Project 14: Lemon Anise Bread

For many years, I have talked with my cousins about attempting to bake my Great Aunt Susie’s Italian Easter Bread. We made this bread every year during Easter week – my Great Aunt would come over at 5 AM and we would bake all day until bed time (which of course got extended to 8 PM in honor of bread baking – score!). I also have some great memories of the “flour fairy” coming to visit (aka: Aunt Susie putting little streaks of flour under my eyes like football players have eye black), rising the bread on the radiator, and wearing costumes while we baked. This family time and learning to cook with family members inspired my love of baking and I’m so thankful for it! Also, admittedly, my stubbornness is one of my best and worst qualities – I most definitely get this from the generations of ladies who raised me (most of whom were there for Easter bread baking each year) and I am so thankful to them for it.

Despite my enthusiasm for this bread and the experience surrounding it, however, I avoided baking it thinking it was a bit overly complex (especially considering this was an enriched dough that has been nearly impossible to replicate). The additional time at home this spring inspired me to give it a try. I won’t say that this bread was easy – it’s a lot of work but the end product is delicious and most importantly brought me back to some awesome childhood memories.

Side note: people have tons of names for this bread! Aunt Susie called her recipe Spianata. You’ll see this also called Italian Easter Bread, Pane di Pasqua and a few other names.

Quick project summary: Your first step if you endeavor to make this bread is to decide what you’re looking for in a recipe/flavor profile. For me, I was trying to replicate Aunt Susie’s recipe but did not have all of her ingredients on hand (she used Crisco and a few other items that are less common now). With that in mind, I was looking for something with a focus on lemon and anise and not a lot of “fluff”. Ultimately, I selected this recipe and loved it.

If you do want more fluff, you might look for a recipe where folks are putting a hard boiled egg in the middle, braiding, using sprinkles and icing (delish), or that has a mix of orange and lemon flavors. There’s a ton out there!

I only made one modification to this recipe which was to double the amount of anise seeds. The first try, I used the anise recommended and the bread had great anise taste (because this recipe also calls for anise extract) but you didn’t get the nice visual and little crunch of the anise seeds. For all the recipes after this, I made it with double anise seeds – much better! Also, this recipe gives you the option for a simple lemon icing – I skipped this (even though I think it would be delicious) because Aunt Susie always said the quality/flavor was in the bread itself, not the add ons like icing.

Things I loved about this project: This project was a “taste of home.” I genuinely felt a connection to tradition and reflected on some amazing memories while making this bread. Baking is always comforting and relaxing to me but baking a recipe that channeled my childhood experiences and some of the women in my family who I admired so much made this extra special – almost a little meditative. The bread is something you won’t find in many stores so it feels special to eat in that way, too! For this coming Easter holiday, my hope is to make this bread and gift it to friends and family as well – it’s definitely a labor of love and could be packaged cutely with some cellophane and ribbon to make an Easter hostess gift.

What I would do differently: Really, nothing. Well, maybe I’d get adventurous and try the icing!

Things I also enjoyed while doing this project:

-Eating this bread toasted with some butter

-Reflecting on amazing times with family and the kick butt ladies who influenced me

-Introducing my husband to the concept of the “flour fairy” (aka: flour on our kitchen floor)