Lightly Sweet Easter Bread

Easter is right around the corner, so I thought I would dig out my Easter Bread recipe and make a few loaves.  It is so good, lightly sweet and soft.  It can be eaten for breakfast or as a dessert, with a nice cup of coffee or tea.   Recipe below.

It's very festive after the glaze and sprinkles decorate it.

This recipe makes two large loaves, or 4 small loaves.

EASTER BREAD

INGREDIENTS

Dough

8 cups of unbleached flour

1 1/2 cups milk, I use skim

1/2 cup white sugar

2 navel oranges

2 envelopes active dry yeast

1 cup butter, melted

8 eggs

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon anise or almond extract

Canola oil

Extra flour for kneading

2 tablespoons of melted butter

Glaze

2 cups confectioners sugar

1/4 cup skim milk

multi colored nonpareil sprinkles

DIRECTIONS

Dump the 8 cups of flour into a large mixing bowl and set aside.  Attach dough hook to your mixer. Zest the oranges.  Juice both of them into a small bowl and set aside.  Crack the eggs into a bowl, add the salt and the anise extract, lightly scramble together, set aside.  

Heat the milk in a small saucepan over low heat, stir occasionally until it is warm, but not hot.  In the meantime, put the sugar in a small bowl and stir the orange zest into it, set it aside.  

When the milk is warmed, stir the sugar mixture into it until it dissolves.  Next, add the yeast to the mixture, stir and let sit for 10 minutes.

Add the milk/yeast mixture to the flour and begin to mix with your mixer.  The dough will be stringy. Add the melted butter, and continue to mix.  Add the orange juice to the dough and mix to combine. Next, add the egg mixture and continue mixing.

Depending how big your oranges are, and the juice you squeeze from them, you may have to add flour to the dough.  Once a sticky ball of dough forms, turn it out onto a floured surface and knead it for about 5 minutes, or until it is soft and elastic.  It will still be slightly sticky. 

Coat the surface of a large bowl with 2 teaspoons of  canola oil.  Place the ball of dough into the bowl and turn it to coat, so it does not stick to the bowl.  Cover the bowl with a towel and set in a draft free warm place until it doubles in size, about 1 hour.

While waiting for the dough to rise, line two baking sheets with parchment paper, set aside.

When the dough has risen, turn out onto a floured surface and divide in half.  Divide each half piece in two, so you will have four pieces of dough.  Roll two of the pieces into 24 inch ropes.  Loosely twist them together. Lay them side by side and fold over each other like mock braiding.  Put the braid onto one of the baking sheets and form it into a circle, carefully pinch and seal the ends.  Repeat with the remaining two pieces of dough to make another loaf.  Brush the tops with melted butter.  Lay a piece of plastic wrap over the top of each braid, and let rise in a draft free area until almost doubled in size, about 1 hour.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Unless you have double ovens, bake one at a time.  Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown on top.  Remove from baking sheet to cooling rack and cool completely. Once they cool, glaze and decorate them.

For the glaze:  In a medium bowl add the confectioners sugar.  Gradually pour in milk and whisk together to reach your desired consistency of glaze.  Drizzle the glaze over the bread and sprinkle with nonpareils before it dries. Let glaze dry completely.  Wrap and store the bread at room temperature.