For me, Easter is always a nice time of the year. We would always have a big family dinner on the Easter weekend with roast lamb and Simnel cake. Of course, as an added bonus for a chocoholic such as myself, there was always an abundance of chocolate eggs around too. One of my all time favourites is Cadbury mini eggs. A delicious crunchy shell, filled with classic Cadbury’s chocolate and there is something so pleasing and attractive about the speckled pastel colours that always make them nice to bake with. As we always had a Simnel cake about the house at Easter, marzipan is another flavour I associate a lot with Easter time. These flavours have been incorporated into this recipe for a sweet Easter bread. Of course, you can substitute the mini eggs for your own favourite easter chocolate, and if you are not a fan of marzipan, I would recommend making a filling with cinnamon, or even chocolate spread if you really want to indulge as the recipe is very versatile and you can pretty much adapt it to your own preferences! I hope you enjoy it!
Happy baking X
For the bread:
125 ml warm whole milk (or 50ml cream + 100 ml skimmed milk)
11 g dried yeast
2 tbsp sugar (about 32 g)
7 g salt
50 g butter
375 g flour
1 egg, beaten for egg wash
For the filling:
150 g marzipan
150 g butter (room temperature)
150 g sugar
200 g easter chocolate eggs, crushed
Method:
1. Stir in the sugar to your warm milk and sprinkle the yeast on top. Set aside for 5-10 mins until the mixture becomes bubbly.
2. Meanwhile, rub the butter into the flour. Put the salt at one side of the bowl, and when the yeast mixture is active, pour this into the bowl at the opposite side to the salt.
3. Stir together until combined, tip onto a floured work surface and knead for 15 minutes until you have a smooth and elastic dough.
4. Leave in a warm place until it has doubled in size (1- 1 ½ hours).
5. While your dough is proving, make your remonce paste filling by beating together the marzipan, butter and sugar until smooth.
6. Once your dough has proved, knock it back on the worktop and roll out into a large rectangle.
7. Spread your remonce paste and crushed mini eggs onto the dough and roll from the long edge into a sausage shape.
8. Cut the dough from roughly one inch from one of the ends, all the way down so you have two long pieces that are joined together at the top.
9. Twist around each other and place into a loaf tin.
10. Allow to prove for another 30-45 mins.
11. Heat you oven up to 180°C while your bread is in the final prove.
12. Brush with beaten egg and cook for 30- 40 minutes until the bread is golden brown and it sounds hollow when you tap it.
13. Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes before tucking in!
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