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Bake the Sweetest Easter Sunday Desserts from Top Chefs Around the World
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Easter time is a great time to bake delicious desserts. From cakes and cookies to pies and puddings, the annual holiday weekend offers so many opportunities to explore different flavors, textures, and colors. Below we have summarized some of the tastiest and most unique Easter Sunday dessert ideas anywhere – desserts that have been invented by some of the world’s best chefs. Among these homemade treats are Italian olive oil cake, Indian rice pudding, two types of Argentinian pancakes known as panqueques, apple pie, and a rustic Israeli summer fruit cake. Whether you’re hosting an Easter brunch or gathering with family, the five dessert recipes below are certain to spread joy on this special occasion.
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Common Easter Meals Ideas
Easter is a special time of year when families and friends come together to observe a religious tradition. It’s also a time for loved ones to savor some delicious food. But before we share with you our special sweet recipes, it’s worth mentioning some of the more common Easter meals that people eat before they get to their Easter desserts.
Roasted Leg of Lamb: Roasted leg of lamb is a large cut of lamb that is roasted in the oven with herbs and spices. The result is a succulent, tender and juicy roast that is full of flavor. This meal is often served with potatoes, roasted vegetables, and herbs.
Baked Ham: Baked ham is a traditional Easter dish made from a cut of pork, usually the hind leg, that is cured and then baked or roasted. The curing process gives the ham its distinctive flavor and helps preserve it. Baked ham is a popular meal for Easter because it is easy to prepare and can feed a large group of people.
Glazed Ham: Glazed ham is a classic Easter dish often cooked with a sweet glaze made up of honey, brown sugar, and spices. It can be served with sides like potatoes, green beans, and a variety of sauces.
Deviled Eggs: A must-have at any Easter gathering, deviled eggs are hard-boiled eggs that have been halved and filled with a mixture of mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, and other spices. They are then typically topped with a sprinkle of paprika. They’re popular on this holiday due to their festive, colorful appearance and convenience, as they’re easy to make.
Seasonal Spring Fruits for Easter
Easter is the perfect time of year to get creative in the kitchen and showcase some of spring’s best seasonal fruits. Not only do fruits add a pop of color to your Easter menu, but they are also packed with flavor and freshness. Here are some great seasonal spring fruits to consider for your Easter menu:
Strawberries: Strawberries are the perfect addition to an Easter brunch. Not only are they sweet, but they can be used in a variety of dishes. Try adding them to a breakfast quiche or muffin, or make a strawberry sauce to top your French toast. They’re also great eaten with vanilla wafers or dipped in chocolate.
Cherries: Another great fresh fruit option for Easter are cherries. They taste both sweet and tart and can be used in pies, cobblers, and other Easter desserts. Try using them in a cherry clafoutis or a cherry and cream cheese tart.
Rhubarb: Rhubarb is a great springtime fruit that can be used in pies, jams, and other desserts. It has a tart flavor that pairs well with other fruits. Try making a rhubarb and strawberry pie or a rhubarb and custard tart.
Oranges: Finally, oranges are a must-have for Easter. They are sweet and juicy and can be used in a variety of dishes. Try making an orange glaze for your ham or use oranges in a salad with feta and walnuts.
Typical Easter Sweets
Easter is a time for family, friends, food, and of course, sweets! Every Easter, be it a simple family gathering or a grand celebration, you can be sure to find some sweet treats on the table. From traditional desserts to more modern creations, Easter sweets are a must-have. Here are some common sugary morsels people enjoy on this holiday:
Chocolate eggs: Chocolate eggs are a fun and popular treat frequently found in people’s Easter basket. They come in many varieties, from milk chocolate and dark chocolate to white chocolate and more. The best part of chocolate eggs on Easter, however, are the surprises inside. Yummy fillings that can be found inside chocolate eggs include creamy caramel, fudge, hazelnut, marshmallow, cream, and truffle among many others.
Hot Cross Buns: Hot cross buns are spiced buns with a cross-shaped icing on top, often eaten on Good Friday. These traditional Easter treats are sweet and can be made with raisins and spices. Common toppings for hot cross buns include butter, honey, jam, and cream cheese. For an extra rich, creamy, and sugary taste, you can top them with whipped cream.
Easter cakes: Easter cakes are a type of fruit cake usually made with ingredients like dried fruit, nuts, sugar, honey, eggs, butter, milk, and spices. Popular variations include panettone, sweet bread, and sponge cakes. They’re often decorated with symbols of the Easter season, such as Easter eggs, cute bunnies, and chicks.
