Tag archive for easter

I wish that I could tell you that these didn’t take the better part of an evening to make and that they totally weren’t worth the trouble. That would be a lie. Truth is, I did spend a good 4 hours in and out of the kitchen mixing, freezing, photographing, shaping, freezing, photographing, freezing, tempering, dipping… and so on. But it was totally worth it.

Growing up, creme eggs were always the Holy Grail of Easter candy. They were soft, creamy and slightly gross, in that intriguing kind of way. How did that gooey yellow centre stay in the middle of the egg? How did it all get inside a chocolate egg? These were questions I wanted to know! Damn Cadbury and all their tricky candy!! They just kept me wanting more.

Although creme eggs don’t hold quite the hallowed spot that they used to in my holiday treat line up, I can’t seem to let Easter pass without one somehow ending up in my grocery basket. This year I have stayed strong, that is until I saw the DYI creme eggs up on Food52. I just couldn’t say no, they used to be a childhood favourite after all. Who doesn’t want to relive fond childhood memories?

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So what sets these guys apart from the 2$ version that you can pick up at just about any store in the city? Um, let’s see. First there is the outer layer of silky rich dark chocolate, gone is the overly sweet milky chocolate. And the filling? The filling is smooth, but not to runny, sweet with a hint of salt (which is sheer genius) and finally there is the slight crunch of the tiny beads of vanilla. All and all a sophisticated take on the classic and you can rest assured knowing that you can pronounce every single ingredient used in the making.

So if you love your creme eggs as much as me and you have a few hours burning a hole in your evening, visit Food52 where Ashley Rodriguez shares the complete recipe and instructions and shape up a batch for yourself. Remember to read the recipe through first! I always like to remind you of this because I often fail to do so. While I didn’t take the time to read the recipe through this time, I did set aside a little time to read some of the comments. You should do this too, I found a lot of the comments to be really helpful. Good luck, and Happy Easter!

No matter what I am baking or prepping in the kitchen, Blaise wants to make a blue version of it. Most often, it’s blue cupcakes. And not just any blue cupcakes, chocolate blue cupcakes. While I am still trying to figure out how to make a dark chocolate cupcake appear sufficiently blue, Easter eggs seemed like the perfect diversion. With the help of a little dye, we could create all the shades of blue he would ever want to imagine. It all started out innocently enough, but little did I realize the complexities of egg dyeing. There were tough decisions to be made, highly saturated liquids to be spilled and room to be made in the fridge for all of those eggs. But back to those eggs…

Around here, we house no sacred Easter bunny myths or traditions. It hasn’t been a careful plan, just a holiday that we have not really spent much time or tradition on. I have always been a fan of a delicious batch of hot cross buns, but I don’t need an occasion for those treats. When it comes to egg decorating, I do fondly remember the tradition as a kid, but I don’t think I’ve revisited that process since my pre-adolescent years. High time, right?

Several weeks back, I found a little mention about making your own Easter egg dye. The colors were lovely—warm and earthy. I don’t quite remember all of the colors pictured, but there was a blue, a yellow and a reddish color that I thought Blaise would like. Plus, I thought it would be the perfect use for a red cabbage that was languishing at the back of the fridge. The question of the dye seemed settled.

But when I got down to the real business of figuring out what we were going to do with all of the eggs, I saw some pretty amazing posts of beautifully dyed eggs. Of course, there were the vegetable-dyed ones that first caught my eye. But then there were the neon eggs and the bright stripes. They were so bright and so cheery that on a recent shopping trip, I all but abandoned my plan of vegetable dyes for a package of glowing neon tablets. But when I got back home and read over the packet, I couldn’t do it. The ingredient list scared me off. The veggie dyes were back on.

What I may have lost in other-worldly egg hues, I made up for in natural ones. I feel particularly lucky in the egg department in that I know people. Yes, that’s right. I get a weekly supply of fresh eggs that I treasure. If I was going to go through the process of making my own egg dye, I was going to color some delicious eggs while I was at it. I even got a special order of a dozen barely blue eggs that already looked Easter-ready. And you can bet we were going to eat them. Hard-boiled eggs are always a big hit at our house. They are easy to throw into a sandwich or a salad and some days, Blaise simply insists on adding one to his meal, whatever it might be. Besides, the prospect of egg salad sandwiches for days certainly didn’t hurt as I was trying to justify all of those eggs cartons taking up space in the fridge with other concerned members of my household.

Making our own dye certainly wasn’t the quickest route for egg dyeing, but we enjoyed the process of watching the colors deepen hour by hour.

And just when I thought my work was done with the blue eggs, that there were no more blue shades to be achieved, Blaise proclaimed that all he really wanted was black. Boys….

Happy Easter!

While there certainly are a lot of colors that you can create at home, I decided to keep it to just three—red, blue and yellow. The great part is that most of these ingredients are common enough that you could easily add them onto your shopping list if you don’t have them already. Add variety by using different colors of eggs and different dipping times to achieve a range of shades. And if you need more variety, you can hop online and find a few more ingredients to round out your color palette.

Vegetable dye

Makes about 4 cups of dye in each color, enough to dye dozens of eggs

1 small head red cabbage
2 pounds beets
3 tablespoons turmeric
Water

Hard boil eggs to your preference and cool.

Make each color in a separate, non-reactive pot.

• To make the blue: Chop cabbage into rough pieces, about 2-inches wide. Place in pot and add just enough water to cover the cabbage.
• To make the red: Cut beets into quarters. Place in a pot and add just enough water to cover the beets.
• To make yellow: Add 4 cups of water to a pot and stir in turmeric.

