Description
Delicious egg bread made with eggs, orange zest, and anise egg wash for an “eggstra” special flavor! A slightly sweet bread good by itself or toasted, especially with coffee or tea. You can even use it for French toast or bread pudding. I make this every year for my family at Easter. A special treat they look forward to once a year! The colored eggs are great fun too and add to your holiday decor.
Ingredients
- 1 ¼ cups whole milk (heated to 95 degrees F/35 degrees C)
- ⅓ cup vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon orange extract
- 3 eggs, at room temperature, divided
- ⅔ cup white sugar
- 3 tablespoons grated orange zest
- 4 cups all-purpose flour, or more as needed
- 4 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 4 whole eggs
- 2 tablespoons water
- 2 tablespoons anise extract
- assorted food coloring
- 1 teaspoon anisette liqueur (Optional)
Instructions
- Combine milk
- oil
- salt
- orange extract
- 2 eggs at room temperature
- sugar
- orange zest
- 4 cups of flour
- and yeast in a bread machine
- in that order. Set to Dough cycle and start the machine; be sure to peek inside while dough is mixing and add additional flour as needed to create a soft
- but not wet
- dough.
- Transfer dough to an oiled bowl and let rise until doubled in size
- about 1 hour.
- Meanwhile
- bring a pot of water to a boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to a rapid simmer and add 4 whole eggs to soft boil. Continue to simmer for 6 minutes. Remove from heat and transfer eggs to a bowl of ice water to cool quickly.
- Punch risen dough down and turn onto a floured surface. Divide into 3 even pieces. Roll each piece to form about a 1 1/2-inch thick rope that is 12 inches long. Take the pieces and braid them together
- pinching the ends. Loop into a circle and pinch the ends to close. Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Align boiled eggs evenly about the braid and push in gently
- about 1/3 of the way down. Cover and let rise again
- about 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Combine remaining room temperature egg
- 2 tablespoons water
- and anise extract in a bowl for egg wash. Brush braid with the egg wash
- being careful not to get any on your boiled eggs or while baking they will have cooked wash on them and won’t dye nicely.
- Bake in the preheated oven
- switching between another parchment-lined baking sheet every 10 minutes throughout baking time to prevent the bottom from getting too dark
- until browned
- about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool thoroughly
- 20 to 30 minutes.
- Paint your eggs on the bread with liquid food dye. Be careful not to drip on the bread. Let dry
- about 10 minutes. Brush bread with anisette liqueur and let dry before serving
- about 5 minutes more.
Prep Time: 30 mins
Cook Time: 30 mins
Total Time: 3 hrs 35 mins
Servings: 12