Next Up: Italian Easter Bread
I know I’ve been spending a lot of time in Italy lately, but the food is good so why not? Plus who can resist braided brioche with a dyed hard-boiled egg baked in the middle? My girls are going to go nuts and the breads will look amazing on the Easter table. I promise to do something very different after I’m done getting all Martha Stewart on you. Cool?
I know that I can’t resist a bread with an egg in it! For years I was into Italian Easter bread but for the past few it has been Greek Easter bread. Whichever… I’m onboard!
Then let’s proceed shall we? 😉
– Joe
p.s. Martha seems to go both ways – Italian and Greek, but her Tsoureki seems to be missing key ingredients – Mahlab and Mastic. Not only does that give the bread a great taste but it give is a great smell too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsoureki
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mahlab
http://www.marthastewart.com/1073522/tsoureki-greek-easter-bread
She’s great for design but not much else in my experience.
Thanks Brian!
– Joe
Doesn’t lambropsomo have cardamom as well? I make mine with cardamom and mahlab, I haven’t found mastic locally, and am leery about ordering a completely unknown spice online.
But then I don’t pretend that my Easter bread is an ethnic traditional bread either.
http://geeklady.wordpress.com/2013/03/27/bread-of-easter-brightness/
At least she didn’t put in anise. The first lambropsomo recipe I tried used anise extract and it was horrid.
Hey Jo,
I am interested in the differences between Greek and Italian easter breads. I live in Melbourne, Australia, a city that has both huge Italian and Greek Communities (Melbourne has the largest Greek population of any city in the world outside of Greece). Despite this I have only ever seen greek easter bread. All the Italian shops are selling panettone at this time of year. Can you explain the differences for us in one of your explanitory bits please. Buona Pasqua!
Hey Rick!
That’s funny. In fact there are very few differences. The main one is that Greek Easter bread uses mostly red-colored eggs and Italian uses eggs of many different colors. Also Greek breads tend to use more of the symbolic toppings like almonds or sesame seeds. Otherwise they’re pretty much the same. Maybe the communities there just do different breads so they don’t have to compete with each other. I know panettone as more of a Christmas bread but I know it’s made for Easter too.
Thanks for the comment!
– Joe