40 Amazing Easter Bread Recipes

Braided Lemon Bread Recipe

The perfect recipe for spring. This slightly sweet, lemony, and tender braided bread lands somewhere between brioche and challah. Serve the impressive poppy seed-studded loaf with dinner, use it to for sandwiches, or make an unconventional French toast. 

Blood Orange Poppy Seed Bread Recipe

During the long winter months, you can bemoan the lack of good strawberries in the grocery store, or you can stick with citrus. You may not know it, but citrus (bright, beautiful citrus!) season reaches its peak in January and February, so you best stock up on grapefruit, clementines, and purply-red blood oranges now. Then, you’ll want to make this poppy seed bread.

Like a lemon poppy seed muffin with the volume turned up, blood orange poppy seed bread boasts killer flavor and a stunning color to boot. Poppy seeds add gorgeous speckles and a satisfying crunch, so if you don’t already have some in your spice cabinet, now is the time. We drizzled this quick bread with blood orange glaze, but a slice would be just as good with a big ol’ plop of whipped cream or Greek yogurt.  

Blood Orange Poppy Seed Bread

Classic Banana Bread Recipe

This healthier take on banana bread uses yogurt instead of butter, but it's just as moist and indulgent as classic recipes. This banana bread recipe isn't just easy. It's also highly customizable and can adapt to a number of flavors and substitute ingredients. Banana bread should form a crack down the center as it bakes--a sign the baking soda is doing its job. Serve toasted with a smear of cream cheese, Greek yogurt, or peanut and top with mixed nuts, if desired. You can even customize your bread with a crunchy streusal topping that the kids will love.

This Whole-Wheat Braided Egg Bread Is Perfect for Easter Recipe

Our beautiful Easter centerpiece bread offers a healthier take on the classic egg- and butter-enriched bread. It’s made completely with white whole-wheat flour and less added sugar (in this case, honey) than many traditional recipes. Our techniques and ingredient choices leave you with a soft, fluffy, lightly sweet bread that’ll garner raves: The soaking step at the beginning allows the dense flour to hydrate more fully, resulting in a more tender bread, and the vital wheat gluten—which you’ll find near the yeast and flour in well-stocked supermarkets—aids in tenderness as well. The colored eggs are decorative, though you could eat them if you’d like (they’ll be overcooked). If they discolor from baking, simply twist to remove them, and replace with more vibrant eggs. The finished bread is gloriously large and serves a crowd. If you have leftovers, try slicing and toasting for breakfast—or using for French toast or bread pudding.

Tuscan Pignoli-Orange Zucchini Bread Recipe

Got a boatload of zucchini? A loaf of so-simple quick bread is a delightful, kid-friendly way to put it to use. With bright citrusy notes, toasty pine nuts, and a delightful texture delivered by the blend of semolina and almond flours, this Italian-inspired uptake on your typical zucchini bread is sure to impress. 

Raspberry Braid Loaf Recipe

This impressive braided loaf is a show-stopping addition to any springtime table. For more incredible bread recipes, check out  Zoë Francois and Jeff Hertzberg’s Holiday and Celebration Bread in Five Minutes a Day.

Cranberry Pull-Apart Bread with Orange-cream Cheese Icing Recipe

The entire family will love the sticky-fingered fun of tearing apart these sweet layers filled with tangy cranberries and bright orange zest. The recipe makes two loaves of bread; give one as a gift, and take the other to brunch.

Easy Everything Dinner Rolls Recipe

To make your own everything bagel seasoning mix for this recipe, combine 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, 1 tablespoon poppy seeds, 1 tablespoon dried minced onion, 2 teaspoons dried minced garlic, and 1 teaspoon coarse salt in a small bowl.

Hot Cross Buns Recipe

With less heft and more flavor and fluff, these delicate Hot Cross Buns deserve attention all year long. A hint of warm spices balances a sweet glaze to finish off these Easter rolls.

Banana-Oatmeal Bread Recipe

Sweet Portuguese Rolls Recipe

Sesame-Cashew Zucchini Bread Recipe

Got a boatload of zucchini? A loaf of so-simple quick bread is a delightful, kid-friendly way to put it to use. Incredibly rich in toasty flavor, this nutty twist on classic zucchini bread was a fast favorite in the test kitchen. If you don’t have cashew butter on hand, feel free to use peanut butter or almond butter for the creamy glaze instead—either would be equally delicious. 

Powdered Sugar Donut Monkey Bread Recipe

Featuring mini powdered sugar donuts, this whimsical twist on monkey bread is the perfect sweet centerpiece for a casual brunch get-together. 

Rosemary Focaccia with Stewed Grapes and Olives Recipe

Miso Banana Bread with Yuzu Glaze Recipe

Grapefruit-Pistachio Cinnamon Rolls Recipe

These gooey and gorgeous homemade cinnamon rolls are a vibrant uptake on those classic canned orange rolls Mom would break out for special occasion breakfasts. Never made sweet rolls from scratch before? Trust us, the dough is far easier to make and work with than you might think. And with a soft pink colored grapefruit-cream cheese glaze and a decadent filling featuring pistachios, dark brown sugar, fresh ginger, cardamon, and cinnamon, these morning glories are sure to steal the show at any brunch gathering. If you want to prep them ahead, simply follow the recipe through step 6 the night before and pop your rolls into the fridge; just be sure to bring them to room temperature the following day before baking and glazing.

