Easter Bread

Ingredients

• 5 Farmhouse Eggs
• 2 lbs all-purpose flour
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 2 sticks butter, melted
• 1 1/2 cups milk, warmed to 110 degrees F
• 4 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 packages active dry yeast
• 1 pinch of salt
• 1 Farmhouse egg, hard-cooked & dyed
• 1/4 cup sesame seeds

Preparation

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Dissolve yeast in heated milk.
3. Add melted butter to milk/yeast mixture once it is cooled.
4. Beat eggs, vanilla, salt and flour together; add milk mixture and blend well until dough forms.
5. Turn out dough on floured surface and knead well, approximately 5 minutes.
6. Place dough in large bowl coated with cooking spray; cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place for approximately 2 hours.
7. When dough has risen, punch down and allow to rise again for 1 hour.
8. Remove dough from bowl and shape: You can divide dough into thirds and braid. Curl dough around to form a ring and place in a greased and floured 9″ round baking pan. Or, you may just leave dough in a long braid and bake on a greased baking sheet.
9. Sprinkle top of dough with sesame seeds and place dyed hard-cooked egg in center of bread ring, or in one end of the bread braid (you may add more eggs as you like).
10. Bake in a 350 degree oven for approximately 45 minutes or until bread is golden brown.