So Which Easter Bread Is Your Favorite?

That is the question that I pose to myself each year. Which Easter bread do I like best? And the answer is that I like them all. And I enjoy them all. There are a couple of things in life that I cannot stop eating, that I lose all control of when it’s on a table in front of me. One of those things is struffoli which was the subject of my Christmastime blog. The other thing is Easter bread. I start off cutting a little wedge to have with my tea. I try to eat it slowly, to savor each bite, but before I know it that wedge is gone and I’m forced to cut another piece. And so it goes.

After Easter dinner each year when we were little, my siblings and I would visit our Aunt Angie, Uncle Wee Wee and Uncle Tommy up the block. My Aunt Angie always bought us an Easter bread from Court Pastry. She would cut the string on the white box with the blue lettering with the largest kitchen knife I’d ever seen. Then she would lift the bread out which was really shaped like a cake with colored eggs and cut us a slice with the same knife. It was part of our Easter ritual, along with my Uncle Tommy asking us how the Easter bunny was. We hadn’t always known that what my mom passed off as chicken was actually rabbit, a very traditional dish from Ischia, the town where my grandfather was born. 

The bakeries in our neighborhood make sweet bread for Easter which is usually braided into a ring or a basket, lightly glazed and topped with colorful nonpareils. They may also have hardboiled eggs nestled inside the braid. My mom worked in two different Carroll Gardens breadstores. This meant there was never a shortage of Easter bread in our house. Back in the 80’s and 90’s, she worked at La Barbera Bakery on Henry Street. They made beautiful Easter bread which was prominently displayed in the window. Some loaves were in the shape of giant crosses. I would always bring a large loaf to work to share on Holy Thursday. That didn’t always work out too well for my Jewish co-workers because Passover invariably coincided with Holy Week and they would not be able to eat bread. After LaBarbera closed, my mom started working at Caputo’s on Court Street. They also make a great Easter bread with a soft, silky texture and a nice sweet glaze. My cousin Maria’s wedding was on Easter Saturday a few years back and since my siblings were not coming back to Brooklyn for Easter dinner, it was my job to pick up the bread orders and we filled the trunk of our car with loaves of Easter bread (and my mom’s pizza rustica) for them to take back to the burbs. 

In addition to sweet Easter bread, the local Italian bread bakeries also make a special lard bread for Easter. These are savory, crispy loaves studded with salami, provolone, and lots of pepper and shaped into rings. The Easter lard breads may also contain white hardboiled eggs. One year, my mom bought her own provolone and salami and gave it to a bakery that shall remain nameless. She asked them to use her ingredients to bake a very special, very large lard bread for Easter Sunday. On Easter morning, she sent us to the bakery to pick it up and, lo and behold, there was no special lard bread. We returned home, shaking in our Easter shoes, to deliver this news to my mother. I don’t remember how she handled it, but I’m sure she straightened it out. 

I start eating my annual fill of Easter bread on Holy Thursday which is when I pick up a few of the individual egg baskets from Caputo. Then on Good Friday which is supposed to be a day of fasting, I try to stretch out a single egg Easter bread to last over breakfast and lunch. “Try” is the key word here. On my way home from Good Friday services or while on the annual Good Friday Procession route, I pick up a loaf of Mazzola’s Easter bread. Mazzola uses anisette flavoring in theirs and it is not too sweet; you can smell the wafting scent of anisette for blocks. I might have a little piece of that loaf as soon as the fast is broken, around midnight, and then again for breakfast on Saturday. Then on Saturday afternoon, after helping to decorate Sacred Hearts/St. Stephen Church for the Easter Vigil, we are usually treated to a huge basket of warm, homemade Easter bread baked by the lovely and devoted Francesca Reca. And finally on Easter Sunday morning, I am sure to have fresh loaves of both sweet and lard bread on my table with a bowl of colored eggs, my mom’s pizza rustica and some strawberries.

I mentioned to my brother, Frankie, that I saw a simple recipe in my latest Food Network magazine for Easter bread. He replied that he was not interested, not at all. Why would anyone bother when we have such a selection of great Easter bread in our own backyard? So pick up some Easter bread; wherever you buy it, you are sure to enjoy it. Buona Pasqua a tutti!

You can find Easter bread at the following Carroll Gardens stores:

Caputo Bakery, 329 Court Street, Brooklyn, 718-875-6971

Mazzola Bakery & Cafe, 192 Union Street, 718-643-1719

Court Pastry, 298 Court Street, 718-875-4820

F. Monteleone Bakery & Cafe, 355 Court Street, 718-852-5600