Easter Baking
Our favourite time of year! We're spending Easter together and have fabulous brand-new recipe for your long weekend — a Spiced Easter Babka. Dangerously delicious and sure to keep you entertained.
Happy Easter everyone!
We hope your Good Friday is off to a relaxing start and you’re easing into the festivities.
After Rose being away for two years, it’s such a treat for us both to be together. Easter has always been about baking together in our family, and true to form we’re back in the kitchen, this time with an exciting new Easter recipe.
There’s something wonderfully anchoring in the rituals of making yeasty buns or special Easter treats, their sweet smells wafting through the house signifying the special occasion.
The great thing about a baking project at this time of the year is that it doesn’t matter what the weather is like outside, you can have a lot of delicious fun.
We’ve been making Sticky Buns for decades now — these sweet cinnamon scrolls are a mainstay in our Easter and Christmas kitchens, and will always be a family favourite.
Of course, let’s not forget beloved Hot Cross Buns — not only is making your own buns more affordable, but you get the satisfaction of home-baked goodness. You’ll be surprised how easy they are.
A couple of years ago, we wanted to try something new, and developed this fabulous recipe for braided Cardamom Buns, inspired by Swedish kanelbullar. If you’re thinking about trying your hand at these gorgeous buns, make sure to watch this video showing how to braid them — it seems a little complicated, but trust us on this one!
This year, Rose came home and proposed the idea of making a Spiced Easter Babka, so we have spent the week perfecting the recipe (and taste testing) so that we can share something truly miraculous with you all.
One of Annabel’s many talents is meticulously figuring out the mechanics of a recipe — making sure that the result is the easiest, most delicious, foolproof method possible to ensure you all kitchen success!
Babka is a sweet braided bread that originated in the Jewish communities of Poland and Ukraine and is now enjoyed across the globe. We first discovered it in New York and have been firm fans ever since, but up until now had never worked out how to bake it at home. This dangerously delicious sweet brioche bread is such a treat, and perfect for an Easter weekend project. We’ve shared a fun recipe of us baking together, which you can watch here too.
The version we’re sharing today has a decadent chocolate filling that we’ve infused with warming Easter spices and chopped sultanas.
Often babka recipes are made with a low-hydration dough which makes it very difficult to get the butter incorporated at the end. You want the gluten development so the loaf has that pleasing ‘tearing’ quality but if it has got really stretchy and bouncy, the butter doesn’t want to go in. This easy recipe sees most of the flour added at the start and lots of kneading to get the gluten going, and then the eggs and butter added in before the last of the flour. It comes together much more easily this way. The filling is outrageously delicious — the perfect balance of chocolate, spice, and sweetness that says EASTER in just a single mouthful.
You do need a stand mixer with a dough hook to make babka. This dough keeps in the fridge for up to four days and also freezes well (thaw before shaping and cooking). Make one loaf one day and another the next — it spreads the pleasure out over the weekend. Be sure to check the use-by date on your yeast before you start!
Savoury Baking
On the savoury side of things — we also have some yummy ideas! These Spinach & Feta Pinwheel Scones are loaded with just enough greens to make you feel virtuous, and enough cheese to make them moreish (the perfect balance).
Our Three Ingredient Cheese Scones come together in a flash and are so easy to make. These Cheesy Rocket Scones are another winner — we love the way these can be quickly whizzed up in a food processor. You can also make the mixture in advance and freeze it until needed.
Annabel’s mother, Anne was famous for her Sensational Spinach Tart, which she made often. It's still the best we have tasted. It has a denser texture than a quiche and a wonderful vibrant green colour. We have doubled the recipe so you can save one for later — they freeze beautifully. It’s so satisfying to be able to pull one out of the freezer, have guests over for lunch, and you haven’t had to lift a finger.
We love an Easter pie — if the weather is fair enough for a picnic or alfresco meal you might like to make Annabel’s famous Bacon & Egg Pie, or Rose’s yummy Picnic Pie that’s loaded with greens and goodness. Our Herb & Feta Pie from Together is another Easter favourite. If you’re in need of something gluten-free, this Spanish Tortilla is wonderfully easy and has just three ingredients which keeps things simple.
A beautiful Classic Pissaladière is always elegant for lunch, especially when accompanied by an Everyday Green Salad, on the vegetarian things, we have this delicious Caramelised Onion & Goat Cheese Tart. Easy and delicious!
That is everything from us this week! We hope you have a delicious joy-filled long weekend.
With lots of love,
Annabel & Rose xxx
The babka recipe is missing instructions for what to do with the rest of the 1/4c of sugar in the dough recipe after 1 tbsp is used in the yeast mixture.