Italian Easter bread

This post is about a year in the making. Partially because I wanted more research on this recipe prior to sharing…and partially because I haven’t found the answers I was looking for. For example…

What is the real name of this bread?

How do you really spell its name? This is phonetically spelled I am sure.

Where did this recipe originate?

Which recipe is the right recipe?

The answers to those questions? There are many answers. This is a recipe my Grandmother made, that she learned from her mother in law (my Great Grandmother). The recipe varies and regardless of researching “Italian Easter Bread” in old Italian church cookbooks, online resources, etc…I am coming up empty handed.

Actually, I come up with an abundance of information…just not my specific answers. Every region in Italy has a variation of this bread. It can be covered with glaze, sugar, colored eggs, plain eggs, sprinkles, no sprinkles. It is named with a list of names, but I could not find one the way our bread is named. (It is pronounced UN-GOO-TEE). But, I didn’t find it anywhere other than in the family recipes. I have learned that Easter Bread is Easter Bread. It usually is sweet, enriched with some sort of butter, oil, or shortening. It typically holds one or multiple eggs, and is served as a part of Easter weekend.

I do, have the recipe from family three sources, each slightly different, but I am going to use the one my own Grandma used. It is also a tradition to make it on Good Friday. I figure empty/over handed or not, I don’t want to wait another year to post this recipe. If my readers can add to the story, or fill in the blanks, I will update this post as I go.

This bread starts out with melting Crisco in boiling water, then allowing it to cool. Milk is added, along with a large quantity of flour and sugar. This bread can be baked into larger loaves, or, as I remember them, smaller individual loaves.

Once the dough is risen, it is rolled and shaped around an egg. Our recipe does not call for coloring the eggs, but I can see the attraction. It’s pretty with the colored eggs, and while I am at it, the glaze and sprinkles make it not only sweeter but a decorative bread. This recipe is pretty basic when it comes to decoration, but it is a tradition I can’t imagine letting go. Even though carbs are my enemy. Even though sweet bread is in essence, a dessert. It is the kind of bread I rip a hunk off of, and it can be served with coffee or tea, eaten for breakfast, etc. It doesn’t need butter or preserves. It is a complete taste in and of itself.

When I was little, this bread was a part of Easter weekend, as we helped my Grandma with the making of the bread, and Easter dinner was served with each place setting having a bread. (I am not sure if this was just one time or every time…but it is distinctly imbedded in my brain, seeing the little breads at the table).

I never knew “Nona” or the stories around this bread. I just know it was something my Grandmother, along with second cousins, and other family members carry on as a tradition of family and food. I can be a part of that, and continue it on for another generation.

Now the egg. It is baked in the oven, and apparently has the same consistency of a hard boiled egg but better. I have never eaten it. At our house, my Father would always eat the egg the day the bread was made. I can very clearly see him taking a hunk of bread, the egg, and a cup of coffee to his space at the table. I didn’t eat the egg when I was little because Dad always did, and there was only one egg. Now I don’t, only because the bread is out on the counter and not refrigerated…and for some reason the egg is still in my heart, the part my Dad would eat. It’s a heart thing for me.

I am thankful for memories of my family, and for traditions that were part of my childhood, such as this bread. It makes me smile, the idea of my Grandmother being in my kitchen with me as I make the breads. I’d like to think she would be happy they are still being served. I wish I knew Nona, she seemed like quite a lady. I am glad she was willing to share the recipe with her daughter in law, so we could have it with us today.

I hope you enjoy this recipe, and as always, thank you for coming to the table!

Chrissy

Click below for a printable recipe.

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