Easter egg bread

April 7, 1:53 AMProvidence Food ExaminerDonna Diegel

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Easter Egg Bread - Portuguese Sweet Bread

EASTER EGG BREAD, or Portuguese Sweet Bread, is a big round loaf with a shiny "skin" on top. It's loaded with butter, sugar, eggs, milk and vanilla. The Easter surprise is colored or plain, hard bolied eggs placed in the bread for a special treat!

 

Rhode Island Bakeries
Living in Rhode Island can be very tempting to someone who is totally addicted to pastries. There are so many bakeries in my area alone, that it is almost impossible to drive by one without my car turning into the parking lot by itself. Rhode Island is the land of yummy bakeries - all sorts of mouthwatering ethnic bakeries. Italian, Jewish, Portuguese, Greek and American bakeries. Because they all have their own religious traditions, their specialties depends on the season or a particular holiday.

Easter Traditions
Easter has so many traditions that's it hard to know what the original religious foods were. There are Easter Eggs and Bunny Cakes, Roasted Lamb and Baked Ham (where did the pig come from?) and the all-time beloved symbol of the Easter holiday ~ PEEPS! Did you know there's a whole book dedicated to Peeps? I kid you not!

 

Easter Egg Bread
OK, so I'm a hopeless bakery addict. I wait all year long for Portuguese Sweet Bread with Easter eggs. This specialty is made by Portuguese bakeries all over Rhode Island and around the Fall River area of Massachusetts. I remember waiting for my mother to come home from work during the Easter season with a huge Portuguese Sweet Bread. Nestled into the shiny round bread was at least 4 colored hard boiled eggs. I was always amazed at how these eggs made it into the bread. It wasn't until I was much older that I learned they are hard boiled first, then colored - or not - and baked into the sweet dough. It was a real treat to find the eggs as a child, and even more so, now that I'm all grown up!
 

Just a couple bakeries that sell Portuguese Sweet Bread
JoAnn's Bakery, 27 Pike Street, West Warwick, RI, 401-826-2253
Cornerstone Bakery & Restaurant, 1713 G A R Hwy, Swansea, MA, 508-676-1220