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5 from 1 vote

Easter Bread with Creme Patissiere

This Easter Bread is super moist and light. It has a delicate orange blossom aroma. It’s decorated with silky vanilla pastry cream and colored easter eggs. This is a must for your Easter baking!
Prep Time50 minutes
Cook Time35 minutes
Rising and cooling time4 hours 30 minutes
Total Time5 hours 55 minutes
Course: Snack, Treat
Cuisine: Argentine, French, Italian
Keyword: custard, easter dessert table, easter eggs, eggs, mini eggs, oragnge blossom, sweet bread, vanilla, vanilla pastry cream
Servings: 12 slices

Ingredients

For the sponge:

  • 100 g All purpose flour
  • 60 ml Warm milk
  • 8 g Instant Yeast/ 24g fresh yeast
  • 15 g Honey 1 tbsp

For the dough:

  • 40 g Granulated sugar
  • Zest of ½ lemon
  • 150 g All purpose flour
  • ½ tsp Salt
  • 1 Egg
  • 1 Egg yolk
  • 10 g Ron It can be another liquor or milk
  • 1 tsp Orange blossom water
  • 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
  • 60 g Unsalted butter Soft

For the egg wash:

  • 1 Egg
  • 1 tbsp Milk
  • 1 pinch Salt
  • 1 tsp Sugar

For decoration:

  • 1 batch of Creme Patissiere see recipe below
  • Mini eggs
  • Pearl sugar
  • Dried strawberry powder optional

Royal icing:

  • 100 g Powdered/ Icing sugar
  • ½ Egg white 15g
  • 2 tsp Water or lemon juice

Instructions

Creme Patissiere:

  • Make it a day in advance if you prefer to cool it in the fridge. Or, make it while the dough rests. In that case, cool it down with an ice water bath. See the recipe below.

For the sponge:

  • Mix all the ingredients and form a dough. Cover and let rest at room temperature for half an hour.

For the dough:

  • Mix the sugar with the lemon zest with your hands until getting moist sugar.
  • In a bowl or on the counter, mix the sugar with the flour and salt. Form a well in the center. Place the rest of the ingredients in the well, except the butter. Also, add the sponge (cut into small pieces). Work with your hands until you get a dry dough. You can do this by hand or with the stand mixer using the dough hook attachment.
  • Add the soft butter in two parts and knead until the dough is smooth 10 to 20 minutes.
  • Make a bun and let it rest, covered until doubled in size, for about an hour.
  • While the dough rests, make the creme patissiere and let it cool. See the recipe below.
  • Punch down the dough. Make a hole in the middle and stretch with your hands until getting a big donut shape.
  • Place the dough in a buttered savarin mold or a buttered tray. Let it rest covered until doubled in size, 1 to 2 hours.
  • Make the egg wash by mixing all the ingredients with a fork. Brush the dough with the egg wash. Bake in a preheated oven at 350°F (180ºC) until lightly golden, for 20 minutes. While the bread is baking, set a piping bag with a star tip and fill it with the creme patissiere.
  • Remove the bread from the oven, wait 5 minutes and unmold it onto a clean baking tray. Decorate it with the pastry cream making a zigzag pattern on top. Bake again for 10 more minutes, until golden brown.

Decorations:

  • For the royal icing, whisk all the ingredients together until firm and glossy. Place it in a small piping bag, and drizzle it on top of the bread. You can also use melted chocolate instead of icing.
  • Decorate the bread with mini eggs, pearl sugar, and strawberry powder. The bread has to cool down before putting the decorations on.