Braided Egg Bread

Our Grandma always used to have this terrific, dense bread at Easter that was braided and always (ALWAYS) had jelly bean eggs decorating it.  All the grandkids used to ohhh and ahhh when it was presented and we'd all secretly plot to get the most beans on one slice of bread.

A lot of my memories revolve around food and family.  Meals spent at the table (or kids table - remember those??) talking and laughing and enjoy the moment that it takes to eat a meal that's cooked for days!  I want our kids to remember the times like that and the joy on everyone's faces.



I wanted to recreate that bread (and the wonder, for the kids) and came across this recipe (with pictures - who can resist pictures) and thought that I would give it a try!

Braided Egg Bread
Makes: 2 large loaves

Braided Egg Bread
Borrowed, tested and approved by me from www.allrecipes.com/

2 (.25oz) pkg active dry yeast
1/2 c warm water (110/F)

2 c hot milk
1/2 c sugar
1/2 c butter
2 tsp salt
1/2 c water
5 eggs
11c all-purpose flour

1 egg
1/2 c jelly beans

Begin by proofing your yeast in the warm water.  This just means dump in the yeast, stir it a bit and let it sit until it gets all bubbly.

I was extra careful to make sure the water was warm enough yet not too hot.  I'm sure there is leeway but I was not going to chance anything!



Meanwhile, combine hot milk (I heated it in a pot on the stove), butter, salt and water.

Cool to milk mixture to 110/F.  I then transferred the warm milk to a large bowl and then added the yeast mixture.

In a separate bowl, slightly beat 5 eggs, then add to the cooled milk + yeast mixture and mix well.







Add 2 cups of flour and (I used a whisk) beat until smooth - like pancake batter.

Slowly add remaining flour a few cups at a time until a stiff dough forms.  I eventually found that using my hands was easier than using a spoon. Plus, it was more fun getting my hands dirty - hence the really blurry photo....do you know how hard it is to mix this much dough AND take a photo at the same time??














Knead dough on a floured work space for 10 minutes.








Even the kids helped - they wanted to make their very own bread!!

In a large bowl, drizzle vegetable oil around and turn your kneaded dough into it.  Turn dough over so top is oiled and cover to rise in a warm place.  I used the oven with the interior light on.

Let dough rise for 60 minutes - until doubled in size.


Punch down (really, give it a good rap with your knuckles), cover and let rise again for about 30 minutes - and it will double again!  Gotta love yeast!

Preheat oven to 350/F.

Punch dough down again and divide into 2 halves.  One half was to be my bread - the other I gave to the wolves .... I mean kids to play with.

Divide  the 1/2 of dough into 3 pieces.







Roll on lightly floured surface to create 3 long rolls.  This is where the experiment took a turn for the absurd!


Mr. Hungry and Papa (who were supposed to be corralling children) decided that the dough rolls looked like snakes.  Evil snakes.

And Papa is afraid of snakes so I'm not  sure what they were sipping on when I wasn't looking ..... but next thing you know that poor piece of dough was recreated into a attack-snake and was after my throat! 







At any rate, once you are done playing with the dough ..... I mean shaping it for your Easter Bread, braid rolls.

Should have read the instructions better as I was to do this step ON the greased cookie sheet, not the counter.  Transferring that twisted mass of dough was interesting but we got it done!  Thank goodness for Papa running the transfer and Mr. Hungry running the camera!

A word of advise - grease the pan WELL.

Adorn with jelly beans and let rise for another 30 minutes.

Our jelly beans wanted to pop out as the dough expanded but we just pushed them back in and it was just fine.

Lightly beat remaining egg and the egg wash over the dough.






Bake for about 55 minutes, and nicely browned.  If you 'knock' on the bottom of the loaf, the sound should be fairly hollow.  That means the bread is done!!

Let cool before transferring to serving platter.  If you plan on storing the bread for a day or so, be sure to cover it well AFTER it has cooled or it will get soft and squishy.

And even after that poor dough was manhandled, it still tasted great.  A sweeter bread that what you would use for a sandwich, but very tasty! 

We really did enjoy doing this one together - all the fun with the kids and the bigger kids made it interesting enough to try again one day! 

Might need Billy the Exterminator though, to fight off the reptiles attacks!


--The Cook