Folar De Pascoa

When it came to Easter in my house growing up, we never really had any special treats or traditions other than Easter baskets and a somewhat fancy dinner. I really wanted to create a special bread for the occasion. I did some research to see what other cultures and countries do for the holiday and found the bread Folar de Pascoa which looked perfect.

What is Folar de Pascoa?

Folar de Pascoa is a traditional Portuguese bread served at Easter. The bread can be either sweet or savory, however I chose to create a sweet variety. It is often shaped into a nest like shape and served with a boiled egg baked into the bread as a symbol of resurrection and fertility.

The traditional version is often one large loaf, but I decided to go with smaller buns to create several little nests. In lieu of using an actual egg, I chose to use candy chocolate eggs. If you have had other Portuguese treats, or even just other enriched sweet breads here in the US, I think you will enjoy this. There are some definite similarities to things like Brioche or Challah.

Folar de Pascoa Key Ingredients

• Chocolate Mini Eggs – The chocolate mini eggs are really what make these buns look like a nest. I’m sure if you can’t find this brand, another would substitute fine as long as they have a candy shell. Plus, who doesn’t like a sweet treat in the middle of their bread?
• Eggs – The eggs in this bread, along with the milk and sugar and butter truly make it an enriched tender dough.
• Cinnamon – If you have never had cinnamon and chocolate together, you’re missing out. It is only a very light cinnamon taste though.

If you’re looking for some other Easter or spring recipes, these are some great options:

• Carrot Cake Scones
• Hot Cross Buns

Folar de Pascoa

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Prep: 30 minutes minutes

Bake: 35 minutes minutes

Proofing: 3 hours hours

Servings: 5 large buns

Ingredients

• 520 g AP Flour 4⅓ cup
• 100 g Granulated sugar ½ cup
• 1 tbsp Instant yeast
• ½ tsp Sea salt
• 1 tsp Cinnamon
• 2 large Eggs room temperature
• 1 cup Whole or 2% milk
• 1 tsp Vanilla
• 4 tbsp Salted butter softened
• ½ cup Mini chocolate chips
• 1.5 oz Cadbury chocolate mini eggs

Instructions

• Add flour, sugar, yeast, salt, cinnamon, eggs, milk and vanilla into the bowl of stand mixer with dough hook attached. Mix until dough has come together into a rough dough.
• Add butter 1 tbsp at a time, waiting to add the next piece until the previous piece has been fully incorporated into the dough.
• Mix dough until smooth and elastic, for me this took somewhere between 10-20 minutes.
• Cover your bowl and allow dough to rise in a warm spot for 90-120 minutes or has doubled in size.
• Prepare a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
• Punch down your dough, transfer to work space and divide into 5 pieces.
• Roll each piece of dough out and sprinkle with chocolate chips. Roll into a log shape, and then cut down the center lengthwise leaving the very tip intact.
• Twist the two pieces around each other, and then shape into a nest shape, tucking the ends underneath or into the center. Add a few of the mini eggs to the center and place on your baking sheet.
• Repeat with each remaining section of the dough.
• Cover the baking sheet and allow to rise for another 45 min to an hour. Buns are ready to bake when they are puffed up.
• Preheat your oven to 375°F while buns proof again.
• When ready to bake, place baking sheet on center rack of oven and bake for 28-35 min. Buns are ready when a medium golden brown.