough hook attachment and begin to mix on medium speed. The dough will be sticky at first. You may need to add more flour but no more than 4 cups. If you add too much flour, it will make the bread dense.

Once the dough has mixed for 5 minutes, take it out of the bowl and knead on a floured surface until you have a smooth ball.

Spray a large bowl with non stick spray. Make sure the spray goes up the sides of the bowl so that the dough doesn't stick. Place the soft dough in the greased bowl and cover it with plastic wrap. Place in a warm place and let the dough rise until doubled in size, about 90 minutes.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface. Once you punch the dough down, divide the dough into 6 pieces.

I am making larger bread but you can cut the pieces smaller to make smaller breads. Just make sure to cut them all into equal pieces.

Roll each piece out to form a 1 inch thick long ropes that are about 12 to 14 inches long. Braid two ropes together, pinching the ends, and then loop into a circle.

Place the braided bread on parchment paper lined baking sheet. Cover them with a clean towel or plastic wrap and let them complete the second rise until doubled in size, about an hour.

How to Quickly Dye the Easter Eggs

While the bread dough is rising, take the raw eggs and dye them. You can dye Easter eggs naturally using fruits and veggies, but for this bread, I just added food coloring to water and dipped the eggs in them. I let them sit in the colored water until I was ready to add them to the bread.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bake the Sweet Easter Bread

Once the bread has doubled in size, take the remaining egg and beat with 1 tablespoon of water. Brush the bread with the egg wash and then sprinkle on colorful sprinkles on the braided bread.

Put a dyed egg into the center of each bread.

Bake in the oven for 15 to 25 minutes depending on the size of the bread. Once the bread is done, you can leave the egg in the center or take it out and peel it. It should be the perfect medium boiled egg!

Add Ins for Italian Easter Bread

If you want to switch this bread up some, you can add some citrus flavor by adding in orange zest or lemon zest.

Make this loaf a savory loaf by eliminating the sugar and adding in things like jalapenos, cheese, herbs and spices and even Parmesan Cheese.

How to Store the Easter Sweet Bread

To store the baked bread, place the bread braids into an airtight container. The next day, take them out and eat them as is or toast them. Be sure to remove the colorful eggs from the braids before eating them.

Check Out These Other Delicious Easter Recipes

• How to Dye Easter Eggs Naturally
• Cheesy Scalloped Potatoes
• How to Dye Easter Eggs Naturally

Delicious Easter Dessert Recipes

• Easter Egg Surprise Cookies from Hezzi-D's Recipe Box
• Easter Pavlova from Art of Natural Living
• English Easter Biscuits (Lemon Currant Cookies) from That Recipe
• Frog Eye Salad from Palatable Pastime
• Strawberry Icebox Cheesecake from A Kitchen Hoor's Adventures

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