Sweet Challah Easter Birds

I found a picture of these sweet little bird rolls in a senior home cookbook. I thought that they would make the perfect accompaniment for an Easter Brunch. The original recipe was for a regular sweet roll, but I love challah and figured it would be an easy swap. These birds are so simple to make and are sure to be a crowd pleaser!

Sweet Challah Easter Birds

Makes 10 rolls.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups Flour
• 1 packet Dry Active Yeast
• 3/4 cup Warm Water
• 1/4 cup Sugar
• 1/3 cup Oil
• 2 Beaten Eggs
• 2 tsp Orange Extract(you could use orange zest)
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 Egg + 2 tbs Milk for coating rolls
• 10 seeds or nuts, such as Almond Slivers or Pumpkin Seeds
• 20 Currants or Dried Pomegranate Seeds

Directions:

1. Stir together warm water, sugar, and yeast. Set aside for around 5 minutes. Yeast should be bubbling.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour and salt, then make a well in the center of the flour. Pour in eggs, oil, orange extract, and yeast mixture. Stir everything together with your hands to create a dough.

3. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead for 10 minutes. If the dough is too dry, add a bit more oil to it as you knead. Place dough into an oiled bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Let the dough rest for 60 to 90 minutes, or until it has doubled in size.

4. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and divide into 10 pieces.

5. To shape birds, first roll a piece of dough into a long tube(about 10 inches), making sure that the ends are more fat than the middle to create head and tail.

6. Tie the tube into a knot.

7. Choose one end to be the head and insert a nut for the beak and two currants for eyes.

8. To make the tail, slightly flatten the other end of the knot and make two small slices in it to fan out the tail. See pictures for reference.

9. Place birds on a parchment lined baking sheet and cover with plastic wrap. Allow birds to rest for 40 to 60 minutes. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

10. Uncover birds and brush them with the egg wash. Sprinkle the tops with sugar.

11. Place in oven and turn down oven temp to 375 degrees. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on a rack.

Hopefully that all made sense. I realize now that a photo tutorial may have been helpful here. These were so much fun to make and came out so cute that I had a really hard time eating them. I just wanted to keep the birds on my table and admire them.

Happy Good Friday, Earth Day, and Easter everyone!

*Special thanks to my mom for helping me style the top photograph!

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