Easter Bunny Bread

I was supposed to be working in the garden today. My mind was all made up: I was going to re-pot the tomatoes and peppers so that they could stretch their toes a bit, I was going to rake the leaves towards the fence and if the weather would warm up just the slightest bit, I was determined to move four of my raised beds so that I could make some adjustments planting-wise. Yeah.....never did happen. The moment I was ready to step out the back door, brimming with sugar-induced confidence, it started raining. Hard.

All this pent-up energy had to go somewhere, so I turned to my baking books and decided that something had to give. After my first gluten-free disaster (not the last one, I presume) I wanted to bake something easy, quick and given that it's Easter this weekend, I looked for something Easter-ey. And I found it! Cute little Easter bunnies, clutching an egg in their bready little paws, with raisins for eyes, stared at me from my old Albert Heijn cookbook. "Bake me, bake me!" they seemed to say. Oh well, I've always been a sucker for rabbit, so here goes....

Easter Bunnies

4 1/2 cups of flour
1 cup of warm water
1/2 cup of buttermilk
1 1/2 teaspoons of active dry yeast
1/2 teaspoon of salt
6 small eggs
1 egg, beaten

Mix the flour with the warm water and the buttermilk, sprinkle the yeast on top and knead. Add the salt and continue to knead until the dough comes together. Cover and rest in a greased bowl, rise until double. Punch down and divide into six equal parts. Relax the dough for five minutes, then roll into rectangles of approximately 7 to 8 inches tall. With a sharp knife, make a cut of about two inches length-wise in the top and in the bottom part of the dough: those will be the ears and legs. Put three raisins (two for the eyes, one for the nose) where the face is going to be and make a cut on each side of the dough to form the cheeks of his face. Stretch both of those cuts, put an egg on its tummy (somewhere between the chin and the beginning of the legs) and fold the dough over, like arms. You may have to shape the dough a bit into a "bunny" shape. Place the bunnies on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat. Brush the dough with egg wash, cover and let rise in a warm place until puffy. Make gashes in their paws and feet with a sharp knife before baking.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Bake at 375 for about 20 minutes or until golden.

Owwww, ain't that cute? Well not so cute that I made six of the little buggers, only three. Because by Easter bunny number three, I was well done with trying to get their stumpy little arms to stick around the eggs and their shriveled little eyes to look vaguely like they had any intelligence in 'm. So with the other three parts of the dough, I made a braid, stuck an egg in each fold, slathered the thing in egg wash and baked it after the bunnies came out. And then, while standing at the stove, I ate two of the eggs and half of the bread while it was still warm. Just like that. Because I can *hehe* and it tasted oh-so-good! Happy Easter to ya'll!!