Sam's Place

Easter Bread

Easter Bread Easy Recipe

We spent the day yesterday making our Easter bread. We don’t have a freezer so we wait until Easter week and do all of the work in one day.

This recipe might seem difficult but it’s really not, most of the time is waiting for the dough to rise. It rises three times and then after that, you make the loaves and you let it rise to the top of the bread pan before putting it in the oven.

This recipe yielded four loaves of Easter bread baked in a 9-inch x 5-inch bread pan and two braided loaves baked on a cookie sheet. Unless you like Easter bread like I do you may want to cut the recipe down to make less.

Here is what you need:

8 large eggs

2 tablespoons Anise extract

1 tablespoon Lemon extract

2-1/2 cup scalded milk

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

2-1/2 cup sugar

1 cup milk (lukewarm)

4 packages dry yeast

10 to 12 cups flour

Okay now let’s make this easy Easter Bread Recipe:

Using my KitchenAid Stand mixing bowl, I added the eggs, anise, and lemon extract; beat this until it’s fluffy. I used the medium speed setting for this.

While that is going on, start two saucepans, one with 2-1/2 cups of milk and the butter. Bring this to a boil to scald the milk, then set this aside until it cools to lukewarm. Now in another pan or your microwave heat the cup of milk to lukewarm and add the yeast to dissolve.

Scaled milk and butter with yeast dissolved in milk

Now back to the mixture it should be fluffy by now. Add the sugar and continue to beat for about 2 minutes. Continue beating and add the two saucepans of milk until you have a batter. Again make sure both are lukewarm.

There are too many cups of flour in this recipe to use my stand mixer so I transferred the batter to a large bowl and began adding the flour one cup at a time.

We used a hand mixer until we got to seven cups of flour. After that, I worked in the remaining flour by hand to a smooth ball of dough.

Tip: If the dough is too sticky while hand kneading, add some flour until the dough forms.

Cover this and let rise 3 time

Cover and let the dough rise three times, about an hour each time. The third you time punch it down make the loaves and place them in a lightly greased and floured bread pan. I used the Pam baking spray for this. Now cover and let these rise to the top of the pan.

After it rises to the top of the bread pan

I baked two loaves at a time at 300 degrees for 10 minutes, and then lowered to 275 degrees and baked for one hour. I bushed them with melted butter right out for the oven and let them cool on a rack.

The braided loaves baked on a cookie sheet at 300 degrees for 50 minutes. We rolled out three equal length logs of dough, set them side by side and rolled one over the other to make the braided loaves.

We made a simple glaze for the braided loaves with a little bit of water and powdered sugar, then drizzled it over the top and added some colored sugar sprinkles.

A simple glaze of water and powdered sugar

Although this is time-consuming the results are absolutely worth the work and the wait, the bread is soft, moist, and Oh so tasty. I was eating this Easter bread 10 minutes after it came out of the oven.

I hope you enjoyed this Easter bread recipe, as always thanks for stopping by.

KitchenAid KSM150PSER Artisan Tilt-Head Stand Mixer with Pouring Shield, 5-Quart,

Bakeware Loaf Pans Value 4 Pack

Silicone Oven Mitts - Commercial Grade, Extra Long Quilted Cotton

Marinara Sauce

Make Easy Marinara Sauce:

There is nothing that I like better than my tomato sauce cooking for hours and filling the house with that amazing aroma.

Today is certainly a busy world, and sometimes you just don’t have the time. This simple marinara sauce recipe can be ready in 15 minutes or less.

Marinara Sauce Ingredients:

1 – 28oz. can crushed tomatoes (you can also use diced tomatoes if you prefer)

2 cloves garlic finely diced

Olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of a 10-inch fry pan)

1 tablespoon Italian seasoning

1 tablespoon parsley (dried or fresh)

¼ cup water

Fresh grated Romano cheese

Garlic powder

Salt and Pepper

Here is how I did this:

I covered the bottom of my 10-inch fry pan with olive oil and then added the garlic. Let this just begin to sizzle, not too much because you don’t want to burn the garlic.

Next, I added the can of tomatoes, Italian seasoning, parsley, and water. I had the burner set to medium heat and stirred until seasoning mixed in well.

I started a pot of water for our spaghetti, continuing to stir the marinara sauce. Bring the sauce to a boil for 2 minutes continue to stir, then turn your burner down to simmer.

Grate some fresh cheese on top, add some garlic powder, salt, and pepper to taste and your marinara sauce is ready to mix with your pasta or spoon it over your plate of favorite pasta.

This recipe for Italian marinara sauce is so quick and easy you'll never want to buy sauce in a jar again.

This is so easy and quick; you can have a meal on the table in less than 20 minutes with this easy marinara sauce recipe.

You might also like my Slow Cooked Homemade Pasta Sauce

As always thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoy.

Set of 4 Pasta Bowl Set

ZYLISS Classic Rotary Cheese Grater - NSF Restaurant Certified

Italian Sausage Stuffed Mushrooms

Just as I like something sweet after a meal I also like a good starter to a meal. These Italian sausage stuffed mushrooms are a perfect appetizer for any meal.

This is a savory snack and is a great game day or party treat. The next time you are having friends over for dinner impress them with these. You can make them ahead and then pop them in the oven because these are best served hot out of the oven.

Here is what I used for this: Italian Stuffed Mushroom Recipe

16 large fresh mushrooms
3 Italian sausage links (This was almost 1lb.)
2 cloves garlic minced
2 tablespoons fresh parsley minced
1/4 cup fresh grated Parmesan cheese
1/4 cup seasoned bread crumbs
olive oil (enough to cover the bottom of a 10-inch fry pan)

How I made these: Sausage Stuffed Mushroom Appetizers

I covered the bottom of my 10-inch fry pan with olive oil, removed the casing from the sausage and began cooking this on medium heat. Use a fork frequently to keep breaking the sausage up into small crumbles.

Now that the sausage was started I washed and removed the stems from the mushrooms. Then I
chopped up the mushroom stems in my small food processor and set the mushroom caps aside.


Cooking the sausage, mushroom caps and stems are ready

As the sausage was cooking I added the chopped up stems, garlic, parsley, Parmesan cheese, and last the bread crumbs. Continued stirring this until I had a nice firm mixture.

The sausage is ready, now all I have to do is stuff the mushroom caps. I used a tablespoon to do this and made sure that I rounded up the edges of the mushroom caps.

Ready for the oven

I placed these in a glass baking dish with a little bit of water on the bottom, sprinkled with more Parmesan cheese on top. Preheated the oven to 350 degrees and baked for 20 minutes. Serve as soon as they come out of the oven.

I sure hope you enjoyed my sausage stuffed mushroom appetizers.
As always thanks for stopping by.

Below are all of the handy kitchen tools that I used to make this recipe