April 8, 2009 - 2:10am
What are you baking for Easter?
My first attempt at Traditional English Hot Cross Buns (Jeffrey Hamelman recipe).
I had to have a sample taste, and they were very nice indeed! I was a bit shaky with the crosses.
Post your pictures of Easter fare......I love Easter.
Gavin.
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Those are some pretty nice looking rolls, Gavin.
--Pamela
I want to try making them for Easter too. They look so good!
Hot Cross Buns are a family favorite! Nice lookin Buns, Gavin!! ; )
Sylvia
and me too - never made them myself - it's about time!
nice buns, well done!
Well, here is my contribution to the traditional Easter Brunch that my family will have. I am only supplying the breads:
I made enough so that everyone could have some to take home. We will have 18 people for brunch.
Happy Easter
Joe
They are truly beautiful! Joe, you've been busy!
Beautiful breads. You're generous! How do you make that circular loaf with the egg?
I found the recipe at this site. I brushed the dough with egg white and baked two loaves on a 3/4 size baking sheet at 400 F for 20 minutes. Be careful to watch that this bread does not get over done. The published baking time is way too long, IMO. I have a couple of thermometers and pull my bread from the oven when it is 200F at the thickest part of the loaf, then make a note on the recipe.
Thanks for providing that link. I'm glad you mentioned temperatures. I am slowly learning that my breads come out better when I start at 350 degrees and then lower it to 325 the next 15 minutes. I used to follow recipes that say 400 or 425 but I'm noticing a trend - at least with my oven. So now I never go higher than 350.
Maybe when I venture into the more sophisticated breads that call for an oven stone and all that, I may go as high as 400 or 450. But I find at those temps the breads come out rock hard.
By that I mean one that isn't part of the oven itself. I bought a $5 thermometer and found out that my oven is cooking -75F- higher than it should. It's no wonder I had parchment paper going up in smoke even when baking "just below" (hah!) the safe temperature for it! Not to mention any number of things being overly done on the outside but not yet done on the inside despite following instructions to the letter.
time to post?! The egg bread is just cute as it can be? Followed it to the linc to see the instructions, and noticed some did it with colored eggs and sprinkles. Having a fair amount of sugar, does it taste sweet enough to warrant sprinkles. I noticed you did not. You have lucky friends indeed!
Audra
I was posting to you Saturday night and my little girl came in about the time I was looking at the Easter Egg Bread, and the rest is history. I had followed your linc to the recipe, and it was on. I had to squeeze you Egg Bread in with my rolls and lunch for 20 plus boil and dye 2 dozen eggs by 11:30. But I made it. Your bread stole the show. I admit it was not as dignified as yours, but the kids loved it. The center is just right to set a dish of butter down in on the table when you dine informal outside. My Challah and rolls were "old news" this year. Thanks for the new idea. It was a fun thing to do!
I had seen this recipe before, but didn't think it would work . It was you that got me off my behind to try it. Thank you for a specialy fun Easter!
Audra, This Bread just puts a big smile on my face! Lovely and colorful!
Sylvia
very pretty Audra! I bet the kids did just love it.
Beautiful loaf. The color is perfect and the eggs really give it a festive and fun look. Good job.
that's a lovely and colorful bread. what kind of dye or food coloring do you use. here in montreal i buy the ones at the store - clubhouse - that's the brand name.
store. It comes in about 4 colors per box. Red, yellow, blue, green. We use it to color cake frostings and things like that. http://www.mccormick.com/Products/Extracts-and-Food-Colors/Food-Colors/Assorted-Food-Colors-and-Egg-Dye.aspx this is the stuff. When you go here, check out the cool kid stuff on the right.
Audra,
The eggs just jump off the image in your bread. Very nice job.
I have questions.
So you start with raw eggs and dye them. I'm guessing that by the end of that process they are nearly at room temp? I would think that would be important to the dough around the egg. Are they intact after baking? Are the shells hard to peel after baking? It is an interesting concept.
