Italian Easter Bread (Pane di Pasqua) Recipe
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Traditional Italian Easter Bread, or Pane di Pasqua, is a soft, sweet yeast bread often braided and flavored with citrus, vanilla, or anise. Every Easter, Nonna made this fluffy, sweet bread with a colorful egg nestled in the center for each grandchild.
In Italy, we celebrate Easter with culinary specialties like Pane di Pasqua, Pizza Rustica, and Ricotta Pie.
Italian Easter Bread is a familiar and much-loved tradition, especially in southern Italy. Each region of the country has its favorite version. In Sicily, they make cuddura cu l’ova. This is either bread or cookie dough that encases the colored eggs. In Calabria, they make cuzzupe, a cross between bread and cake decorated with Easter eggs and then topped with a sweet glaze.
My family loves this basic, sweet Italian Easter bread recipe. The texture of the bread is soft and fluffy, similar to challah bread. Since my Nonna made her bread with anise, I like to flavor mine the same way.
If you want to make homemade bread but you don’t want to wait for Easter, try my No Knead Bread, Easy Focaccia or Cranberry Walnut Bread. Both are super easy and delicious.
My Sicilian Easter bread is much easier to make than it looks, and the ingredients are simple pantry staples. Although the bread takes a while to make, most of the time is hands-off, just waiting for it to rise. Let me show you how easy this is.
Ingredients
- Unsalted Butter: Using unsalted butter will allow you to control the amount of salt in this recipe. The amount of salt in butter can vary by brand. Using unsalted butter means you can get consistent results.
- Active Dry Yeast: It is important to make sure that your yeast has not expired after all this is what is going to make this beautiful dough rise.
- Large Eggs: This recipe uses a lot of whole eggs. You will need 2 beaten eggs for the bread, 1 egg for the egg wash, and 6 dyed eggs for the center of the braided bread. It is perfectly fine for these to be raw eggs because they will be cooked in the oven with the bread.
- Anise Extract: A tiny bit goes a long way. You can leave this out if you don’t like the flavor of anise or substitute vanilla or orange flavoring like Fiore Di Sicilia.
- Colorful Sprinkles: This is optional but you will love how festive the bread looks with the colorful sprinkles.
Variations
If you love anise, you may want to add some anise seeds to the dough. It gives the dough a beautiful flavor and it looks pretty too!
Add lemon or orange zest to the dough for a bright flavor.
You don’t have to bake the bread with the colored eggs in the center. The bread is also beautiful on its own.
How to Make the Best Italian Easter Bread
Make the Dough
Photo 1: Proof the Yeast: In a small saucepan, heat the milk and butter until the butter completely melts. Pour the warm milk mixture into a bowl or measuring cup, add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar and the active dry yeast, and stir to combine. Let this mixture sit for 5-10 minutes or until a foam forms on top of the mixture.
Photo 2: In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the sugar, 2 beaten eggs, salt, anise, yeast mixture, and half of the flour. Mix on low speed using the dough hook attachment until a batter is formed. Gradually add in the rest of the flour a little at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure all of the flour is blended into the dough.
Baking Tip
The milk and butter mixture should be warm, not hot. If you aren’t sure, use a thermometer to test the temperature of the liquid. Anywhere between 100-115 degrees F is perfect for proofing the yeast.,
Photo 3: Continue to knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or until a sticky dough ball starts pulling away from the bowl’s sides.
Photo 4: Scrape the dough onto a floured surface and knead it several times until it is tacky but not sticky. Form it into a ball. Turn the dough in a greased bowl, cover it loosely, and set it in a warm place to rise for about an hour or until it has doubled.
Baking Tips
This is a soft, sticky dough, but once you scrape it out of the bowl and knead it with a little bit of flour, it will quickly form a soft, tacky dough ball that is easy to handle.
Be patient and let the dough take the time it needs to rise. It is definitely worth the wait!
Assemble and Bake the Bread
Photo 5: Once the dough rises, punch it down once and pour it out onto a clean surface. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll a piece of dough into a 12-inch long log and repeat this with another piece.
Photo 6: Pinch the ends of the two pieces of dough together and then twist the two so that you form a long rope. Bring the ends together so that your bread is now in the shape of a wreath. Place the sweet bread wreath on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Repeat this with the remaining dough.
Photo 7: Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set it in a warm spot to rise for 30 minutes to one hour. Gently brush the dough wreaths with the egg wash, nestle an egg in the center of each one, and decorate them with sprinkles.
Photo 8: Bake the sweet bread in a preheated 350-degree F oven for 15-20 minutes. The bread should be golden brown. Let it cool for about 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring it to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Baking Tip
You do not need to hard boil the eggs before dying them. The eggs will be cooked in the oven with the bread.
How to Store Italian Easter Bread
This fluffy bread is so fragrant that I have to eat it as soon as it comes out of the oven. It is really delicious eaten soon after it is baked. But the bread can be stored in an airtight container for serval days. Since the bread has hard-boiled eggs in the center, you should store it in the refrigerator or remove the eggs so they can be refrigerated then the bread can be left at room temperature.
