This is sure to put a smile on your bunnie's face tomorrow morning! Warm, sweet bread with warm hard-boiled eggs...it will help balance out all the chocolate you'll be eating!
You can make the dough tonight, Easter Eve, and tomorrow morning it will be ready to braid and bake! While you're trying to wrestle eggs from small children at your annual Easter egg hunt, hoping to find the golden egg with a winning lottery ticket, (okay, that would be just me) your bread will be baking to perfection, filling your home with an aroma that can only be described as pure love!
You certainly don't need to use colored eggs, but they are more festive! If you want a more elegant look, just make the eggs all one color - like pale pink or yellow...soft and pretty to go with the bread that will melt in your mouth! This is as fun to make as it is to eat...and it will definitely put the happy into Happy Easter!
Easter Egg Bread - Adapted From Bon Appetit Magazine, April 2012
6 to 7 large eggs, hard-boiled and colored, if desired
2/3 cup whole milk
5 tablespoons sugar, divided
1 3/4 teaspoons active dry yeast
3 large eggs, room temperature (2 to be used to make the dough and 1 to be used as an egg wash)
2 3/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces, room temperature, plus 1/2 tablespoon melted
2 tablespoons turbinado sugar
Heat milk in a small saucepan over medium heat or in a microwave until an instant-read thermometer registers 110-115 degrees. Transfer milk to a 2-cup measuring cup; stir in 1 tablespoon sugar. Sprinkle yeast over milk and whisk to blend. Let sit until yeast is foamy, about 5 minutes. Add 2 eggs; whisk until smooth.
Combine remaining 4 tablespoons sugar, flour, and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer fitter with a dough hook. Add milk mixture. With mixer running, add 1/2 cup room-temperature butter, 1 piece at a time, blending well between additions. Mix on medium speed for 1 minute. Knead on medium-high speed until dough is soft and silky, about 5 minutes.
Brush medium bowl with some melted butter; place dough in bowl. Brush top of dough with remaining melted butter; cover with plastic wrap. Can be made 1 day ahead; cover with plastic wrap and chill. When ready to use dough, remove from refrigerator and let dough rise in a warm, draft-free area until doubled in size, about 2 hours. If you're going to use dough right away, let rise for 1 to 1 1/2 hours.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper or silpat. Punch down dough. Divide into 3 equal pieces. With lightly floured hands, roll each piece on a lightly floured surface into a 16-inch long rope with tapered ends. (If dough begins to bounce back, cover with a kitchen towel and let rest for4 10 minutes to allow dough to relax.)
Arrange ropes side by side lengthwise on prepared sheet. Pinch top ends together. braid dough. Pinch bottom ends together to secure (braided loaf should be about 12-inches long). Tuck dyed eggs between braids, spacing evenly. Loosely cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm, draft-free area until puffed but not doubled in size, 45 to 50 minutes.
Arrange a rack in middle of oven; preheat oven to 375 degrees. Whisk remaining egg with 2 teaspoons warm water in a small bowl. Avoiding dyed eggs, brush dough all over with egg wash. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake until bread is golden, 20 to 25 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
