Easter Baking with the Ryans: An Annual Family Tradition

Spring Traditions at Easter

We enjoy rituals for our well-being and quality of life. Examples of rituals can be our personal habits such as drinking coffee in the morning, meditating daily or celebrating certain holidays. Wedding ceremonies and birthday parties also consist of a series of customs. In an often uncertain and rapidly changing world, rituals and traditions offer stability and predictability and, with that, the anticipation of an event. They connect us as people with one another and create a sense of community and belonging. They can strengthen social bonds and promote a sense of connectedness within a group or community.

Especially during the holidays, we enjoy many customs that have developed over years or even centuries. At Easter, Easter customs are an opportunity to celebrate spring, symbolize the return of life and share the joy and hope of this season with family and friends. These include, for example:

• Egg coloring and Easter egg hunts: Egg coloring is one of the most well-known Easter traditions. Children often search for hidden Easter eggs in the house or garden, which is a popular game.
• Easter Bunny: The Easter Bunny is a symbol of Easter, especially in many Western countries. He traditionally brings Easter eggs and sweets to children by hiding them in gardens or houses.
• Easter meals: Many families gather for a festive Easter meal, which often includes traditional dishes such as lamb, ham, fish or other regional specialties.
• Easter fires: In some regions, Easter fires are lit to welcome spring and symbolically drive away the darkness of winter.
• Easter decorations: Decorating houses, churches and public places with Easter decorations such as daffodils, rabbit figures and spring flowers is common.

The Ryan's have an Easter bread every year

At the Ryan's, Easter has been a time of family traditions and sweet treats for over 20 years. One of these traditions is baking Easter bunnies and other Easter figures in the form of delicious Easter bread. My children always look forward to this particularly well, and every year each of my three daughters makes her own bunny out of the fluffy yeast dough.

Even as grown-up children, they still enjoy baking and of course eating together. Over the years, many bunnies have been created - from cute Easter bunny faces to standing or sitting bunnies and even bunnies with long ears. Sometimes we even bake sweet Easter eggs to complete the variety of our Easter creations. And the ingredients also vary over the years. Guitard chocolate chips are still very popular for giving the bunnies faces and contours. Every now and then, the delicious chocolate chips are replaced with cranberries. But vanilla extract or vanilla paste is a must-have ingredient.

The individual ingredients are adapted to suit the desired diet. For example, the butter can be replaced with margarine or avocado oil, making the bunny lactose-free or even vegan. Gluten-free flour can also be used instead of wheat flour or spelt flour. Vegan milk alternatives are increasingly being used as an alternative to cow's milk. And then there's the question of what we eat with it? Well, American Heritage has lots of great jams and fruit spreads that are a must on our breakfast table - Wild Maine Blueberry Jam .......Cinnamon Apple Jelly,,,,,, and, quite un-American, Nutella or an alternative nut cream.

Discover our bestselling jams!

For us at Ryan's, baking our delicious Easter bread is not only a culinary tradition, but also an opportunity to spend time together, create memories and share the joy of Easter. It's a great way to spend time as a family and celebrate the joys of spring. We would like to pass on this joy and therefore share our beloved family recipe:

We take:

500 g wheat or spelt flour
42 g fresh yeast
1/4 l lukewarm milk or a plant-based substitute
50 g sugar
1 pinch of salt
75 g butter or margarine
1 egg or egg substitute
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
and milk for spreading and chocolate chips for decorating

We crumble the yeast packet into the flour and add a little lukewarm milk. Then we mix everything together and let the dough stand covered for 15 minutes. Then we sprinkle the sugar and salt on the edge and pour in the remaining milk and the melted butter and the beaten egg. We knead the whole thing into a smooth dough, which we leave to rise for another 30 minutes. Then we roll the dough out to a thickness of 1 cm and cut out bunnies, Easter eggs or other shapes. We decorate the bunnies with chocolate chips or cranberries. Then we coat our yeast molds with milk and bake them at 200 °C until golden brown.

Our favorite products for this recipe:

Overall, Easter baking is not only a culinary tradition for my family and me, but also a time of shared experiences and joy. Every year we look forward to pampering our loved ones with our delicious Easter treats and creating new memories. I hope that you too can discover the joy of Easter baking and that these recipes bring you as much joy and enjoyment as they do us. Happy Easter and have fun baking!

Enjoy,
your Sabine Ryan