I wish you all a lovely holiday and good luck with all your cooking and baking.
This is my Simple Easter Bread that I’m making on Sunday. Of course I had to test it out today to make sure it turns out so I guess we’ll just have to eat it. ? I love baking for any holiday and sweet breads (my favorite kind of bread) are most popular at Easter time. It’s an easy one-rise recipe with lots of golden raisins and a light glaze. If you want to try this easy homemade raisin bread recipe click here.
This soft and sweet egg bread is easier to make than it looks. It’s fast. It’s beautiful. And it’s full of golden raisins. My simple recipe needs only one rise so it’s ready in just over two hours. You start with a simple but sweet egg bread and divide it into two. Roll each half into a 24-inch rope. Twist the ropes together like this…
Place the rope on your baking sheet and shape it onto a wreath, pinching and tucking the edges in the best you can. Here it is ready to rise…
After it rises in a warm spot and had doubled in size, it will look like this…
Now, just bake and finish. To ensure success have all your ingredients at room temperature, including the egg + yolk. Adding a cold egg will slow down the rise time. Make the powdered sugar glaze as thin or thick as you like. In the photo at the top I made a slightly thinner glaze than the one on the recipe page. Enjoy this delicious sweet holiday bread on any special occasion. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
Christmas is the best time to make sweet breads like my Christmas wreath bread but it doesn’t have to be a wreath. It can also be braided and shaped into a regular loaf. And it doesn’t even have to be for Christmas. With a simple white glaze you can enjoy it any time of year. If you want to toast it, just omit the glaze and you can make fabulous cinnamon-raisin toast.
I have actually made a dual loaf. I cut it in half and only glaze half so the other half can be toasted. So you see this lightly sweet raisin bread is really versatile and it’s made entirely without butter. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones
If you think this beautiful bread looks good, wait until you taste it! You’ve never had cinnamon-raisin bread like this. It’s a braided loaf and each of the ropes in the braid is filled with delicious tunnels of brown sugar and cinnamon. And guess what? You can make this amazing cinnamon-raisin bread without butter. I created this loaf out of necessity. I was so frustrated trying to make a spiral loaf of cinnamon bread. Every time I sliced it, there were big gaping spaces in the bread so I finally decided to try a braided bread.
Making a braided bread, like egg bread or challah, is pretty easy. You just cut the dough into thirds, roll the three pieces into long ropes and braid away. What I’ve done is just flatten the ropes and fill them with a little softened butter, brown sugar and cinnamon. (I’ve also used transfat-free margarine, which is my butter of choice so either way works) I didn’t know what to expect when I tried it but the results were amazing!
When I sliced the bread for the first time, I couldn’t believe how beautiful it was inside and how the brown sugar & cinnamon filling actually created tunnels of cinnamon throughout the bread. It’s a different pattern with every loaf but there is always a beautiful stream of brown sugar & cinnamon tunnels throughout the loaf. So I’m calling it Tunnels of Cinnamon Bread. It’s beautiful. It’s delicious. And I’m so proud of this very special bread. Click here for the recipe. – Jenny Jones