Easter Cheese Bread

It seems like an eternity since I've posted here. But with Easter less than 24 hours away, how can I not give cheese the highest praise? This morning I brought a bottle of wine next door to my next door neighbor as an Easter gift. She walked over to her dining room table and handed me a loaf of bread wrapped in tin foil. "It's my mother's recipe for cheese bread," she said. Oh my goodness...she had me at cheese. I couldn't run home fast enough to unwrap it and slice through it. She told me that she has a family tradition of baking several loafs of Easter Cheese Bread just once a year and it is always on the Thursday before Easter Sunday. That would explain the amazing smell coming through our shared wall of our houses two nights ago. And just to make things more interesting, my neighbor once owned a successful Italian restaurant with her brother. They didn't cook for four; they cooked for dozens and that would explain the recipe that she handed to me upon my request:

Easter Cheese Bread

1 ¼ cup oil

15 eggs

14 cups or 4 pounds of flour

3 teaspoons salt

1 tablespoon sugar

1 teaspoon white pepper

3 cups warm water

3 packages yeast

7 cups or 2 pounds of parmigiana cheese

3 teaspoons baking powder

Make a well with dry ingredients and cheese. Put yeast in bowl with sugar and ½ cup warm water. Let sit 10 minutes until bubbly. Then in well, add in beaten eggs, oil and yeast mixture. Knead and mix until combined. Put in greased pot. Grease top of dough. Put wax paper over dough and then a towel. Let rise until double in size. Punch down and divide in to 4 pieces. Shape and put in to greased loaf pans. Let rise until top of pan. Bake at 350 for 40 minutes or golden brown. Brush with egg wash (yolk and water). The egg wash will set with the heat of the bread.

I'm certainly not going to make that large of a quantity. I'm playing with the numbers and cutting it down to a third. That should make about 2 loaves. There are other Easter Cheese Breads on the Internet. I found one here and here. I'm going to go with my neighbors' recipe because it was absolutely outstanding.

Toasted up with a slather of butter and some Cranberry Apple Butter...to die for!


Forget the jelly beans and chocolate bunnies. My guests will be lucky if this bread makes it to the table tomorrow night. Happy Easter!