German Easter Bread (Osterbrot)
Osterbrot (which literally means Easter bread) is an extremely fluffy, moist, and not too sweet German style sweet yeast bread that’s packed with raisins and candied lemon and orange peels. Perfect for Easter brunch or at any time of the year.
Servings: 16 Servings
Equipment
- Stand mixer or handmixer
Ingredients
For the sweet yeast dough
- 500 g (4 cups + 2 tablespoons) plain flour (all purpose flour) plus extra for dusting
- 2 medium eggs Germany, large US room temperature
- 65 g (2.3 oz/ about 1/3 cup) sugar
- 75 g (2.6 oz/ ¼ cup + 1 tablespoon) butter
- 225 ml (7.6 fl.oz/ 3/4 cup + 3 tablespoons milk
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 2 ½ teaspoons dry yeast (7 g (0.25 oz)
- 1 organic lemon
- 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
For the fruits and toppings
- 100 g (3.5 oz) raisins
- 100 g (3.5 oz) candied lemon peels
- 100 g (3.5 oz) candied orange peels
- A handful almond flakes
- about 2 tablespoons pearl sugar (hail sugar)
- 1 egg yolk and 1 tablespoon milk for brushing the breads before baking
Instructions
- Activate the dry yeast: Warm milk in the microwave for a few seconds. You just want the milk to be lukewarm and not hot. Next, put the flour into a large bowl and make a well in the middle. Then pour half of the milk into the center of the flour. Add about 1 tablespoon sugar (from the 65 g (2.3 oz/ about 1/3 cup) sugar) and yeast to the well. Stir well and let the mixture stand for 10 minutes.
- In the meantime, put the butter in the remaining milk in the jar and melt in the microwave. Stir occasionally until butter has melted. You could also use a pot and warm the milk on the stove. Let the butter mixture cool down. Next zest the lemon. All you have to do is cut a parchment paper of the same length as the box grater, place it on the side that isn’t finger friendly and grate.
- Cover the yeast with flour, then add eggs, salt, lemon zest, and the remaining sugar. Start mixing, while adding the lukewarm milk – butter mixture slowly. Add sunflower oil while the dough is busy kneading. Then knead the dough very well.I normally knead my dough like this: If I’m kneading it with the hand mixer with dough hooks, I knead the dough for about 8 minutes at low speed and then for 5 minutes on medium high speed.With the kitchen machine (stand mixer) I knead the dough for 7 minutes at low speed (speed 1, on Bosch kitchen machine) and for 3 more minutes at medium high speed (speed 3). With the hands, I knead the dough for about 10 to 12 minutes.If you’re using a heavy-duty kitchen machine, please knead your dough for maximum 7 minutes in total. Otherwise, you will be overworking the dough.
- Transfer the dough to a greased larger bowl. Cover with cling film and then with a damp kitchen towel. Let rise for about 3 hours at room temperature or until dough has tripled in size.You could also leave the dough in the same bowl that you’ve used to make it. Just rub it with a few drops of oil, turn it well so that it is completely covered with oil and then cover.
- After the first rise transfer the dough onto a dusted working surface. Using a dough scrapper or something similar, divide the dough into two doughs. Gently flatten each dough with your hands and put the raisins, candied lemon, and orange peels in the middle. Now fold and gently knead the fruits into the doughs. Then shape into two round loaf shapes. Place the round bread loaves on a baking sheet lined with a parchment paper. Cover with kitchen towel and let rise for another 30 minutes at room temperature.
- About 10 minutes before the end of the second rise preheat the oven to 180°C (356 °F). Then mix egg yolk with milk. Using a sharp knife that’s greased with oil cut a cross into the top of each bread loaf. Try not to apply a lot of pressure on the breads while cutting. You want to retain the air bubbles in the bread loaves intact so that you’ll have nicely fluffy Easter breads.
- Now brush the bread loaves with egg yolk – milk mixture and sprinkle with pearl sugar and almond flakes. Then bake for about 30 minutes. After baking let the breads cool down for a few minutes and enjoy. These Easter breads can stay moist and fluffy even after 3 days. Just wrap them in a plastic or cover with a clean kitchen cloth or put them in bread box.