Bunny-shaped cookies: Bunny-shaped cookies are desserts that have been cut to resemble a bunny rabbit. They’re often decorated with colorful icing and sprinkles, making them a fun treat for children. They are popular on Easter because they are a cute and adorable way to celebrate the holiday and bring a bit of playfulness to the occasion.
Cupcakes: What holiday (or day of day of the year) isn’t a great time to eat cupcakes? Cupcakes on Easter come in a variety of flavors and are often decorated with pastel frosting and Easter-themed decorations such as eggs, chicks, and bunnies.
Honorable Mentions: Some other fun and tasty sweets that people eat on Easter are carrot cake cookies, vanilla cake, strawberry ice cream with whipped cream and raspberry sauce, carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, mini chocolate Easter egg brownies, and chocolate Easter egg cookies.
Olive Oil Cake
What can be better on Easter Sunday than enjoying a slice or two of amazing cake? Not much – especially when that cake is a simple-to-bake Olive Oil Cake recipe from one of the world’s most famous butchers, Dario Cecchini. Dario’s exquisite, not-too-sweet cake, which is made with olive oil, an entire orange, and dessert wine, will impress not only on Easter but on any holiday or ordinary day throughout the year.
To make the cake, Dario uses a whole orange – zest, juice, pulp, and peel – which he chops into little pieces, creating a wonderful citrusy aroma. He adds some Vin Santo, an Italian dessert wine that comes from dried grapes, as well as raisins. Olive oil, which is a great ingredient for cakes because it adds moisture and is healthier than fats like butter, is another main ingredient in this delicious and innovative dessert recipe.
Here’s how to make it: Preheat your oven to 350 degrees and grease and flour a cake pan. Beat sugar and eggs together with an electric mixer, then chop up the whole orange into small pieces, removing only the seeds. Put the orange pieces in a large bowl with olive oil, Vin Santo, water, and the egg-and-sugar mixture – and pour it into the cake pan. Sprinkle raisins on the surface. With a spatula, level the surface, being sure to cover the raisins with batter to prevent the raisins from burning. That’s it. And because the cake isn’t too sweet or too rich, it will work equally great for breakfast as it will for dessert. Enjoy!
Ki Kheer - Rice Pudding with Jaggery
Chef Asma Khan’s Ki Kheer, or Rice Pudding with Jaggery, is another fun and mouth-watering dessert you can bake for Easter. The Indian version of this rice and pudding dish – and Asma’s version in particular – is far superior to the typical English-style rice pudding, Asma emphasizes in her YesChef lesson. To make this Indian sweet, which Asma calls “rice pudding on steroids,” the chef pours milk into a heated pan along with cardamoms (Don’t break these whole spices or else the flavor will be too strong, she says). Stay close to the stove while the flavors of your milk slowly get infused with the spice.
Wash, soak, and drain some pure small grain rice and sprinkle it into the milk. Stir frequently with a wooden spoon, boil it on the stove, and reduce the heat so that the mixture occasionally bubbles. The rice should get bigger and more visible in the milk.
Sweeten the recipe by grating jaggery – an unrefined sugar traditionally used as a sweetener in India (Asma uses a jaggery made from date palm sugar) – into the milk and rice and stir gently with the spoon so that melting starts to occur. If you don’t have jaggery, you can use any sweet sugar that is full of flavor.
Continue to taste your recipe as you prepare the dish. Serve in a bowl and add pistachio bits on top. If you prefer not to use pistachios, there are other alternatives that will taste wonderfully on your pudding. You can add cashew nuts and you can use dried fruits like raisins or sultanas. But regardless, you will wind up with a terrific Easter Sunday dessert filled with beautiful aromas and flavors.
Panqueques – Dulce de Leche and Apple Pancakes
For an extremely sweet Easter breakfast or dessert, try making one of chef Francis Mallmann’s delicious panqueque (pancake) recipes. The two types of pancakes he makes in his YesChef lesson are Dulce de Leche Pancakes and Apple Pancakes, which are made beautifully in simple restaurants throughout Argentina. The cooking process for Francis’ pancakes is simple and straightforward. To make the pancake batter for each type of dessert, mix together eggs, milk, and a pinch of salt in a big bowl. Whisk flour into the batter, which should be heavier than the batter of an everyday crepe. Chill the batter in the fridge overnight.
Apple Pancakes: To make caramelized apples for your apple pancakes, use acidic apples like Granny Smiths, which are necessary to create a contrast with the sugar in the dessert. Peel and cut the apples, melt butter on a plancha grill or a cast iron pan, and add sugar and sliced apples to the grill, making sure to leave space between the apples. Spoon the pancake batter around and on top of the apple slices that have been heating on the grill. Once it cooks and the bottom is golden brown, flip it over and cook it on the opposite side.
