There’s a flurry of activity in households across the country as we approach the Easter long weekend. Some of us are preparing bread by hand to honour traditions on Easter Sunday, while others will soon be heading to the supermarket to stock up on hot cross buns. No matter what you’re doing, a culinary journey back in time will inspire you to create a symbolic Easter bread that is perfect for sharing with loved ones.
Hot cross buns
Although they’re available year-round, “Good Friday buns” were initially made for brekky on Good Friday. If you baked them on Good Friday morning and marked them with a cross beforehand, they were said to ward off evil. Good Friday buns eventually became hot cross buns, influenced by the medieval jingle spruiked across cobblestone streets. Fresh hot cross buns were advertised for “one a penny, two a penny” as they tumbled out the oven. The buns sold, the name stuck, and hot cross buns became the nursery rhyme we now can’t get out of our heads.
Italian Easter bread
Rich with symbolism, pane di Pasqua literally means “Easter bread”. It’s typically a bread for Easter Monday with a shape and braided texture that is perfect for sharing with family and friends. But it doesn’t stop there. Italy is lucky enough to have TWO types of bread to celebrate Easter. The second is Colombo di Pasqua, a dove-shaped bread native to Lombardy and referred to as the ‘panettone for Easter’.
Kulich
Across Russia, Ukraine and Moldova, you’ll find a delicious Slavic Orthodox Easter bread called kulich that is well worth the 7+ hours you will need to make it. Now don’t let that put you off. It’s well worth the time and effort because you can make delicious French toast with the bread, too. Kulich is a sweet yeast number that spread across cultures connected to the Byzantine Empire, carrying inside it candied fruits and almonds flavoured with saffron and cardamom. Fancy, huh?! It’s baked in a tall can and glazed, then blessed by a priest and eaten for breakfast.
Tsoureki
Happy is the day that you decide to make tsoureki. Not only is it the most recognisable Easter bread next to hot cross buns, but it’s a labour of love and friendship, too. Tsoureki is soft and fluffy with a rich, distinct flavour thanks to the aromatic spices of mastic and mahlab (known as the celebration spice). Once they’re in the oven, these spices permeate the kitchen with a distinct smell that can be none other than this iconic Greek Easter bread. Our version is a chocolate swirl Easter bread, but if you want to make a traditional tsoureki it’s important to decorate the bread with eggs dyed red to symbolise Christ’s blood.
Simnel cake
Once a medieval bready number boiled, baked and decorated with a ‘crown’, simnel cake was traditionally associated with Mothering Sunday as a welcome respite to the 40-day austere Lenten fast. Layers of fruitcake and marzipan (or almond paste) with 11 marzipan balls on top – representing Jesus’ disciples, minus Judas – are the distinguishing markers of a cake that surely was the precursor to wedding cakes of the ’80s.
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