MammaSteph's Easter braided bready egg thing that's sort of sweet but not really...

Have you ever seen a woman cry over a pile of dough? I mean real dough...not the paper stuff we use to make purchases. Yesterday I cried. I cried over a pile of dough. I was so happy to see my dough had doubled in size and I cried!

My one failed attempt at making Easter bread almost caused me to throw in the towel...and the flour, eggs, milk, etc. Instead of using the dry active yeast (the stinky brown one), I decided to try the fancy Italian yeast that smells like vanilla & cherubs. It flopped. Literally. Not only did my dough not rise, it actually shrunk. Thank God for the green bin.

I had set my sights on making my very own braided Easter ring this year. In our family, we call it "la treccia di Pasqua" (the Easter braid). It's dotted with hand-dyed eggs & it's the piece de resistence at any Easter gathering. My grandmother used to make her traditional Easter bread every year; we call it "cuculozz'", but I haven't been able to find anything remotely similar on the net. I know my great-aunt has the recipe, so I must make an effort to obtain it sometime soon. My mom, on the other hand, specializes in a savoury Easter bread from south-central Italy known as sciadone (or fiadone) . So the time had come for me to master my very own Easter bread. I had to get this right!

I followed Nonna Lina's recipe to the "T". For the record, my nonnas' names were Angelina & Maria-Antonia. I don't know Nonna Lina. My theory is that it's some 18 year old kid in Idaho who's stealing little, old, Italian ladies' recipes & claiming them as his own. But that's just a theory. I also believe the Kennedy magic bullet theory was fabricated by the CIA. Read Garrison's On the Trail of the Assassins... but I digress.... (don't even get me started on all the conspiracy theories that are out there - Elvis is alive & Paul McCartney is really an impostor. I'm a sucker for that stuff!). Getting to the point of all my rambling: Nonna Lina knows her Easter bread. The recipe was a success (as you can see by my photo).

So, as my Easter gift to you, I'm including the recipe for all who want to try their hand at my foolproof "treccia di Pasqua". Here goes:

Treccia di Pasqua

5 eggs
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 package active dry yeast (don't use the instant stuff...only the stinky Fleischman's will do!)
3 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter
2 eggs, room temperature
1 tsp anise extract
egg wash (1 egg & 2 tbsp milk)
1 cup confectioners' sugar
1 tablespoon whole milk
1/8 teaspoon vanilla extract
3 tablespoons multicolored sprinkles

Color the 5 eggs with egg dye. In a large mixing bowl, blend the white sugar, salt, and yeast well with 1 cup of the flour.
In a saucepan, combine 2/3 cup milk and butter, heating slowly until liquid is warm and butter is melted. Pour the milk into the dry ingredients and beat 125 strokes with a wooden spoon. Add eggs, anise extract and 1/2 cup flour or enough to make a thick batter. Beat vigorously for 2 minutes. Stir in enough flour to make a ball of dough that draws away from the sides of the bowl.
Turn out onto a floured board and knead for about 10 minutes, working in additional flour to overcome stickiness. Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning to grease the top. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and put in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour. (I stuck mine in the oven)
Punch down the dough and return it to a lightly floured board. Divide the dough in half.
Roll each piece into a 24-inch rope. Loosely twist the two ropes together and form a ring on a greased baking sheet. Pinch the ends together well. Brush the dough with the egg wash. Push aside the twist to make a place for each egg. Push eggs down carefully as far as possible, but don't let them touch the cookie sheet (or they'll explode...DON'T ASK ME HOW I KNOW!!!). Cover the bread with wax paper and let rise in a warm, draft-free place until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.
Bake the bread in a preheated 350 degree F oven for about 35 minutes. If you knock on the bread, it should sound sort of hollow. Place on a wire rack to cool.
Once the bread is cool, drizzle the icing on top between the eggs, and decorate with colored sprinkles. To make icing: mix together confectioners' sugar, 1 tablespoon whole milk, and vanilla.

THEN STUFF YOURSELF SILLY!!!