Today, I experimented with my sourdough a little bit more.  I made two more loaves of beautiful bread for everyday use and I made a loaf of sourdough banana nut bread.  We each had a slice after lunch and it is yummy.  This uses much less butter and sugar than my standard recipe and is a bit more flavorful, so I imagine this will become the new standard recipe.

I’ve been debating about making hot cross buns for Easter for several days now.  During my afternoon walk, I was thinking about it some more decided instead to make Easter egg bread.  I saw this recipe in an old bread cookbook I have, I modified it a bit and included the recipe for anyone else who might want something a little different for the holiday weekend.  Because we don’t have kids at home or even little ones close by these days, I haven’t colored eggs in a very long time.  It was very fun to do today, and I love how it all turned out.

Easter Egg Bread

First color 6 uncooked eggs and set aside to dry.

Ingredients:

  • 1/4 C soy milk
  • 1/4 C butter
  • 1/4 C sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/8 tsp cloves
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 Tablespoon yeast
  • 1/4 C warm water
  • 2 eggs, slightly beaten
  • 2 to 3 Cups flour

Scald the milk, add the butter, salt, sugar, and spices.  Allow to cool to lukewarm.  Mix the water and yeast together.  Add the milk mixture and eggs.  Start adding the flour until it comes together, knead into a smooth ball.  Let rise until double.  Punch down dough and divide in half.  Roll each half into long ropes.  Twist the ropes loosely onto a greased baking sheet.  Put the colored eggs into holes in the dough rope.  Allow to rise until double.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Brush the risen dough with a beaten egg, if desired.  Bake for 20 to 25 minutes.

Note: The color will leach from the eggs a bit into your dough, just be sure to use natural food dyes to avoid allergies, etc.