I’ve held onto a clipping from 1999, torn from the Philadelphia Inquirer, for Chef Peppi’s Bunny Bread by Lombardo & Bui, which was a cartoon recipe column that ran for years in the paper’s food section. And I’ve made it for just about every Easter since.
But this year, I thought I’d switch it up by adding in whole wheat pastry flour, giving it a lemon twist and tweaking some other ingredients’ measurements to cut a few calories.
The results? Still Easter table worthy!
Ingredients
Scale
- 1 envelope regular yeast
- 1/4 cup warm water
- 1/4 cup sugar, divided
- 1 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 cup whole wheat pastry flour
- 2 teaspoons lemon zest
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 2/3 cup low fat milk
- 1/4 cup unsalted butter, melted and slightly cooled
- 2 eggs
- Raisins or other dried fruit for eyes, nose and mouth
Instructions
- In a large bowl (or a stand mixer bowl) add yeast, water and 2 tablespoons of sugar. Let sit for 5 minutes until all the yeast is absorbed.
- Mix in remaining 2 tablespoons sugar, all-purpose flour, 1/4 cup whole wheat flour, lemon zest and salt.
- Add milk, butter and eggs. Mix thoroughly with spoon or using dough hook with mixer stand.
- Slowly add in remaining whole wheat flour (1/4 cup at a time.) Knead until elastic (dough will be slightly sticky), about 5 minutes.
- Form into a ball and place in a greased bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour.
- Remove dough and divide into 5 parts for 2 ears, head, body and tail of bunny. Form bunny and place on greased baking sheet. Use dried fruit to make eyes, nose and mouth.
- Cover with a dishtowel and let rise for 45 minutes in a warm place.
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Bake for 20-25 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when tapped.
- Remove from oven and let cool on a rack.
Notes
This bread tends to dry out quickly so store in plastic wrap and eat within 2 days.
And due to my 4 year old daughter’s questionable stellar ear, body, tail dough shaping techinque, we even had a little left over for a mini bunny head.
Do you have a favorite Easter or Passover food tradition?
Published at Tue, 30 Mar 2021 21:46:00 +0000