Easter Sweet Bread with Cream and Dry Yeast
Wonderfully fluffy, soft, and appetizing for a celebration. Easter Sweet Bread with Cream and Dry Yeast is not a difficult recipe and tastes somewhat like Italian panettone. If you enjoy moist, rich, sweet baked goods, you will definitely like this version.
Updated : 01 April, 2026
Easy
More than 1 hour.
Ingredients
300 grams
Wheat flour
85 milliliters
Cream
80 grams
Sugar
70 grams
Candied fruit peels
50 grams
Butter
50 milliliters
Orange juice
20 milliliters
Water
4 grams
Dry yeast
2
Eggs
2 tablespoon
Cognac
1 grams
Saffron
1 grams
Salt
Glaze
100 grams
White chocolate
40 milliliters
Cream
Table
Table of volume measurements:
- teaspoon - 5 ml
- dessert spoon - 10 ml
- tablespoon - 20 ml
- glass - 200 ml
Preparation
Step 1
How do you bake Easter sweet bread with cream and dry yeast? First, prepare the starter. Use cream with at least 20% fat and milk with at least 2.5% fat. Sift the flour in advance.
Step 2
Combine the cream and milk and warm them until just lukewarm, no more than 38°C (100°F). Dissolve the yeast and sugar in the mixture. Then add the flour and knead a small ball of dough like this. It should be slightly sticky, but it should not leave residue. Wrap it in plastic wrap and put it in the refrigerator overnight.
Step 3
In the morning, continue making the dough. Sift the flour. This will not only remove any possible debris, but also enrich it with oxygen, making the baked bread lighter. Use high-quality natural butter with 82% fat. It is better not to economize on butter in this kind of baking, because the flavor of the finished bread depends on it a lot. The butter should be cold. Use spices if desired. I used cinnamon, nutmeg, and cardamom. Mix the egg yolks with the sugar.
Step 4
In the bowl of a stand mixer, combine the starter, the egg yolks mixed with sugar, the spices, and the salt. Mix everything well until smooth.
Step 5
Then add the cold butter, cut into small cubes, little by little, with intervals of 10-15 seconds. This may take about 10 minutes. In the end, you will get a soft and elastic dough.
Step 6
You can check the dough for the so-called “gluten window.” When stretched thin until almost transparent, it should not tear. Shape the dough into a ball, place it into a mold greased with vegetable oil, cover it with a cloth, and leave it in a warm place to rise for 2 hours. The dough should double in size.
Step 7
For the filling, I use candied orange peel and dried fruit soaked in syrup with alcohol.
Step 8
Transfer the needed amount to a sieve and let the syrup drain off.
Step 9
Punch down the risen dough. Add the candied fruit and raisins and knead well. Leave the dough to rest for 1 more hour in the same warm place.
Step 10
For baking, use paper baking molds. Mine are 9 cm (about 3.5 inches) high and 11 cm (about 4.3 inches) in diameter.
Step 11
During the resting time, the dough will rise a little more. Divide it into 3 equal parts, 305–310 g each (about 10.8–10.9 oz).
Step 12
Shape each portion into a ball and fill each mold a little more than one-third full.
Step 13
Leave the molds with the dough in a warm place to rise. It took me a little less than 2.5 hours. The dough should double in size. A lot depends on the room temperature. To keep the top from burning and to help the crown rise well, lightly brush it with water or milk.
Step 14
Bake the sweet breads at 170–175°C (338–347°F) until done. It took me 40 minutes. Check for doneness with a wooden skewer. Let the breads cool completely on a wire rack.
Step 15
Decorate them as you like. I used an egg-white glaze, or Swiss meringue, made from 2 egg whites. I also made these cute little nests from dark chocolate and M&M’s candies. The breads turn out moist, rich, and sweet, but not heavy with flour. They smell deliciously of spices and oranges.
Author note
Share the recipe
