Seuffert Egg Bread



Now that we have a daughter, my husband and I have been thinking about the traditions we have in our family, especially around holidays and in our house, because of my love for cooking many of the traditions relate to food. Several years ago, my husband and I were able to spend the Easter holiday with his family in Rhode Island and his mother (Nana) made their family’s traditional dish, Easter Bread. It is really a curious looking bread. It is bronzed, covered in candy sparkles and filled with dyed easter eggs! This year, thinking about traditions we decided to make Nana’s bread. So Will and I made this together on Easter, with Stella watching from her seat. It turned out beautiful and tasty. Some of the eggs weren’t cooked all the way so I’ve changed the cooking time from the original recipe to be a bit longer-I think that should get the eggs cooked all the way. It might be fun to alter the recipe by adding dried fruit and pumpkin pie spice or cinnamon. It’s a fun tradition for Easter and a great recipe we can pass down in our family.

Ingredients
12 raw Eggs (not hard boiled, small size)
Easter egg coloring kit
1/2 cup Milk
1/2 cup Sugar
1 tsp Salt
1 stick of Butter
2 TB of Grated Orange Peel (2 oranges)
2 Packages of Yeast (1/4oz packages)
1/2 cup warm water (110 degrees)
2 eggs at room temperature (to do this quickly-let the eggs soak in lukewarm water)
4 1/4 cups of Flour
Butter for greasing a bowl
1 egg beaten (egg wash)
Crystal Candy Sprinkles

Directions
Dye the 12 raw eggs with the Easter egg coloring kit. Set aside.

In a saucepan, heat milk, sugar, salt, butter and orange peel over medium heat until steaming but not boiling, let cool to lukewarm.

Add the yeast to the warm water and mix until disolved. Add this mixture and the room temperature eggs (beaten) to the milk mixture.

Put 2 1/2 cups of flour in a bowl, add the saucepan mixture and stir until flour is absorbed. Add flour until the dough can be handled (about 1 3/4 cups of flour).

Put the dough on a flat surface and knead the dough for about 8 minutes.

Grease a large bowl with butter, place dough in bowl and then flip so dough is greased. Cover with a wet towel in warm place for 1 hour.

After 1 hour, punch down the bread and let rise for another 30 minutes.

After the 30 minutes, make 4 large ropes that are the length of a cookie sheet. Place on rimmed cookie sheet. Twist two ropes together at a time and then connect the two twists. Place the 12 eggs inbetween the twists. Cover with wet towel for 30minutes.

Preheat oven to 375.

Brush bread with egg wash and sprinkle with candy.

Bake between 30-35 minutes until golden brown.

If you don’t finish eating the bread the same day, store in refridgerator and reheat in oven before serving.