Italian Anise Easter Bread |
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Prep Time: 480 Minutes Cook Time: 0 Minutes |
Ready In: 480 Minutes Servings: 10 |
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Making this bread every Easter has been a tradition for my family. It is worth the work at least once a year. Great sliced and toasted with butter for breakfast or just plain. I have recently found that using bread flour helps the bread rise better and I have been able to half this recipe without a problem. You can use butter in place of the Crisco if you wish. Please note it should be 3 .25 oz envelopes yeast, it looks in the way the ingredients came up that its just one envelope but it should be three. Ingredients:
12 eggs |
2 1/2 cups sugar |
1/2 cup melted butter |
1/2 cup crisco |
1/2 cup oil |
1/2 cup milk |
3 teaspoons vanilla |
1 cup warm water |
3 (1/4 ounce) envelopes yeast (not rapid rise) |
16 -20 cups flour (almost 5 lbs.) |
3 tablespoons anise seeds |
Directions:
1. In mixer bowl beat eggs. Add sugar, butter, crisco, oil, milk, and vanilla.
2. Dissolve yeast in the warm water. You may want to use a thermometer to be sure the temperature is correct. Let yeast sit until it foams, as in package directions. Add to egg mixture. Add anise.
3. Add flour one cup at a time until mixture is unmanageable. Transfer into LARGE pan (Dishpan works well.) and work in remaining flour, kneading with hands.
4. Knead until you are too tired to knead any more (half hour?) and then oil top of dough ball, cover, and let rise in warm place 6 hours or overnight.
5. Grease 6 loaf pans. Separate dough into 6 parts and knead each again. Cover with towels and let rise in warm place another couple of hours.
6. Bake 1 hour at 275 degrees. Do not underbake or they will be hard as a rock. (Top should be lightly browned.).
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