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Bring each pot to a boil, then reduce heat and let simmer for about 30 minutes. Turn off heat and allow the liquid to cool. Once cool, strain out the vegetable pieces, if any. Place the liquid in a glass bowl or jar and add 1/8 cup distilled white vinegar to each color.

Add hard-boiled eggs to the liquid and allow to sit. One to two hours gives a pale shade. Allow the eggs to sit in the liquid for several hours or overnight for a deep color. Don’t crowd the eggs or you might have light spots where the eggs touch. Place the dye and eggs in the fridge while they sit. Jiggle the jars occasionally to ensure everything gets evenly coated.

Once desired shade is reached, remove eggs from jar. I had the best luck using a second clean jar and pouring the liquid from one jar to the other until it was empty and I could retrieve the eggs. Rinse in cool water and set eggs out on paper towel or a drying rack and let them dry completely. Refrigerate eggs until ready to use.

Last, but certainly not least, these dyes are highly saturated and will stain. Working in the sink seemed to contained the better portion of my splashes, except for the jar of turmeric water that I sloshed all over my kitchen floor. Shh…I don’t think anyone will notice the yellow hue by the sink.

My forays into bread baking started at a young age. Standard production of many loaves of hearty whole grain bread were a weekly occurrence in my childhood. I still fondly recall thick slabs of bread, freshly out of the oven, melting with butter and perhaps dripping a little honey off the corners. At some point along the way, my days of quietly standing by turned into active participation. I’ve been baking something ever since.

One of my first official cookbooks had to have been Baking Bread by Beth Hensperger. While I can’t say that I baked every recipe in the book, I have come mighty close. I started out with the European country breads, moving on through the American breads and settling quite happily into the sweet and celebration breads sections. There was even a picnic section! And even as a high school student, I was planning my weekends around various starters and sponges called for in these recipes. I know, this is saying something about my high school years!

It took awhile, but eventually I found my way to the recipe for hot cross buns. Filled with currants, apricots and citrusy goodness, these fragrant rolls stand out from the crowd. But let’s be honest here – the real standout component to these rolls has to be the icing. It’s true, when you think about hot cross buns, icing is not the first thing that springs to mind. But once you taste these, I think you might at least reconsider.

For me, hot cross buns are not a specific Easter requirement, but more of a spring treat. And that is likely why I try to make a few batches of this recipe before Easter passes me by. But, since we have a little more spring still to come, I hope you’ll find a time to try out this recipe.

Hot Cross Buns with Dried Fruit

Adapted from Beth Hensperger’s book, Baking Bread

It is worth noting that this recipe is nothing short of amazing with Meyer lemons. The season seems to be winding down, but if you can find just one lemon, I think you’ll see what I mean. 

1 cup dried currents
1/2 cup chopped dried apricots
1 tablespoon (1 package) active dry yeast
A pinch of sugar
3/4 cup warm water (105° to 115° F)
1 cup warm milk (105° to 115° F)
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup sugar
3 1/2 to 4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
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1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

Sugar Glaze
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water

Lemon Icing
1 cup sifted powdered sugar
1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest, be more generous if you wish
2 tablespoons lemon juice

Place the dried currants and chopped apricots in a small bowl. Cover with boiling water and let stand for 15 minutes. Drain thoroughly.

In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast and sugar over the warm water. Stir to dissolve and let stand until foamy, about 10 minutes.

Using an electric mixer bowl, or a large bowl, combine the milk, butter, sugar, eggs about 1 cup of the flour. Mix for 1 minute to combine. Add the yeast mixture, dried fruits, spice, vanilla and 1 cup more flour. Beat hard for 1 minute or until well combined. Add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time until a soft dough forms that clears the sides of the bowl. As with any dough, the flour proportions will vary a little, but go sparingly with the additions to keep the dough moist.

Continue to knead, by hand or in a mixer, until the dough is soft and smooth. Push any dried fruit back into the dough if bits fall out. Continue to add flour, if needed, 1 tablespoon at a time. Place the dough in a large greased bowl and cover with a towel or plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm spot until the dough has doubled, anywhere from 1 to 1 1/2 hours.

Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide it into two equal portions. Roll the dough into a 10-inch-long log. Depending on the size rolls you want, cut each log into sections of 9 or 10 pieces. Form each piece into a round bun and place on a parchment-lined baking sheet to rise. Leave about 1 1/2 inches between each roll. Leave uncovered and let rise at room temperature for about 30 minutes, or until roughly doubled in size. While the rolls are rising, preheat the oven to 375º. Once the oven is heated, use a sharp knife to cut an “x” into the top of each roll, taking care not to cut much deeper than 1/2 inch.

Bake in the center of the oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until the rolls are golden brown. You can flip the roll over to check for doneness as well – the bottom should be nicely browned.

While the rolls are baking, prepare the glaze. Combine the sugar and water in a small pan and allow to boil, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Set aside.

Once done, remove the rolls from the oven and arrange on a wire rack. Use a pastry brush to coat with the sugar glaze. While the rolls continue to cool, prepare the lemon icing. In a small bowl, combine the powdered sugar, lemon juice and zest. Beat with a whisk until smooth. The icing will be a bit firm, but this will help with the piping. Place the icing in a small plastic bag and snip a tiny hole in one corner. Pipe the icing into the “x” in the top of each roll. Let the rolls stand for at least 20 minutes for the icing to set.

These rolls are best enjoyed the moment the icing is set, or at least the day they are baked, so share a few with friends and family.