I am so excited about this recipe! A dear friend shared this recipe with me a few weeks ago (so full disclosure, I did NOT create this recipe myself) and I knew it was something special. This Italian Easter bread recipe has been passed down in her family for generations and I’m honored that she wanted to share it with me to create for all of you.
When my friend Gina sent me the picture of this recipe, you could just picture an Italian grandmother in the kitchen making notes for her own family when she had been making this recipe herself from memory and by feel for years. It reminded me of watching my dad make homemade bread in the kitchen I grew up in, not even looking at a recipe because he had been made it countless times.
One of the things that I love most about this recipe is that it uses an entire orange and an entire lemon. You just cut them into quarters, remove the seeds, and put them in the food processer. It gives the perfect amount of zest and juice to the bread. I’ve never seen a recipe for bread that uses the entire fruit in this way, but I love it. It’s absolutely genius!
Even though my family is not Italian, I think the best thing about family recipes like this is that they can earn a place at any family table. As a runner, a mom, and a person, I’m conscious of what goes into my body and my family’s bodies. That doesn’t mean we always eat the perfect meal, and we don’t exclude any foods from our diet, but we do eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, lean proteins, non-meat protein sources, and whole grains. But I think that every diet and every person can have a place for family recipes like this. Sure, that usually means a lot of butter and sugar that you don’t eat on a regular basis, but while food is fuel, it is also family and comfort and holidays like Easter call for family traditions like this Easter bread.
I hope that you appreciate this family recipe as much as I do, and that it earns a place at your Easter table like it has ours.
- 5 cups + 1½ cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 packages rapid rise yeast (1 package = 2¼ tsp.)
- ½ tsp. salt*
- 1 lemon
- 1 orange
- 1½ sticks butter
- 4 tbsp. whiskey
- 1 tsp. vanilla*
- 4 eggs, lightly beaten
- Preheat oven to 200 degrees, then turn it off once it is preheated. Grease a bundt pan very well.
- In a large bowl, whisk together 5 cups of flour, sugar, yeast, and salt.
- Cut lemon and orange into quarters and remove seeds. Place in a food processer and process until smooth.
- Melt butter in a medium pot. Add lemon-orange mixture, whiskey, and vanilla and heat until it just begins to simmer.
- At wet ingredients to dry ingredients and stir to combine. Add eggs and stir to combine.
- Knead for 10 minutes adding remaining 1½ cups of flour. Depending on the size and juiciness of your orange and lemon, you may need to add more flour. Just add enough so the dough can be handled without being too sticky.
- Rest for 10 minutes after kneading.
- Divide dough into three pieces and roll until they are long enough to braid. Braid dough and then place in prepared pan.
- Cover, place in warmed oven, and let rise until double (about one hour for me).
- Remove from oven and preheat oven to 300 degrees Fahrenheit. Bake for 50-60 minutes until golden brown.
- Serve warm with butter. Enjoy!
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