Monday, April 9, 2012

Italian Easter Bread

This weekend I embarked on a journey to conquer my fear of yeast. Yes, I said fear of yeast. I am not sure when this fear set its claws in me, but it held fast all these years. Thanks to Pinterest and the wonderful blessing of technology that lets us put pictures on the internet, I was inspired to finally free myself from this pathalogical fear for good!
I saw a pic of this beautiful braided bread and then saw that it was called "Easter Bread." I was planning to make a super yummy brunch for Easter this year and had originally thought to make scones (another thing I have never tried) but thought maybe I could actually pull this off - with prayer, of course :)
So I took my handy dandy laptop into my kitchen and gave it a go!!
I warmed the milk (a little too much at first, and had to watch it cool to a temp that wouldn't kill the yeast) then added the orange peel and sugar mixture.
Let the yeast "bloom" for 10 minutes then start putting everything in my mixer (THANKS Uncle Jeff).
Now it got crazy. Melting butter, adding yeast mixture, adding LOTS of eggs and trying to keep my mixer from bouncing off the counter. LOL
Now came time to get this sticky mess out of the bowl and onto the counter for kneading. I have been having some serious pain in my hands through to my arms, but I wasn't going to let that stop me from making this bread! dangit! So knead I did. And to my delight it was actually therapeutic rather than painful. Thank you Lord!!!!
Now it was time to let it rise. I was so grateful for the rest. I was getting pretty stressed! Anyway, it rose to perfection and the rest of the steps went off without a hitch. Even though I was up until 11 finishing this bread (I had to bake each loaf separately and let them cool completely before I wrapped them up and went to bed) it gave me a silly amount of joy to accomplish this. This recipe made two HUGE loves, so I was delighted to bring the second loaf to Sunday School at Pilot Rock Baptist Church and let the ladies be my "Guinea pigs." They loved it. I shouldn't feel proud, but I couldn't help it :-/ It felt good to bless them and they blessed me right back. I love it when that happens.
So, Italian Easter bread and my Asparagus, Ham, and Sharp Cheddar Frittata were the main attractions at our Easter brunch. At the table were my wonderful husband, three gorgeous kids and my Mom and step-dad. What a glorious day! Thank you, Jesus, for the opportunity to worship You freely, study Your Word without fear of persecution, have a full fridge and beautiful food on our table, and for Easter bread via Pinterest.
www.browneyedbaker.com via my Pinterest page is where I found this recipe

2 comments:

Camiba said...

I was wondering if you used the recipe from Pinterest. :)

Kerry said...

Yes. I thought I mentioned that. oops :)