Hi everyone! I'm Daniella and today we're making my Nonna Giuseppina's Italian Easter bread, which is also known as "Pane di Pasqua". It's not technically a brioche bread, but it's a sweet, eggy bread with a lot of butter in it, and you nestle dyed eggs into it to symbolize Easter! My Nonna made this every Easter for me and my family, and eating it now just brings such joy and wonderful memories of her. So let me show you how she made it! In a saucepan, or in the microwave, warm together 300 ml (1 1/4 cups) of whole milk and 120 grams (1/4 lb.) of butter. You don't want this to boil or get too hot; just above body temperature is perfect. A good way of testing the temperature is by popping in a clean finger. If the mixture is too hot, it will kill your yeast. Once the butter is mostly melted the residual heat will do the rest of the work, so set that aside and we'll bring together the rest of our wet ingredients. Into a mixing bowl goes 2 large eggs. Add 110 grams (1/2 cup) of sugar. To this, I'm adding the zest of 2 large lemons. You'll want about 1/4 cup of lemon zest. This is where you can customize the recipe to your flavor preference. I'm using lemon zest, but you could use orange zest or any other citrus. You could also swap out the zest for a vanilla extract, almond extract, really any extract that you and your family enjoy. With vanilla extract you'll want to use about 1 teaspoon (5 ml), but if you're using almond extract it can be quite powerful, so only use a few drops! Mix this together very well with either a hand whisk, a hand mixer, or the whisk attachment on your stand mixer. Once the mixture has lightened slightly in color and it's starting to get a little bit frothy, add in your butter and milk mixture. Because it's still warm, I like to pour it down the side of the bowl. This prevents any scrambled eggs. This process is like making brioche bread, but easier! Once that's all combined, sprinkle over the top 8 grams (one packet) of active dry yeast. Give it a little whisk to incorporate the yeast, so that it starts to activate. Add in your your flour a spoonful at a time. We're starting with 4 cups or 480 grams, but you may need to add more depending on the consistency of your dough. Once your dough looks like this, still a little bit wet, but when you scrape around the sides it feels like it's holding together, that's when it's ready. If your dough isn't this consistency, keep adding a little bit of flour at a time until it reaches this point. You can see as I scrape the side of the bowl the dough really does hold together, but it's very sticky. Liberally dust your work surface with flour. This is really important because the dough is so sticky. Turn your dough out onto your floured surface and gently sprinkle a little more flour on the top. Keeping your hands very well floured, turn the dough onto itself a few times. We're giving this a very gentle knead and it will only take a few minutes. Continuously turn the dough onto itself repeatedly. Once the top of the dough feels a little bit less sticky and it's holding together, you'll want to let it prove. Grease a large bowl with either butter or oil. You want to make sure your bowl is really well greased, so that when the bread rises, it doesn't stick. Pop your dough into the greased bowl and cover with a clean towel. You'll want to let this rise for at least an hour or up to two hours, until it's doubled in size. My kitchen is particularly cold, so I pop my bowl in the oven with just the light switched on, and that helps the rising process. If you haven't already dyed your eggs now's the time to do it! To a cup or a glass that won't stain, add in about 1 cup of water. I'm doing two because I'm using two different colors. I'm using a gel food coloring, which is a little bit more intense than the drops, but the drops will work just as well. To the water, add your food coloring; as much or as little as you like to give the desired color of your egg. And then add 2 teaspoons (10ml) of vinegar to each cup. The vinegar helps to set the color on the outside of the egg. My Nonna always used raw eggs for this. I've seen it done with hard-boiled, so you can use whichever you prefer. Just pop your egg into the colored water. It will take about 10 minutes to get a good dye on the outside of your egg. Then take out your eggs and dry them on some paper towels. Let's set those aside and get back to our bread. Once your dough has doubled in size, turn it out onto your work surface. You'll want the top of the dough to be touching the work surface, so that the bottom, sticky part is facing up. Gently flatten out your dough in a rectangle and then roll it up into a log. I'm making 4 small loaves of bread, but if you want to make 2 large loaves, just cut your dough into 4 pieces. If you're making larger loaves, your ropes are just going to be slightly longer and thicker. To make 4 smaller loaves, cut each of your quarters in half and then start forming logs out of each piece of dough. You're looking for your log to be about 18 to 20 inches (46 - 50cm) long. If your dough is really sticky, put a little bit of flour down, but not too much, as you won't be able to pull the dough out as you roll. Once you've rolled out two logs, it's time to braid them together. Start by pinching the two ends together. You want to smush them down really well! And then gently fold one log over the other repeatedly. Make sure this isn't too tight of a twist; you'll want room for your bread to grow. Once you've completed the twist, bring the two edges together and again, really smush them well! Transfer your dough to a lined baking tray cover with a clean towel. Now that your loaves are formed, you'll want them to prove one more time. Let them rise for another 45 minutes to an hour, until again, they've doubled in size. Once your loaves are nearly doubled, now is the time to preheat your oven. You'll want to set it to 175°C or 350°F. Once you're dough has risen, it's time to decorate. Add about one tablespoon (15ml) of water to 1 egg and whisk it together really, really well. You don't want any bits of egg white in there. Brush all over your loaf, making sure to get egg wash into all of the little crevices. Now for the fun part; adding sprinkles! I'm using long sprinkles, but you can use small nonpareils - whatever sprinkles make your heart the happiest! And the last step is to add our egg into the center. The dyed eggs are optional and I've seen some recipes use hard or soft soft boiled eggs, but my Nonna always just used to use them raw because they cook in the oven. These will bake for 20 - 25 minutes, until they've got a beautiful golden color on the top. Transfer your baked loaf to a cooling rack. You'll want to let this cool for at least 20 - 30 minutes before cutting into it. You can feel how
soft and beautiful that dough is, as you cut into it. The dough is so soft and tender, and just a little bit sweet! Perfect on its own, or with a bit of jam. Thank you so much for watching! If you found this video enjoyable or helpful please hit the like button, and make sure to subscribe, because I come out with a new video every week! And if you'd like another one of my Nonna Giuseppina's recipes, why not try
her struffoli? From me and Kiki, see you next time! ≽^•⩊•^≼