Parker House Rolls Recipe

Buttery, yeasty heaven you can enjoy at brunch, dinner, or whenever. 

Cream Cheese Pastries Recipe

These gorgeous homemade pastries look like they just arrived from a bakery.

Homemade Dinner Rolls Recipe

Soft, tender, pillowy, and buttery. What's not to love? Once you go homemade, it's hard to go back to store-bought dinner rolls. 

Herbed Biscuits Recipe

Two key techniques make these whole-grain biscuits light and fluffy: smashing the butter into the flour mixture with your fingers, and folding the dough to create layers.

Crumpets Recipe

Skip the crumpets that you can find in the refrigerated section at the grocery store, because these are way better. If you don't have English muffin rings, you can use a cleaned can of tuna, as long as the top and bottom are removed. Serve these super simple treats with butter, assorted jams, a drizzle of honey, and of course, hot tea.

Strawberry Kuchen Recipe

The Southern dessert canon is loaded with sweet treats that represent cultural influences that have swept through our region, specifically in Kentucky, Louisiana, and Texas. As a result, we’ve been spoiled by a number of treats including kuchen, a German word meaning “cake.” In her book, Cake: A Slice of History, food historian Alysa Levene explains that German immigrants were fond of social occasions that called for coffee and cake. “The German style of kaffe und kuchen was part of Irma Rombauer’s family heritage and explains the heavy presence of German cakes in The Joy of Cooking,” she writes. While some types of kuchen are more bread-like and made with a yeasted dough, our version has a tender, fluffy crumb and a dimpled top covered with strawberries and almonds.

Monkey Bread Babka with Nutella Glaze Recipe

When asked about her inspiration for this monkey bread babka, James Beard Award-winning pastry chef Sherry Yard explained, "I'm a Brooklyn gal. I grew up with babka." But this isn't any old babka recipe. Served at the Tuck Room Tavern in Los Angeles, California, "Our dish brings babka it to a whole new level, topped with a cinnamon streusel, and we pour mocha hazelnut sauce over the top," Yard said. The dish is designed to be shared, as is everything on the brunch menu at Tuck Room. "I created the menu with shared dishes to start your brunch with, from the bite size smoked salmon popovers to the latke fries and, of course, our monkey bread."

Babka, a sweet pastry made by twisting together pieces of dough, can be a notoriously challenging for home cooks to make. And this recipe for monkey bread babka isn't for beginners. (You'll definitely need a stand mixer, for starters.) But that shouldn't deter an adventurous home baker from trying their hand at this sharable pastry for a weekend brunch. Yard has some tips for folks wanting to make this dish at home for a crowd. "Keep the filling 1 inch from the border," she noted, and emphasized the importance of scattering the filling evenly. "When rolling keep in small turns and keep it tight," Yard added. 

Even if your monkey bread babka doesn't come out looking gorgeous, it'll still be delicious. Oh, and be sure to drizzle on the hazelnut chocolate sauce right at the end, ideally in front of your guests for maximum chocolatey impact.

Monkey Bread Babka with Nutella Glaze

First, make the brioche dough.

Once the dough is ready and done proofing, it's time to make the cocoa-sugar dust, streusel topping, and prep the chocolate filling. (All you have to do is put these ingredients in bowls, mix them up until combined, and set aside until you need them.)

Now make the Nutella glaze.

You're almost there! It's time to put it all together.

Boysenberry Danishes Recipe

Even if you're a baking newbie, you can turn these out with ease, thanks to frozen puff pastry. To keep them from sticking, remove the pastries from the pan right after baking.

Greek Easter Bread (Lambropsomo) Recipe

In this symbolic, traditional Greek Easter recipe, dyed hard-cooked eggs are placed on the bread in the shape of a cross.

Kulich Recipe

After being iced, the bread is topped with raisins to form the letters XB, meaning "Christ has risen."

Peanut Butter and Jelly Babka Recipe

Hanukkah is upon us. While oil is no doubt the star of the festival of lights (if you need me this week, I’ll be under a pile of crispy, golden latkes), you’ve got to make room for some sweet stuff. Warm sufganiyot oozing with jelly are traditional when it comes to Hanukkah desserts—more oil, duh—but if you’ve ever made doughnuts from scratch, you know they can be overwhelming. This year, why not open up your kitchen to some other Jewish treats, like babka? 

Shannon Sarna, author of the new cookbook Modern Jewish Baker, knows that frying and stuffing a batch of sufganiyot can be a little too much for a home cook, especially for those who are preparing a Hanukkah meal for the same evening. A veritable encyclopedia of Jewish baking, Sarna is often asked by readers and friends alike what they should make to accompany the latkes at their Hanukkah feast. Sarna’s recommendation for Hanukkah treats? “I love to serve babka,” she says. Sarna thinks the filled, twisted, and baked bread is “the perfect sweet treat to enjoy after some rich, fried latkes."