Eric
thanks for the mccormick link. i read though it said "hard-boiled eggs." you used raw eggs, right, and they cooked with the bread?
They were room temp. and colored raw. I couldn't believe it either. As soon as everyone started lining up to eat, I grabbed an egg ( we were going to carve the bread to pieces anyway) any peeled it just to see and sure enough the egg was done, yolk and all. Be sure to read the reviews on the recipe linc though. It called for cooking the bread for like right at an hour. Dear lord! This one went about mmmm 30 to 35 minutes at the most. I took it's temp at 30 minutes and gave it just a few more minutes and pulled it out. It was VERY easy. I am so glad JoeV did one Saturday and posted it for us to see or I would never have tried it.
I hear you about the cokking time. When it comes to breads like challah, I never leave them for more than 30 minutes, and I usually reduce to 325 at the 15th hour. I find that when breads stay longer than 30 minutes, they get hard! So with my oven, no more than half an hour!
Wonderfull Audra, I loved it, you know here in Egypt we have the habit to make this kind of bread in "sham elnesseem" it is an old egyptian feast, pharohs were used to celebrate it too , we celebrate the new coming of spring.
It usually comes the next day of christians egyptians feast , it is easter for egyptian coptes, it will be next sunday and on monday we all celebrate spring , we made this kind of bread every year and we put colored eggs in it and eat salted fish and a lot of green salads .
I wil share with you my new pics as soon as I prepare it this week, I still remember the old days , my mother was used to prepare this kind of bakes every year !!
Last year pics !!
I hope I can make some this year !!
i spotted that pink egg - nice!
This recipe sits next to the hot cross bun recipe I made for good friday.
It's neat how so many different countries make very similar recipes! I only made it once many years ago when the kids where small. It's a very similar sweet bread that is braided and then twisted into a circle and the colored eggs are placed into the braid. The eggs are hard boiled first before baking!..It's a traditional Greek Easter Egg Braid bread. The festive braid is called tsoureki (pronounced too-reki)...the Greeks favor bright red eggs. The recipe states because the die seeps into the dough that you may prefer pastel shades that tinge it less. I remember as Audra did it was fun making for the kids! The raw idea is pretty neat! Audra I'm wondering did the eggs have any darkened area on the yolk...usually I place them in cold water, bring to a boil turn off and let them sit for about 11 minutes and then rinse with cold...the yolks stay bright yellow with no blacking on the outside.
Sylvia
I did notice that the Hot Cross Buns are still in your line up! On the yolk issue, nope, if anything they were a little under done in that dept. The yolk was done, but had that deep yellow color. We boil them on the stove for maybe 10 minutes or less, but they can stay in the oven for a half hour and not be over cooked. Curious. On boiling, I have even did the Southern Living ( well that's where I saw it) idea of bringing them to a boil in a heavy pot (Le Creuset maybe) with a lid on and when they boil, turn them off and they get done just sitting there. The oven trick is just magic! You have got to try it. I promise it works. It was funny, the kids went for those eggs first over the ones we colored and had in the baskets to hide and eat! Go figure! Do you think that the dough insulated them and kept them cooking too much too fast? Maybe Alton Brown is reading this post and can chime in with a scientific answer!
If you think they appeared just a tiny bit underdone...then that would be great because baking them along with the bread means they weren't overly done...I love eggs! They do tend to expand when cooking and since they are brought up to heat slowly and insulted like you said that probably helps to keep them from cracking...that would be my only concern that they would crack and mess up the bread....hummmm...fried, boiled, scrambled, poached, looks like you've added Baked Easter Egg's, Audra ; )
Sylvia
But really, I love eggs too. Even as a kid. If mom was busy working and I was hungry, heck anyone can fry eggs! We had chicken then too. I guess I have come full circle! Or oval! Ha! ; )
Audra