At Easter you can’t miss a sweet Easter lamb to bring to the table, even better at breakfast to start the day in theme.
There are several options to prepare it; I like to make the lamb composed of many small balls of leavened dough, rolled in pearl sugar for a crunchy and indulgent effect at every bite. To prepare this sweet Easter lamb I used the Molino Merano mix for sweet braid with sourdough starter. With the addition of a few other ingredients like milk and eggs, the dough is ready in minutes and the result is a soft, aromatic leavened bread. Try it, you’ll like it!
If you like Easter sweets, try also these of my recipes:
- Difficulty: Easy
- Rest time: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
- Preparation time: 35 Minutes
- Cooking time: 30 Minutes
- Portions: 1 Piece
- Cooking methods: Oven
- Cuisine: Italian
- Seasonality: Easter
Ingredients
- 4 cups Mix for sweet braid with sourdough starter (Molino Merano)
- 1 lemon (zest)
- 1 cup milk (warm)
- 1 egg
- 1 egg yolk
- 3.5 tbsp butter (soft)
- 1 egg white
- to taste pearl sugar
Steps
To prepare the sweet Easter lamb, mix in the bowl of a stand mixer the sweet braid mix, the grated zest of the previously washed lemon and the warm milk. Add the egg and the egg yolk and knead. Then add the soft butter cut into cubes and continue kneading until the dough is well-developed: it will come away from the sides and bottom of the bowl, wrap around the hook, and be smooth and elastic. In total this will take about 20 minutes.
Of course you can also knead everything by hand.
Shape the dough into a ball and let it rise covered, in a warm place, for 60 minutes.
Put the egg white in a small bowl and whisk it with a fork. Prepare a second small bowl with the pearl sugar.
Take the dough, cut off a piece of about 3 oz and set it aside. Cut the remaining dough into many pieces of about 1 oz each.
Shape each piece into a small ball, then set aside 8 of them.
Dip the balls first in the egg white and then in the pearl sugar so that it sticks to the whole surface.
Arrange the sugar-coated balls on a baking tray lined with parchment paper, side by side, forming a rounded-corner rectangle.
Then take four of the balls you set aside (without sugar) and place them on the lower side to form the lamb’s legs. Then place one on the top right corner to form the tail.Take the larger piece of dough, shape it slightly elongated, and place it on the top left corner to create the lamb’s head. On its sides put two balls, slightly elongated as well, to make the ears.
Finally, take the last piece of dough, divide it into three pieces and form a small ball with each. Dip them in egg white and pearl sugar and place them on top of the head.
Brush all parts not covered with pearl sugar with egg white and place two raisins on the head to make the eyes.
Let rest covered for 20–30 minutes.
Meanwhile preheat the oven to 338°F (170°C, conventional).
After the resting time, bake for about 30 minutes until golden. If it gets too dark, cover with aluminum foil.
Remove the sweet Easter lamb from the oven and let cool or enjoy warm.
Tips
If you like, after baking you can brush the parts without pearl sugar with sugar water. In this case boil 3 tablespoons of water and 1 tablespoon of sugar for a couple of minutes and brush the desired parts of the lamb just out of the oven. If the raisins darken too much in the oven, you can replace them with two fresh raisins.