While classic Jewish babka are filled with cinnamon and chocolate, Sarna proposes a more breakfast-oriented twist that’s a perfect swap for sticky-sweet sufganiyot: peanut butter and jelly. 

While sufganiyot are pretty much a classic jelly doughnut, PB&J babka reminds Sarna of another nostalgic treat. “It’s like a sweet peanut butter and jelly sandwich that sends me straight back to my childhood lunches,” she writes in her book. Sarna recommends creamy peanut butter and raspberry jam in this recipe, but notes that any combination of nut butter and jelly will taste great.

Peanut Butter and Jelly Babka

Excerpted from Modern Jewish Baker by Shannon Sarna. Copyright © 2017. Used with permission of the publisher, Countryman Press. All rights reserved.

Maple-Pecan Sticky Buns Recipe

Enjoy Maple-Pecan Sticky Buns without skimping on size. Our secret is a low-fat roll mix that creates extra indulgent--and easy--sticky buns. Mornings just got brighter!

Danish Cinnamon Buns Recipe

Danish model, TV presenter, and mother of three Caroline Fleming knows a thing about hygge, that Nordic philosophy of living well. As she writes in the introduction of her first English-language cookbook <em>Cook Yourself Happy: The Danish Way</em>, the Danish word encapsulates more than just a feeling of being warm and fuzzy by the fire. “For us Danes,” she explains, hygge, “means being in a warm and cozy environment, being safe and secure as a child, knowing you are loved and supported unconditionally, never working too hard or too many hours, thereby never sacrificing time with your family, which comes first in our world.” And what better way to ring in the change in seasons and revel in all that hygge has to offer than with a recipe from Fleming’s childhood: cinnamon buns, also known as kanelsnegle in Danish.

This recipe is inspired by Fleming’s grandmother, who would make a big batch of buns when she visited. “My sister and I would eat these every day when we got back from school, and also—if we were lucky—for breakfast,” she writes in her cookbook. “Granny baked these again just before she left and froze them in smaller batches, which is such a good idea as these buns truly are the most heavenly snack for children, both big and small.”

Freezing these cinnamon buns is an easy way to have a little dose of coziness anytime you want. “I usually freeze them in bags of eight and take them out the evening before, when using them for a weekend breakfast or in the morning if using them for an after-school snack,” explains Fleming in an email, noting that she warms them in the oven at about 350°F.

But really, she explains, “For me the buns are best when you really spend time on kneading the dough, feeling with your hands all the love you have in your heart. The butter sugar and cinnamon mixture is easy to spread using your fingers or a rubber spatula.” Though Fleming loves eating these buns at Christmas, “because of the cinnamon and the scent they fill the house with,” there’s nothing stopping you from enjoying these easy-to-make cinnamon buns all year-round—or anytime you want to feel a little bit cozier or closer to family.

Kanelsnegle, or Cinnamon Buns

Sausage-Stuffed Honey Buns Recipe

These sweet and savory rolls are inspired by the Howard family's love of sausage biscuits with muscadine preserves.

Best-Ever Sticky Buns Recipe

These ooey-gooey, pecan-topped cinnamon rolls live up to their name. Paige and her mother prepare the dough on Christmas Eve and bake the sticky buns first thing in the morning. Bonus: Everyone enjoys waking up to the sweet smell of cinnamon and brown sugar on Christmas Day.

Pão de Queijo Recipe

Comparable to gougères, these light and cheesy buns feature a golden-crispy exterior and delightfully spongy center. This tasty gluten-free bread is best enjoyed warm from the oven, and is a delicious addition to the breakfast table (and it also makes for an excellent afternoon snack). Tapioca starch comes from cassava, a brown starchy tuber also known as yuca (not yucca) and is commonly labeled tapioca flour, tapioca starch, cassava starch or manioc flour. The starch can either be dried for sweet tapioca (polviho doce), or fermented (polviho azedo)—which is what you want for this recipe. This slightly sour starch is what gives pão de queijo  it’s signature chewy texture and a thicker crust as opposed to the unfermented variety. If you have trouble finding this variety, Bob’s Red Mill makes a tapioca flour/starch that is not fermented, but will make a fine substitute, if need be. Traditionally, pão de queijo is made with Minas cheese, a salty, aged, and slightly soft cow’s milk cheese, but a combination of Parmigiano-Reggiano and sharp white cheddar makes a great, easily obtained, swap for this recipe. You’ll use a similar method to making a pate a choux dough for this bread. When stirring in the tapioca starch, the mixture will be very dry, but keep stirring until it is incorporated before transferring to the mixer. The dough will look scrambled after beating in the eggs, but should come together a bit more once the cheese is added. Keep in mind, it’s super helpful to spray your scoop with cooking spray after scooping each ball of dough. For this recipe, we start the oven temperature high in order to help the bread puff up, but dropping the temperature allows it to cook through without getting overly brown.

Copycat Texas Roadhouse Rolls with Cinnamon-Honey Butter Recipe

Texas Roadhouse’s buttery-sweet rolls are cherished far and wide for good reason—they’re delicious. And now, you can enjoy a fresh, warm batch at home, anytime you please.