Italian Easter Buns

By PineyCook

These festive Braided Easter Buns are the perfect celebratory dinner roll to sop all that juicy goodness from your favorite baked ham recipe at your Easter dinner table. Get the kids involved, these braided buns will be a fun craft for kiddos.

Ingredients

• 1 package rapid rise yeast
• 1 1/4 cups milk
• pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup butter, softened
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 4 cups flour, plus more if needed
• 1 egg, beaten with 1 teaspoon of water
• 6 dyed Easter eggs or plain brown eggs, hard-boiled
• sprinkles to decorate

Details

Servings 12
Preparation time 150mins
Cooking time 175mins

Preparation

Step 1

In a small pan, warm the milk and butter until the butter has melted. Remove from heat and cool slightly until it is still warm, but not hot.

In a large mixer bowl, combine yeast, warm milk/butter mixture, salt, eggs, and sugar. Add about half the flour and beat until smooth with dough hook. Slowly add the remaining flour to form a stiff dough. Don't worry about how much flour it ends up being, just keep adding until the dough is not sticky anymore. Knead until smooth with either dough hook attachment or turn out on floured board and knead. Place in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about an hour.

Punch dough down, divide into 12 pieces. Roll each piece to form a 1-inch-thick rope about 10 to 12 inches long. You don't want your ropes too long or your circle center will be too wide. Take two pieces, twist into a braid, pinching the ends, and loop into a circle, again pinching the ends to seal the circle.

Place on a greased baking sheet or sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover and let rise until doubled, about an hour again. Brush each bun with beaten egg wash. Sprinkle on the sprinkles. In the middle of each bread ring, gently place an Easter egg, making an indentation with the egg.


Bake at 350°F until golden, about 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on rack.