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Easter proper begins with Good Friday (also called Holy Friday or Great Friday), this being the Friday before Easter and commemorates the commemorates the crucifixion and death of Christ. It has long been traditional to eat hot cross buns on Good Friday and below are three recipes for this sweet, fruity bread:
Hot Cross Buns
Hot Cross Buns With Cream Cheese Frosting
Lemon Cross Buns
Bermudan Hot Cross Buns
On the South Coast of England and Especially in Devon and Cornwall it's been traditional to serve a fish pie as the evening meal on Good Friday. Below is a link to the recipe for this pie:
The evening of Easter Saturday is traditionally time to decorate eggs or to make Easter eggs and Easter biscuits (cookies) which are then hidden around the house in preparation for the easter egg hunt on Sunday morning. Below are a few recipes for Easter eggs and biscuits:
Bunny Biscuits
Easter Biscuits
Glazed Easter Biscuits
Easter Bunny Biscuits
Koulourakia (Greek Easter Biscuits)
Easy Easter Praline Cookies
Gingerbread Easter Bunny Biscuits
Easter Sunday was traditionally important as the time for Easter services. It is also the day for traditional Easter hunts for eggs and biscuits. Easter Sunday is the day for the main Easter meal and below are some suggestions for an Easter-themed dinner.
Snacks
Certain snacks, such as tansys have been an essential parto of the Easter celebrations for centuries. Often, they were flavoured with bitter herbs as a sign of penitence and this Easter Tansy recipe goig back to the 15th century is a classic example of the fare:
Breakfast
This is more a modern than an ancient tradition, but Easter breakfasts have gained prominence in recent years and here are some classic examples:
Easter Brunch Sausage Strata
Easter Frittata
Starters
Deviled Eggs II
Deviled Eggs II
Bunny Salad
Easter Egg Starter
Easter Egg Salad
Soups and Salads
Bavarian Herb Soup
This is a very tarditonal soup and hearkens back to the time when bitter herbs were traditionally eaten at Easter in Christian countries as a sign of penitence.
Mayiritsa (Greek Easter Soup)
Polish Easter Soup
Minestra siciliana di Pasqua (Sicilian Easter Soup)
Main Course
Lamb, of course, is the traditional Easter meat par excellence, with its association with the Jewish Passover. Roast lamb being the traditional meal. But below are a few variants on this old stalwart that you may like to try:
Roast Lamb With Apple Tartlets
Easter Leg Of Lamb With Apricots
Easter Greek Lamb
Ellenike arnie aiga Paschast (Greek Easter Lamb or Kid)
These days roast hams are gaining popularity during the Easter meal. Here are some recipes for you to make your own roast hams:
Easter Ham
Easter Ham Slice
Honey Glazed Easter Ham
Easter with Peachy Cinnamon Glaze
Fruit-glazed Easter Ham
Easter Ham with Rhubarb Sauce
Fowl such as Chicken and turkey are becoming popular these days. Here are recipes for chicken and turkey dishes, including the ever-popular roast turkey:
Easter Spring Chicken
Maple-Glazed Roast Turkey Breast With Cornbread Stuffing
The Ultimate Roast Turkey
If you would like to try something new, then have a go at these recipes:
Easter Brisket
Hareless Potpies
Ukrainian Easter Ham
Easter Ham Pie
Easter Savoury Breads
The breaking of bread is a traditional part of the Jewish passover meal an this has survived in the Christain tradition, though most Easter breads are sweet rather than savoury. The recipe below, therefore is for a rather rare savoury Easter cheese-based bread.
Romano Cheese Easter Bread
Dessert
Easter Ledge pudding is a truly ancient kind of dessert. It's been around probably from ancient times but became associated particularly with Easter during the Middle ages. Serve this as a dessert and bring a note of ancient Easters to your meal.
Easter Ledge Pudding
Here are other Easter-associated desserts:
Easter Almond Pudding
Easter Grain Pie
Syrni Pyrih (Easter Cheesecake with Sultanas)
Easter Rice Pudding
Surprise Easter Gelatine Dessert
Easter Trifle
Sweet Breads and Cakes
Sweet breads are particularly associated with Easter. Here are a selection for you to bake:
Chocolate Bunny Bread
Tsoureki
Easter Rolls
Pane di Pasqua (Italian Easter Bread)
Paskalya Çöreği (Turkish Easter Bread)
Though Saffron originates from Greece, saffron cakes and small saffron buns were traditionally eaten with clotted cream in Devon and Cornwall during the Easter period, most especially on Easter Sunday:
Easter Sunday Saffron Cake
Resurection Rolls are sweet rolls baked with marshmallows in the centre. As the bread bakes the marshmallows dissolve into the bread, leaving the roll hollow in the centre... just like Christ's tomb on the third day:
Resurrection Rolls
There are many versions of the following classic plaited Easter bread, which is also known as 'Easter Crown Bread'. This recipe is for the simplest version, which is a plain bread studded with eggs. Other versions have flavourings, typically candied peel and aniseed. The eggs studded in the plaited bread echo the crown of thorns whilst the eggs are also symbols of resurrection and re-birth.
