Sweet Italian Easter Bread
This sweet Italian easter bread is the perfect sweet treat to make for Easter! Soft and flaky with a sugar glaze on top, finished with festive colorful sprinkles!
I’ve seen a few recipes floating around social media for sweet Italian easter bread, and it’s always looked interesting to me. I’ve seen how there are different ways to make it.
Some loaves were braided into a circle, with colored hard boiled eggs inside the bread. Very interesting! I chose a more simple loaf to make.
I have some Italian in my blood. My grammy used to make Italian anise cookies every year for Easter. They had a sugar glaze on top, with color sprinkles, just like this sweet bread does!
It definitely brings me great nostalgia of those delicious anise cookies I would much on every Easter!
Just like pretty much all of my recipes, this one is quite simple to make. I like to only share moderate level recipes, if you will. Not everyone is up for a challenge when it comes to cooking, especially baking.
Bread making can sometimes be a little intimidating if you’ve never made it before. Theres a lot of science involved, rise time for yeast, and waiting. But if you follow my steps correctly, you will bake a beautiful and delicious loaf of sweet Italian easter bread!
When it’s time to braid your bread, it’s pretty simple to do. You want to divide your dough into two even sections. Roll both sections of dough out into a 16 inch rope. Then wrap them together into a braid and pinch the ends together.
It doesn’t have to be a perfect braid. Thats the beauty of home baked recipes!
Brush with some butter for a nice golden brown color during baking time.
When done baking, let cool completely and drizzle with some sugar glaze and sprinkles!
That was my favorite part. So fun drizzling the icing on and making it so colorful and pretty!
The inside of this bread is flaky and buttery goodness!
If you make this bread, I hope you enjoy!
Make sure to follow me on Facebook and Instagram @thehungrylyoness!
Check out another bread recipe of mine for flaky honey brioche bread! https://thehungrylyoness.com/2019/11/10/flaky-honey-brioche-bread/
Sweet Italian Easter Bread
Ingredients
- 2/3 cups milk, warm
- 2 teaspoons active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons melted butter + 1 tablespoon melted butter for brushing
- 2 ½ cups all purpose flour + more for kneading
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 2 eggs
For Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 2 tablespoons milk
- sprinkles of choice
Instructions
- In the bowl of a stand mixer or hand held mixer, add warm milk and yeast. Let sit for 5 minutes.
- Add melted butter, flour, sugar and salt. Mix together until dough forms.
- Add eggs and keep mixing until everything is well combined. Your dough may be sticky, but thats ok.
- Flour a work surface well, and flour your hands. Place dough on floured surface. With floured hands, knead dough for a few minutes until it isn't sticky anymore.
- Place dough back into bowl, cover with a towel and let rise for 1 hour.
- When 1 hour is up, preheat oven to 350°.
- Place dough on a floured surface and divide into two balls. Roll each ball out into a 16 inch rope.
- Twist each rope together in a braid (it doesn't have to be perfect).
- Brush the top of braided dough with 1 tablepsoon of melted butter.
- Place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, and bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes.
- Let bread cool completely.
- While bread is cooling, mix together ingredients for icing.
- Drizzle bread with icing, and sprinkles.
- Enjoy!