Dulce de Leche Pancakes: Pour the pancake batter on the grill and let it cook for about five minutes. On top of the pancake batter, put your dulce de leche, and roll up the pancake. Cook until the dulce de leche starts to melt and trickle out at the edges. Complete the dulce de leche pancake by spreading sugar on top and pressing and rubbing the hot cast iron pan over the pancake. The hot, burnt dulce de leche topping should drip right off the pancake, a sight that “makes me so happy,” Francis says.
Mom’s Apple Pie
Chef Nancy Silverton’s “Mom’s Apple Pie” is another excellent dessert to make for Easter Sunday. Featuring tart green caramelized apples, amazing homemade pie dough, and a delicious golden crust, this is a dish that will satisfy and impress your whole family.
Begin by peeling and slicing tart green apples, then sautéing them with a cinnamon-sugar combination (Tart apples will balance out the sweetness of the sugar in the recipe, Nancy says.) Heat up butter and half a vanilla bean in a pan before adding apples. When the apples are soft, put in the sugar and cinnamon and add cream and whiskey before transferring to a baking sheet to cool.
To make the pie dough, just a few simple ingredients are required: kosher salt, unbleached all-purpose flour, and frozen cubes of butter. (No sugar is needed because the apples are already very sweet.) Blend the dough at a low speed, adding water and heavy cream. Using a large surface, knead the pieces of dough together and flatten them into discs. Roll the pie dough into big circles and let them sit for a half-hour before cutting smaller circular shapes out of them.
Fill the pie pans with pie dough and chilled sauteed apples, preheat your oven to 400 degrees, and bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the pies are golden and bubbling. Let the pies cool for 10 minutes, then serve them on dessert plates with heaping scoops of vanilla ice cream on top.
Rustic Summer Cake
Erez Komarovsky’s Rustic Summer Cake Recipe is delicious, easy-to-make, and a perfect dessert for the Easter and the summer seasons. The cake, which Erez’s mother used to make, brings back great memories from Erez’s childhood and makes him smile every time he bakes it. And now, with access to his special recipe, you can share some sweet joy with your family too.
Erez makes his Rustic Summer Cake by mixing cubes of butter with eggs and a little sugar. He whisks the mixture by hand, like his mother did, adding one egg at a time. (The butter should be at room temperature because cold butter will not mix well.) To make the cake extremely flavorful, he uses 1 cup of a full-fat sour cream (“This is a cake, not a diet recipe,” Erez makes clear.)
To capture the feeling of summer, Erez grates the outer yellow skin of the lemon and mixes the lemon zest into the recipe. After adding flour, being careful not to mix it too much, he transfers the batter into a greased baking dish.
Erez adds halved ripe apricots and mulberries to the batter, but you can use any fruits that you love and that are in season, such as peaches, plums, cherries, blackberries, and raspberries. Don’t be afraid to add too much fruit, Erez says. It’s a fruit cake, after all!
Erez sprinkles a little bit of demerara sugar and more cubed butter on top before baking the recipe for 325 degrees for 40 minutes, or until the cake is golden and puffed. Once it’s ready, Erez sprinkles some powdered sugar over the cake. The whole process is very easy. “It’s a piece of cake,” Erez says.
Bonus: Kwame’s Jamaican Rum Punch Cocktail
Chef Kwame Onwuachi’s spectacular rum punch is an awesome cocktail to drink with your Easter meal. This Caribbean-inspired beverage, which Kwame demonstrates how to make with his mother, features a combination of dark and light rum and fresh fruits that are native to the Caribbean region including mangoes, papayas, hibiscus, tangerines, lime juice, and custard apples.
To make Kwame’s Rum Punch for your Easter Sunday festivities, cut up fresh fruits and blend them with rum into a puree. Chill the puree in the fridge before blending it with ice and more rum. Serve this refreshing holiday punch like Kwame does: in a pitcher rather than a bowl.
Final Thought
For an Easter meal you will never forget, try baking one of these original dessert recipes described above. Whether you’re looking for a simple, classic recipe or something more complex, there’s something here for everyone. And for a truly memorable holiday, have a refreshing Rum Punch cocktail to go along with your world-class cake, pie, pudding, or pancakes. You won’t regret it!
Torta All’olio - Olive Oil Cake
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Dario Cecchini
Artisan, restaurateur, and butcher Dario Cecchini takes viewers to his picturesque hillside village of Panzano in Chianti, Italy, where he showcases his signature dishes, including the Bistecca Fiorentina, Bone-in Ribeye, Olive Oil Cake, Essence of Chianti Seasoning, and more.
