SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) — Pane di Pasqua, it is beautiful and decadent. The love and respect that goes into the process of baking it, transpires in the traditions carried on today.
San Francisco is the home to many Italian-Americans and Easter is a reminder of the value of family history and roots in Italy.
“See that, that is the perfume of my youth,” explained Franc D’Ambrosio, an Italian-American living in San Francisco who comes from a long line of bakers.
“I come from seven generations of bakers, of Sicilian bakers, and will you crack these,” D’Ambrosio continued. “A lot of what I learned, I learned in my family bakery.”
D’Ambrosio invited KPIX 5 morning anchor, Amanda Starrantino, over to his home to teach her his family’s recipe for Pane di Pasqua, also known as Easter Bread.
“We would make at least 2100 loaves of bread a night,” D’Ambrosio said. “For us Easter and Christmas, and anything was all about us getting together and baking together.”
Like many cultures, the table brings together the family. But there is so much love that goes into creating those moments to break bread.
D’Ambrosio worked in his family’s bakery in his childhood, so his skills are tried and true.
“I learned this recipe from my grandfather who came from Palermo who settled in East Harlem on 106th Street where a lot of Italians from the south came,” D’Ambrosio said. “He had eight brothers and one sister — every single one of them was a baker, every single one of them who came to America owned a bakery.”
The bread is made with flour, hints of honey, brown sugar, salt and yeast to rise also represents and honors more than just the Catholic faith. It braids together a Jewish Challah and an Italian sweet bread to incorporate both Passover and Easter.
“When it comes down to it, it comes to family, about love and just really learning from my grandfather and my great grandfather and on and on and on,” D’Ambrosio said.
For D’Ambrosio, who did not take baking on as a career himself, creating this bread is a large part of his heart.
“It is who I am, I am a baker, my father as a baker, my grandfather was a baker,” said D’Ambrosio, who has made a career of acting and performing.
While each family has their own secrets and styles to their recipe, every Italian, can bond together while setting the table with those we love over stories of the past and joys of the present.
Franc D’Ambrosio’s Easter Bread recipe: (makes 2 loaves)
Dry Ingredients
- 8 cups all-purpose flour
- 4 tablespoons vital wheat gluten flour
- 3 teaspoons diastatic malt flour
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 2 tablespoons kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon dry active yeast
- extra flour & water as needed
Wet ingredients
- 2.5 cups unfiltered water (At 110 degrees Fahrenheit, lukewarm)
- 1 cup honey
- 4 tablespoons canola oil
- 1 tablespoon half & half
- 1 tablespoon molasses
- 2 eggs
- 1 egg for wash
- 5 white eggs to color
- 1 water bottle with salt
Directions
– Over low heat, combine honey, water and molasses. Heat to reach 110-115 degrees Fahrenheit, it should feel like lukewarm water. If it gets too hot, it will kill the yeast.
– Take off heat, transfer to mixing bowl that is at room temperature. If the bowl is cold, it will cool off the mixture to quickly.
– Add 1 tbsp of active dry yeast to mixture. Let sit for about 5 minutes, you will see it start to foam and bubble when the yeast activates. If the yeast doesn’t bubble, it means the yeast is dead and you will need to start over with new yeast.
– In a separate bowl, mix all-purpose flour, vital wheat gluten flour, malt flour, brown sugar and salt.
– Slowly add mixed dry ingredients into yeast mixture while it blends in a mixer on low. Slowly add in flour mixture to yeast mixture. Also, add in eggs and canola oil with the flour.
– The dough is ready when all the dough comes together on the mixer’s dough hook and the sides of the bowl are clean. You should be able to touch the dough and it will not stick to your finger. To reach this consistency, add flour and water until it is right. (*If you would like to add raisins to your dough, you would add these to the dough near the end of mixing it. Do not add raisins too soon or else they will break apart too much. You want them in full pieces.)
– With your hands, work dough into a ball. Place the seam on the bottom surface. Let the dough rise, covered by a damp cloth, on a pan in the oven that has the light on. The dough should double in size, this should take about 1.5 hours.
– Once the dough has doubled in size, take it out of the oven.
– Preheat oven to 375 degrees Fahrenheit.
– Cut dough into halves.
– Cut each half into thirds, this will make two loaves.
– Roll out the six pieces into snakes. (*This is the step where you can add your choice of seeds to the dough, by painting an egg wash on the outside of the snakes and layering with seeds).
– Braid the dough starting from the middle, flip, then the other side from the middle.
– Squeeze both ends of the braid tight.
– Let the dough rise for a bit.
– Carefully separate parts of the braid to place raw colored eggs into the dough. (The eggs will cook when the bread bakes)
– Place loaves on greased baking sheet.
– Bake for 45 minutes at 375 degrees Fahrenheit. Half-way through, turn the pan. (*Add a pan with a layer of water on the bottom of the oven to steam while the bread bakes. Also, spray dough with lightly salted water. Do this twice in the first five minutes of the dough baking)
– Bread is done baking when the inside temperature reaches 190 degrees Fahrenheit and when the bread sounds hollow to the touch.
– Let sit for one hour before eating.
Source: sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com.