Easter Bunny Bread

Or these lamb cookies. Lambs were the intention, but they ended up looking like demented goats.

In the spirit of consistency, I now bring you slightly demented looking Easter Bunny Bread.

In Germany, beautifully decorated bread abounds in bakeries during holidays.  Easter isn’t just about painted eggs and chocolate hares—it’s also about fluffy, golden bunny-shaped breads hopping straight out of the oven. These adorable little loaves, known as Osterhasenbrötchen, are baked with love and often shared at festive family breakfasts.

A German Custom

Traditionally, bakers shape the dough into long-eared rabbits, giving them raisin eyes and sometimes even a sprinkle of sugar for extra charm. Moreover, kids delight in finding these Easter Bunny Breads nestled in their Easter baskets, making the holiday table both tasty and whimsical. And let’s be honest—biting off a bunny ear may feel slightly mischievous, but it’s all part of the fun. So, while chocolate may melt, and eggs may crack, Germany’s Easter Bunny Bread remain a warm, doughy tradition that keeps spirits—and appetites—hopping.

This is a fairly simple white bread recipe. I added some lemon zest to the dough to give it some brightness. Cut shapes out with cookie cutters. Then pinch them together to form a bunny shape before baking.

Royal icing, easter candies, nonpareils, and some store-bought sugar flowers are used to decorate this Easter Bunny Bread. However, make sure the breads have cooled completely. You so don’t want a melty mess.  Once they were completely cooled.  I used black and white fondant to create the (crazy) eyes.

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Easter Bunny Bread

Course Bread

Cuisine German

Keyword Bunny Bread, Bunny Shaped Bread, Easter Bunny Bread, German Easter Bread, german recipes

Prep Time 30 minutes

Cook Time 14 minutes

Rise Time: 45 minutes

Servings 6 Breads

Author Lora Wiley-Lennartz

Ingredients

For the Bread:

• 5 cups bread flour
• 2 7 gram packages of dry yeast
• 1 cup lukewarm whole milk
• 1/4 cup unsalted butter
• 2 large eggs
• pinch of salt
• 1/4 cup white granulated sugar
• 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
• 1 large egg yolk

Royal Icing:

• 2 tablespoons Meringue powder
• 1/4 cup water
• 2+1/2 cups powdered sugar sifted
• Food coloring

Instructions

Make the Bread

1. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Sift the bread flour into a large bowl. Use your hand or a large wooden spoon to make a well in the middle of the flour. Set aside.
3. In a separate bowl, add the dry yeast to the lukewarm milk. When the yeast has dissolved, add it to the well in the sifted bread flour and knead together.
4. Cover the bowl and set it aside in a warm place. Let the dough rise for 15 minutes.
5. Melt the unsalted butter in a small bowl. Mix in the two large eggs, a pinch of salt, and white granulated sugar.
6. Add this butter mixture to the flour yeast dough and knead everything together until it forms a smooth dough.
7. Or place all the ingredients in a stand mixer and use the dough hook attachment to knead the dough together.
8. Re-cover the bowl and let stand in a warm place for 30 minutes.

To shape the Easter bunny bread, here are 3 methods:.

1. 1 - is to cut out an Easter bunny template from strong cardboard. Place the cardboard bunny shape on top of the rolled out dough and use a sharp paring knife to cut around the cardboard.
2. 2 -If you have good hand-eye coordination, use a sharp paring knife to freehand cut the bunny shapes out of the dough. If you use the first two methods, you can leave the shape plain or cut out additional shapes to embellish the bread for the bow ties and the feet.
3. 3- The method I found best was using the following cookie cutters to shape the bread: a large bunny head, a large egg-shaped cutter for the body, and small round cutters for the feet.

Bake the Bread

1. Assemble the bunny parts on the lined baking sheet and pinch all the pieces together before baking.

2. Preheat the oven to 410 degrees F.

3. Turn the dough out onto a floured work surface and knead for one or two minutes more.
4. Roll out the dough to about a 1/2 inch thick and use the method of your choice to cut out bunny shapes from the dough.
5. Place the shapes on the parchment-lined baking sheets, brush with the beaten egg yolk, and bake for 10 -15 minutes.
6. Remove from the oven, let cool completely* before decorating.

Make the royal icing:

1. Place the meringue powder and water in a stand mixer. Beat together until foamy.
2. Add the powdered sugar and beat on a high speed until a smooth, stiff meringue-like frosting.
3. Divide up the icing and mix in the food coloring to tint the frosting your colors of choice. If you want pastel colors, start with mixing in one or two drops and add more according to how saturated you want the color to be.
4. Load each color into pastry bags fitted with #2 or #3 tips and decorate the bread

Recipe Notes

For the Decoration:
For the icing: Use assorted store-bought icing in tubes or make and color your own royal icing, Sugar flowers, bows, almonds, jelly beans, assorted Easter candy of your choice. I used black and white color fondant to create the eyes.

*Important! The bread must be completely cool to the touch before you cover it with royal icing, or it will melt all over the bread.

So, do you like this Easter Bunny Bread? Then also check out some of these other delicious recipes:

APRICOT LEMON CREAM RAISIN BREADS

RABBIT SHAPED VEGETABLE STRUDELS

GERMAN LUCKY PIG BREADS