The sweet bread can also be frozen for up to two months after the eggs have been removed.
Italian Easter Bread FAQs
Bread itself has a lot of religious significance in many cultures because it represents life and at Easter, it is a reminder of Jesus’ life and how he sustains us. The wreath shape of this bread is meant to remind us of the wreath of thorns that Jesus wore before his death and the egg in the center symbolizes rebirth or new life.
Yes, you can. Add the instant yeast when you add the sugar, eggs, warm milk, and butter to the batter. As with the active dry yeast, be sure that your milk and butter are not too hot, or it will kill the yeast.
Other Traditional Italian Holiday Recipes
Every holiday comes with its traditional recipes and Easter is no exception to that rule. Pane di Cena or Sicilian Easter Cookies that my grandmother and my mother made every year.
In many Italian households, it wouldn’t be Easter without Italian Easter Pizza or Pizza Giana. A flaky pastry crust is filled with delicious cheeses and assorted salumi to celebrate the end of Lent. Another favorite in our family is Nonna’s Sicilian Stuffed Artichokes.
At Christmas, you will find two other favorite sweet breads: panettone and pandoro.
I would love to get your feedback, so if you have tried this Italian Easter Bread recipe or any other recipes on this website, please leave me a comment below. I hope you enjoy our recipes, and I look forward to hearing from you!
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Italian Easter Bread (Pane di Pasqua)
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Ingredients
- 1 cup Milk
- ½ cup Unsalted Butter
- 2¼ tsp Active Dry Yeast
- ½ tsp Salt
- 2 Large Eggs beaten
- ½ cup Sugar
- 4½ cups Flour
- ½ tsp Anise Extract
- Colorful Sprinkles optional
- 1 Egg beaten
- 1 tsp water
- 6 Eggs dyed
Instructions
- In a small saucepan, heat the milk and butter until the butter completely melts. Pour the warm milk mixture into a bowl or measuring cup, add 1-2 teaspoons of sugar and the active dry yeast, and stir to combine. Let this mixture sit for 5-10 minutes or until a foam forms on top of the mixture. The milk should about 110-115℉.
- In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the sugar, 2 beaten eggs, salt, anise, yeast mixture, and half of the flour. Mix on low speed using the dough hook attachment until a batter is formed. Gradually add in the rest of the flour a little at a time, scraping down the sides of the bowl to make sure all of the flour is blended into the dough. Continue to knead the dough for 5-10 minutes or until a sticky dough ball starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
- Scrape the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it several times until it has formed a soft ball of dough that is tacky but not sticky. Grease a large bowl with olive oil and turn the dough in the bowl, cover it loosely, and place it in a warm place to rise for about an hour or until it has doubled in size.
- Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper.Once the dough rises, punch it down and pour it out onto a clean surface. Divide the dough into 12 equal pieces. Roll a piece of dough into a 12-inch long log and repeat this with another piece. Pinch the ends of the two pieces of dough together and then twist the two so that you form a long rope. Bring the ends together so that your bread is now in the shape of a wreath. Place the sweet bread wreath on a baking sheet. Repeat this with the remaining dough. Put 3 wreaths on each baking sheet to give them room to spread out.
- Cover the dough with plastic wrap and set it in a warm spot to rise, for 30 mins to one hour or until the dough doubles in size.
- Preheat the oven to 350℉. Gently brush the dough wreaths with the egg wash, nestle a colored egg in the center of each one, and decorate them with sprinkles.
- Bake the sweet bread for 15-20 minutes. The bread should be golden brown. Let it cool for about 10 minutes on the baking sheet before transferring it to a wire rack to finish cooling.
Notes
Baking Tips
- The milk and butter mixture should be warm, not hot. If you aren’t, sure use a thermometer to test the temperature of the liquid. Anywhere between 100-115 degrees F is perfect for proofing the yeast.
- You do not need to cook the eggs before dying them. The eggs will be cooked in the oven with the bread.
- This is a soft, sticky dough, but once you scrape it out of the bowl and start to knead it with a little bit of flour, it will quickly form a soft, tacky dough ball that is easy to handle.
- Be patient and let the dough take the time it needs to rise. It is definitely worth the wait!
Hi Enza can I freeze some dough for later?
Hi Laura
Yes, you can freeze the dough. I haven’t done this myself, but I did some research, and this guide from Masterclass explains everything you need to know to ensure your bread comes out perfectly after being frozen. Basically, you will need to let the dough rise and then shape it before wrapping it in plastic wrap and freezing it.
I hope you find this helpful! If you do this, please let me know how it comes out!
This bread is the identical texture of traditional Greek Easter bread. It’s wonderful and is such a nice tradition for the holiday.
So glad you enjoyed the bread Eleni! I love that we can carry on holiday traditions!
Appreciate the memories and recipes
Sara
You are so very welcome. I love sharing family recipes both old and new and I hope you enjoy them.