The Easter Bread is out of the oven and cooling

Debbie

(Email account is valid but one I do not check. To email use above name dot neill at sympatico dot ca)

On Fri 14 Apr 2006 01:00:42p, Thus Spake Zarathustra, or was it L, not -L?

Well, I think they're nice. Haven't seen that in a very long time.

Jill

Perhaps in the recipe you use, but not in the one I use, which is from The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook. I have made these for several years and never had an egg split open. If you see what you believe to be a cracked egg in my picture, it is merely poor egg dying on my part. I used a different brand of dye this year and some of the eggs did not color evenly for some reason, darker in some spots than in others.

Could you post the recipe you used?

Thanks! Dave

I'm impressed. Looks great.

Elaine

The two red ones definitely look cracked. The upper blue one I'll buy as a maybe. The bottom blue one I really can't tell. Most of the recipes I found on the net say to use cooked eggs. I've also seen similar breads baked with just the egg yolks. This type of bread is available all over Italy. When I traveled there extensivly during the early 60s every town had their own version, most were not dyed at all. The eggs had white shells or they used brown eggs.... those that were dyed were colored with very pale pastels, mostly yellow. Othrwise your breads look good. I wish those who submit bread pics would show the bread sliced, can't really tell much from seeing just the exterior, gotta see the crumb to judge bread.

Sheldon

I have that book. It's completely falling apart because I use it so much, but it's a great book.

Sure here it is:

• Exported from MasterCook *

Easter Bread

Recipe By :Tom Lacalamita Serving Size : 4 Preparation Time :0:00 Categories :

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method

-------- ------------ -------------------------------- 3/4 cup milk 2 large eggs 3 cups bread flour 1 teaspoon grated lemon peel 1/2 teaspoon salt 3 tablespoons sugar 4 tablespoons unsalted butter 2 1/4 teaspoons active dry yeast 4 large eggs -- colored, raw 2 teaspoons confetti sprinkles (nonpareils) -- optional Egg Wash 1 large egg 1 teaspoon water

All ingredients must be at room temperature, unless otherwise noted. Add ingredients in the order specified in your bread machine owner's manual. Set bread machine on dough/manual setting. At the end of the program, press clear/stop. Remove dough. If machine cycle hasn't, punch down dough. Let dough rest 5 minutes before hand-shaping.

Lightly sprinkle work surface with flour. Divide dough into 4 equal pieces. Dampen hands and roll each piece into a 12-inch long rope. Wrap each rope around a colored egg. Cross the ends, pinch together, and cut off any excess dough. Place on lightly greased 13x9x1 inch baking pan. Cover with a clean kitchen cloth and let rise until doubled in size, about 1 to 1.5 hours.

Preheat oven to 375F. Brush breads with egg wash, taking care not to get any on the colored eggs. Sprinkle with confetti sprinkles. Bake 25 to 30 minutes, or until a deep golden brown. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

Source: "The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook" Copyright: "1993, Simon & Schuster" Yield: "4 each" - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Per Serving (excluding unknown items): 661 Calories; 22g Fat (30.4% calories from fat); 26g Protein; 88g Carbohydrate; 1g Dietary Fiber; 403mg Cholesterol; 418mg Sodium. Exchanges: 5 Grain(Starch); 1 1/2 Lean Meat; 0 Fruit; 0 Non-Fat Milk; 3 Fat; 1/2 Other Carbohydrates.

Nutr. Assoc. : 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0

Thank you!!

Dave

I agree; over the 13 or so years I have used a bread machine, I have bought numerous cookbooks on ABM baking. Of all those books, there are only two that I consistently use recipes from - The Ultimate Bread Machine Cookbook and Breadmachine Magic. All the money I spent on other ABM cookbooks was wasted, but these two books have been worth far more than I paid.

If you tasted the ones you saw in Italy, please comment on flavoring. The recipe I use calls for either lemon zest or crushed anise seed and I have always used lemon zest since my family is not a fan of anise.

Thanks

I'll check out the other book, too, thanks

These came our lovely, particularly for a first try!

Thanks for posting...

Yes, I have that book as well. I have made a few of the recipes from it and they were quite good. However, by the time I bought it and was using my ABM just to process dough, I was pretty much into sourdough. I now bake mostly for my own needs (kids are grown and on their own) and I keep myself supplied with variations (mostly white, whole wheat and semolina) on my tried and true sourdough.

During holidays, I fall back on the old family favorites from the two books I mentioned (like the Easter Bread and Hot Cross Buns), to give the kids when they visit; they are tradition bound and, though grown, still want the treats of childhood at holiday time.

Great looking treats, too bad Sheldon in under impressed.....

Thanks. I did take Sheldon's "Othrwise your breads look good." comment as compliment, given that he can be a harsh critic of things that don't meet his standards. Generally, I agree with is point on slicing the bread for pictures; however, slicing would have ruined the presentation of these items which were to be given away.

I made a second batch using 2-to-1 whole-wheat and bread flour; they turned out equally well, in appearance and taste, but seemed just a bit "drier" than the all bread flour batch. I'll need to experiment a bit to fix that.