Braided Easter Bread
Easter Crown Bread
There are also other traditional Easter cakes for you to make:
Cathedral Windows
Chocolate Nest Cake
Easter Cake
Easter Fruit Cake
Easter Lamb Cake
Easter Party Cake
Hippity Hop Easter Bunny Cake
Bakery Bunny Cake
Lemony Easter Sponge Cake
Easter Egg Hunt Carrot Cake
Easter Dawn Cake
Daffodil Easter Cake
La Pastiera di Grano (Neapolitan Easter Cake)
Simaya Pashka (Easter Cheese Cake)
Kulich (Russian Easter Cake)
Paska Babka (Easter Babka)
Houska (Bohemian Easter and Christmas Cake)
Lamb Mould Cake
No Crust Easter Pie
Easter Pecan Cake
Strawberry Easter Pie
Cheese Paska
Pane della colomba di Pasqua (Italian Easter Dove Bread)
Easter White Chocolate and Lime Cheesecake
The following are modern recipes for cupcakes, but they're nice and something you can get the kids involved in making:
Birds' Nest Cupcakes
Easter Cupcakes
Easy Easter Bunny Cupcakes
Easy Easter Bunny Icing
For something different, the following is a recipe for a traditional jam tart topped with egg meringue in the shape of a nest that's filled with marzipan eggs:
Easter Nests
Sweets and Candies
The tradition of sweet egg-shaped candies goes back to the Middle Ages, though the giving of chocolate eggs is a rather modern development:
Almond Macaroon Nests
Bird Nests
Bird Nests with Jellybeans
Bird Nests II
Cherry Nut Easter Egg
Chocolate-covered Easter Eggs
Chocolate-covered Marshmallow Eggs
Easter Chocolate Cream-filled Eggs
Chocolate Eggs
Coconut Easter Eggs
Creamy Easter Eggs
Easter Egg Candies
Easter Nest Treats
Easter Peanut Butter Eggs
Marshmallow Easter Basket
Easy Easter Cut-outs
Easy Elegant Easter Eggs
Easter Eggs with Peanut Butter Yolks
Coconut Cream Easter Eggs
Eggsquisite Easter Baskets
Fruit and Nut Easter Eggs
Marshmallow Easter Bunnies and Chicks
Marshmallow Easter Eggs
Cherry Nut Easter Eggs
Miniature Easter Candy Bars
Rainbow Mallow Eggs
Rice Krispies Easter Eggs
Panorama Easter Eggs
M&Ms Crispy Easter Eggs
Chocolate Fudge Easter Eggs
Sugar Eggs
Home-made Creme Eggs
Coconut Easter Eggs
Quick-as-a-Bunny Easter Egg Nests
Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday and formerly marked the beginning of a week of secular celebration though this was reduced to only one day during the 19th century. Events on Easter Monday include egg rolling competitions and, in predominantly Catholic countries, dousing other people with water which, at one time, had been holy water blessed the day before at Easter Sunday Mass and carried home to bless the house and food.
In past times the Easter season lasted from Easter itself to the end of lent. One of the major festivals during this period was mid-Lent Sunday (now Mothering Sunday) where he devout parishioners went to the Mother Church of the parish, or the Cathedral of the diocese, to make their offerings. Sometime in the 17th Century the day became the festival of human motherhood when the whole family met together and apprentices and servants were given the day off – probably the only holiday in the year – and took flowers gathered from the hedgerows and, sometimes the gift of a simnel cake to their mothers from their employers. This is how Simnel cake became associated with Easter.
Though Simnel cake is now an Easter cake it began as a cake for Mothering Sunday. The cakes themselves are known from Medieval times and it's likely that the word 'Simnel' itself derives from the Latin simila, meaning fine as the wheat flour from which the cakes were made was the finest milled at the time. All Simnel cakes tend to be very rich but some are simple, some use yeast doughs and some use a creamed mixture. The recipe below is for a 'Shrewsbury Simnel'. Basically flour, spices and fruit. All Simnel cakes are covered in white almond paste and decorated with 11 almond paste balls (all the apostles with the exception of Judas).
Originally Simnel cake was a case of hard pastry, colored gold with saffron and filled with all types of dried fruit. In later years the fruit filling became a fruitcake and the pastry was replaced by marzipan.
The original Medieval Simnel Cake (actually a pie) is given below:
Medieval Simnel Cake
Below are two modern recipes for Simnel case, the frist made without yeast and the second made with yeast:
Simnel Cake
Yeast-based Simnel Cake
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