Easter Egg Bread

Background: My mom made this bread a few times when I was little and I decided to make it myself this year. It was just as good as I remembered it! It is a wonderfully chewy bread. Grant said that it reminded him of Hawaiian bread. I altered the recipe slightly based on my mom's old recipe, which makes 4 times as much bread (which explains why she made it only a few times--imagine kneading 4 times as much dough at once!).

Originally from: my Mom, as well as here

Serves ~8 (one 1-lb loaf)
Approximate time, from prep to table: ~3 1/2 hours

Ingredients:
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour, sifted and divided (plus up to 1 extra cup for kneading)
1/4 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 (.25 ounce) package active dry yeast (or 2 1/2 tsp)
2/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons butter (canola oil could also work)
2 eggs
Canola oil to coat bowl
5 whole eggs, uncooked, dyed if desired
Cooking spray
2 tablespoons butter, melted ( or 1 egg and 1 Tbsp milk)

Directions:
In a large bowl, combine 1 cup flour, sugar, salt and yeast; stir well. In a small bowl, sift 1 1/2 cups of flour for future use. Combine milk and butter (or canola oil) in a small saucepan (or dish for microwave if you want less pans to wash!); heat until milk is warm and butter is softened but not melted.

Gradually add the milk and butter (or canola oil) to the flour mixture; stirring constantly. Add two eggs and 1/2 cup flour; beat well. Add the remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring well after each addition. When the dough has pulled together, dust it with flour and turn it out onto a heavily floured surface and knead until smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. You will need to add up to another 3/4 Cup of flour while kneading, so don't be shy with the flour!

Lightly oil a large bowl, place the dough in the bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.

Deflate the dough and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Divide the dough into two equal size rounds; cover and let rest for 10 minutes. Roll each round into a long roll about 36 inches long and uniformly thick. Using the two long pieces of dough, form a loosely braided ring, leaving spaces for the five eggs. Seal the ends of the ring together and use your fingers to push the eggs down between the braids of dough.

Place loaf on a baking sheet, coated with cooking spray, and cover loosely with a damp towel. Place loaf in a warm place and let rise until doubled in bulk, about 45 minutes. After about 30 minutes, preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Brush risen loaf with melted butter (or egg and milk, whisked) and bake in preheated oven for about 25 minutes, or until golden and bread sounds hollow when tapped with hand. (Or you could experiment with a pizza stone that has been heating up for at least 25 minutes.)

Note/Tips: This bread is best when fresh out of the oven, but it keeps well if stored in an airtight container. I made this twice on Holy Saturday--one bread with five twists and one with 10 twists. I like the 10 twists better, with an egg in every other twist. Push the eggs deeply into the bread, as I had one egg roll out onto the pan during the baking! The eggs are supposed to hard boil with the bread, but I found that they barely soft-boiled (due to the drastically reduced amount of time needed from the above referenced recipe) and we did not eat them when they came out of the oven. I think that perhaps hard-boiling them beforehand would be best, but am not sure if they would then be over-cooked. I would just consider them a nice Easter decoration and discourage people from eating them. I don't think this bread should be stored in the refrigerator, so I would not recommend eating the hard-boiled eggs after a few hours, anyway. I also do not like that the color on my eggs chipped a little bit during the baking. I think that this is from the perspiration of the cooking eggs, so warm pre-boiled eggs might also solve this dilemma. I like the egg and milk coating best because I think it seals the bread better and the bread will dry out less (if it lasts more than one day, that is).