The Fresh Loaf

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Oster-Pinze - Austrian Easter Bread With A Blessing

hanseata's picture
hanseata

Oster-Pinze - Austrian Easter Bread With A Blessing

Looking for a seasonal specialty for my customers at A&B Naturals, I came upon an Italian Christmas bread, Pinza, that, after crossing the border to Austria, switched holidays - and turned into Easter bread, Pinze.

After a solemn blessing in the church, this lovely Styrian Easter bread (often adorned by a red egg, and cut three times, to symbolize the Holy Trinity) is served with the meat on Easter Sunday.

Styria - Steiermark, home of this lovely Easter bread

There are several versions for Pinze, and it is either seasoned with vanilla or anise. The anise can be steeped in wine or cooked in milk to extract its flavor. All recipes include lots of eggs and egg yolks, so keep the Lipitor at hand, but I'm sure it is good for you, since it comes with a blessing.

I tried a Pinze version with anise, soaked in wine. Though the bread turned out quite nice, I couldn't detect much anise aroma. Therefore I decided on Petra's Easter Pinza (from her Chili und Ciabatta blog), substituting some of the white flour with whole wheat.

The bread, made in 3 steps with 2 pre-ferments, was wonderful. The only problem: its time consuming schedule would not work for my little bakery, unless I pulled off an all-nighter. So I turned to my favorite method: stretch & fold plus overnight stay in the fridge.

All egg-y goodness!

That way I could work the dough all at once, and let the folding and cold fermentation do the rest. No pre-doughs needed, very little hands-on time, and no standing around, waiting for pre-ferments and dough to rise.

In other words, the baker could hug her pillow, while the yeasties did their job!

My overnight version was just as good as the original, more involved one!

My Easter Basket

The Easter Pinze is a soft bread with a wonderful flavor. Though slightly sweet, it can be served with Easter Ham, like in Austria. Or, as we did, enjoyed simply with some good butter, or jam.

You find the recipe (plus a download for BreadStorm users) in my blog Brot & Bread.

Comments

golgi70's picture
golgi70

Looks delicious. So what preferments were cut in lieu of cold bulk?  Gotta love letting time do the work. 

Nice bake 

josh

hanseata's picture
hanseata

It was a two step pre-ferment, first all the yeast plus some of the milk and the flour. Then, after one hour, more flour, milk, and some of the sugar and egg yolks were added. After another hour, the final dough was mixed.

If you follow the link to the original recipe (Petra's Easter Pinza - it's in English) you can see the whole procedure. But, like you, I rather let time and the fridge do the job, so the S&F plus overnight bulk retardation worked really well for me.

It's a wonderful bread (though now I have to figure out what to do with all the egg whites, my husband doesn't like meringues).

Karin




dabrownman's picture
dabrownman

It is very similar to Pizza Civitavecchia without the snockered fruits and yours has less egg yolks.  Anise reigns supreme in PC too  - except it was always an Italian Easter bread that folks also make at Christmas if they aren't making panettone :-)

Your version is just perfect.  Love the trinity slash pattern and that crumb and crust  are so well executed and professional.  Just lovely for  Easter or Christmas holiday  Well done and

Happy baking Karin. 

hanseata's picture
hanseata

I know that Italians are fond of anise, but hardly ever use vanilla, so that must be the Austrian influence.

I saw other recipes with 8 egg yolks per 500 g flour, I was glad to find one that had a little less. I'll definitely make this again, I really liked it, and, as I heard today, the ones I had made for the store sold out in no time.

Karin

FlourChild's picture
FlourChild

Looks beautiful, and sounds delicious- a little like brioche, perfect with ham. 

hanseata's picture
hanseata

you are right, they are a bit like brioche, and they do taste good with ham.

Happy baking,

Karin

Syd's picture
Syd

I see that it has vanilla extract and lemon zest in the formula.  So would it be regarded more as a dessert bread, then?

Very pretty looking loaves Karin.

Syd

hanseata's picture
hanseata

You would think so, Syd, but it isn't, even with the vanilla and lemon. Though the Pinze tastes slightly sweetish, it is traditionally served with the meat at the Easter dinner.

I liked it with ham and even with cheese, but also with jam or simply Kerrygold butter.

Karin

Isand66's picture
Isand66

These look beautiful Karin and must have tasted great.  Nice post and photography as well.

Thanks for sharing.

Ian

hanseata's picture
hanseata

Karin

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Delicious little boules, Karin. Inspiring write up, thanks.

Happy holidays.

Khalid

hanseata's picture
hanseata

you should try them - they taste good year round, not only at Easter.

Karin