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Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Italian Easter Bread #BreadBakers




It's Bread Bakers Day! And today the bakers are making Easter breads. Be sure to scroll down to see the list of Easter delights we have for you today.     

Italian Easter bread has been on my to-bake list for the longest while. The sprinkles. The coloured egg. It's so very inviting. But somehow, I never made it until this year. Colouring eggs is not part of the Jamaican Easter tradition - our focus is on eating and partying - so this is the second time I've ever coloured eggs. The first time was for another Easter bread.  I was nervous about colouring the eggs because I only have brown eggs. In fact, it wasn't until I was thinking about colouring eggs for this recipe that it even occurred to me that brown eggs are the majority here. But it turned out perfectly fine. The eggs took on the colour quickly and got darker as time passed. 

I loved the flavour of this bread - the recipe calls for orange juice, zest, and anise. I don't have access to anise so I followed the instructions and substituted with cinnamon and nutmeg. It's a very subtle taste but still very good. 

Italian Easter Bread

Ingredients

1/4 cup sugar 
zest of an orange
480 to 600 grams flour 
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1 teaspoon salt 
1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
2 eggs
juice of an orange (approximately 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup oil or melted butter

1 egg + 1 tablespoon of water for egg wash
sprinkles 
6 coloured eggs (no need to boil)

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, rub the zest into the sugar. Add the dry ingredients (starting with 480 grams of flour)  and thoroughly combine. Next, add the eggs, orange juice and oil. 

Knead until you get a soft, tacky dough. You don't want it to be sticky or twisting will be messy. Ask me how I know. If it's sticky, add in a little more flour. 

Allow the dough to bulk ferment at room temperature until doubled or you can do this in the fridge overnight. This is my preferred method. 

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

When the dough is doubled, divide into 6 equal pieces. Next, divide each piece into two pieces. Roll each piece out to a 14-inch log. You're then going to twist two pieces together and bring the ends together to form a wreath. If your logs are sticky, dust them with some flour. 

Place each wreath on the baking sheet to proof until puffy. 

When they are almost ready, preheat the oven to 350 F. 

Mix the egg and water together for the egg wash. Brush the proofed wreaths with egg wash and then sprinkle on as much sprinkles as your heart desires. 

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until your bread is golden brown. 

Cool and devour. 



BreadBakers

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Zesty South Indian Kitchen: Sourdough Osterbrot:German Easter Bread

post signature #BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

Tuesday, February 13, 2024

Chocolate Swirl Buns #BreadBakers





Wendy chose chocolate as this month's Bread Bakers theme. Pretty much the best theme ever if you ask me. I've wanted to do cinnamon rolls in this style for a while so it was an easy switch to add chocolate instead. The only problem is that I made these on the evening before I needed to do a fasting blood test. I planned on eating one during one of my class breaks but I was caught up doing rosters and looking up other stuff and completely forgot about them. When class wrapped up at around 10:40, I was STARVING and couldn't eat anything - not even one of these buns. I honestly contemplated putting off my bloodwork just so I could try one of these. I was hungry, man. I had to WAIT until the next day to try these. TORTURE. Don't be like me. Plan ahead. 

Scroll down to see what other chocolate yumminess is coming your way today.





Cinnamon Swirl Buns

Ingredients

300 grams flour 
30 grams sugar
2 tablespoons dry milk 
1 teaspoon instant yeast
1/2 teaspoon salt 
100 ml milk 
1 egg
60 grams butter
1 teaspoon vanilla 

Filling 
5 tablespoons sugar (see note)
4 tablespoons of butter
3 tablespoons cocoa 
1 tablespoon flour 
a pinch of salt 

Egg wash
1 egg
a splash of water

Directions

Whisk together flour, sugar, dry milk, yeast and salt. Add in the remaining dough ingredients and knead for approximately 7 minutes or until you have a smooth tack dough that pulls away from the mixing bowl. 

Place in a greased bowl and allow to bulk ferment at room temperature for about 2 hours until doubled or overnight in the fridge. I used the fridge option. 

Mix all the filling ingredients together. 

Grease a 12 cup capacity muffin tin. 

When the dough is ready, roll out to approximately 32 cm x 36 cm.  

Spread the filling on thinly. 

With a short side facing you, fold the dough in thirds. You should now have a 32 cm x 12 cm rectangle. 

You can chill the dough at this step or wait until after you cut into strips. Chilling makes it easier to work with. 

Cut the dough into 8 strips (4 cm x 12 cm). 

Next, use a sharp knife to cut twice down the length of each strip to make three strands. Plait the three strands together. 

Roll the plait along its length into a ball and place in the greased muffin tin.

Cover and allow to proof for an hour. 

When the buns are almost ready, preheat the oven to 350 F. 

Just before baking, brush the buns with the egg mixed with water. 

Bake for 20 minutes or until golden. 

Remove from the pan as soon as you can or they might stick to the pan.


Notes

  • This is not very sweet. Feel free to taste the filling and add more sugar as needed. Next time I might use powdered sugar so that I can skip the flour and have a smoother filling. 






BreadBakers

#BreadBakers is a group of bread loving bakers who get together once a month to bake bread with a common ingredient or theme. Follow our Pinterest board right here. Links are also updated each month on this home page.

We take turns hosting each month and choosing the theme/ingredient.

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Monday, January 29, 2024

Matcha Chocolate Chip Muffins #MuffinMonday




I'm not big on making New Year's resolutions but I did make a hesitant plan to try to bake more. Work took over last year but I need to make time for ME. And a big part of that is baking. I wasn't even able to bake my birthday cake last year. That's how crazy things were. But so far so good. I did Bread Baker's and now it's Muffin Monday. Let's hope I can keep this up  - theme permitting.

So matcha muffins. I was making a drink a couple Fridays ago when the idea popped into my head. A very delicious idea! I love spices in my chocolate chip muffins so I added them here. If you leave them out, you will have a lighter-coloured muffin - more matcha-green. 

Be sure to scroll down to see what fun muffins the other bakers made!





Matcha Chocolate Chip Muffins
Yield: approximately 8 muffins

Ingredients
180 grams flour
100 grams sugar
1 tablespoon matcha
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder 
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of nutmeg
1 egg
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons milk
1/3 cup oil
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
3/4 cup chocolate chips 

Directions

Preheat oven to 425 F.
Whisk flour, sugar, matcha, baking powder, baking soda, salt, cinnamon, and nutmeg. 
In another bowl, whisk egg, milk, oil, and vanilla. 
Gently fold the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients. The batter is thick. Next, told in the chocolate chips. 
Divide into muffin cups. 
Bake 5 minutes at 425 F then lower oven to 350F. Bake another 15 minutes or until a toothpick inserted into a muffin comes out clean. 



Muffin Monday




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