As the Easter season approaches, many seek to embrace cherished traditions and indulge in delightful culinary creations. One such treat that stands out is the sweet German Easter bread with raisins and almonds. This blog post will share a simple recipe to recreate this festive bread in your kitchen. Preparing this delightful, sweet German Easter bread will surely add a touch of warmth and joy to your Easter festivities.
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Easter Breakfast is the most crucial meal during the Easter Holiday, so we want it to be extra fancy. For me, this means baking my boys’ favourite breads and pastries. Nothing tastes better than a loaf of fresh bread, right?
Our family loves sweet breakfasts, so German Easter Bread (along with traditional Yeast Bun Hefezopf) is one of our favourite treats!
What is Sweet German Easter Bread?
Sweet German Easter Bread is a fluffy bread with yeast filled with all the goodies: dried fruit and chopped nuts. The bread can be topped with butter, but I could eat it straight from the baking tray!
Essential Ingredients
Flour – use all-purpose flour or a mixture of different flours.
Milk – use full fat milk.
Butter – use unsalted butter.
Yeast – use 21 grams of fresh or 7 grams of dry yeast.
Sugar – use caster sugar. We like our sweet bread and buns sweet. But if you feel that the sweetness of the fruits might be enough, reduce the sugar content by half.
Vanillin – use to add a little aroma. If you don’t have vanilla sugar, you have a few options:
- Add one teaspoon of vanilla bean paste
- Scrape one vanilla bean seeds
- Add three drops of vanilla extract
Salt – use pinch of table salt.
Chopped Almonds – use peeled chopped or slivered almonds
Raisins – use sultanas, black or golden raisins.
Chopped candied lemon peel — In Germany, candied lemon and orange peels, called Orangeat and Zitronat, can be bought in any supermarket. However, you can substitute them with fresh lemon or orange peel if you like.
Decorative Sugar — We use coarse decorative sugar (Hagelzucker) to decorate baked goods before baking; if you can access it, that’s great. Suppose you can’t use pearl sugar to decorate this bread. Decorative sugar gives it extra crunch— you don’t want to skip it!
Variations: Adding Your Favourite Flavours
Although the traditional version of German Easter bread calls for lemon peel and raisins, you can add your favourite ingredients. You can experiment by adding chopped apricots, cranberries, golden raisins, dried sour cherries, chopped hazelnuts, or walnuts. Don’t you like dried fruits? Go for fresh once! Apple or pear cubes will bring the bread a more moist and fresh aroma.
Balancing Flavours and Textures
As the German sweet bread is very moist and fluffy, I always add a bit of crunch to it by sprinkling it with decorative sugar (Hagelzucker). Hagelzucker resembles hailstones, and it doesn’t dissolve easily in the oven. It is similar to pearl or coarse decorative sugar.
What to do with the leftovers?
Unlike other German sweet loaves of bread and buns, the Eater Bread stays fresh for up to three days if stored properly. I would be shocked if you had leftovers, but I have a few ideas for you if you do.
My favourite way to use up bread leftovers is to make either German Bread Pudding with Sour Cherries or freeze them for another festive breakfast.
Storage & Reheating
Store the Easter Bread in a paper bag for up to 3 days.
Freeze the Easter Bread for up to 6 months.
Sweet German Easter Bread Recipe
- 250 Milliliter milk
- 80 gram butter
- 21 gram fresh yeast or 7g dry yeast
- 500 gram all-purpose flour
- 100 gram caster sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla paste or 13g vanillin or three drops vanilla extract
- 1 pinch salt
- 100 g chopped almonds
- 100 g raisins
- 100 g chopped candied lemon peel or dry lemon peel
Coating
- 3 tablespoons milk
- 2 tablespoons decorating sugar
- Warm up the milk in a small pot and melt butter.
- Ensure the temperature is not warmer than 45°C (110°F). Add the yeast and let it melt with the whisk.
- Take a large mixing bowl (if using a kitchen machine, use the bowl from your kitchen machine) and mix the flour, sugar, vanilla paste, and salt with a spoon.
- Pour the milk-butter-yeast mixture into the large bowl and knead with a dough hook for at least 5 minutes.
- Add raisins, almonds, and lemon peel, and knead the dough with your hand for 3 minutes until all ingredients combine.
- Set the dough aside for 1 hour. Make sure the place is warm. If you don't have a warm place, let the dough rest in the oven at 30°C (86°F)
- Take the dough out and shape it into a round cake. Cover the dough with a kitchen towel and let it rest for the second time.
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (356°F).
- Make a big cross with a knife at the top of the bread.
- Brush the beard top with milk,
- Sprinkle the bread with decoration sugar.
- Bake the bread for 35 minutes.
Baking for Easter
Easter without delicious Baked Goods wouldn’t be Easter. If you are looking for fluffy Easter Breads and Buns or buttery cookies, you are in the right place.
