Easter basket made with dough

Today I bring you an elaboration that I had long wanted to prepare, an Easter basket made with dough. To tell the truth, it should not necessarily be a basket for Easter, it can be a basket to accompany us at any time of the year. But I wanted to decorate it with Easter eggs (we are in the season) and fresh flowers, simulating that we have gone to look for them in the forest and come back home with our personal booty. It never hurts to have a little magic in our daily lives.

I’m sure many of you already know that I love making braided doughs. I had a season in which I made several breads like this Basket Bread – Flechtkorbbrot or this Shibari Bread. But this time I wanted to create an object with volume, that could look like a craft, even use it, but at the same time be edible. Or to eat it if we felt like it!

So I decided to start preparing this basket without knowing very well how it was going to turn out. It is true that during the process I found some small mistakes that, fortunately, I was able to solve them without any problem. At some points I relied too much on the behavior of the dough and, for that reason, you will see in the video steps that come a little later than they should. But this will not happen to you because I have already experienced it so I can give you a solution to every possible situation.

I am in love with the result.

Of course there are things that can be improved, for example the interior finish of the basket, the cuts of the skewers, some parts of the braiding…. But I am happy with this crazy idea that I came up with and, I assure you that after this experience, there will be more to come.

Originally, the dough was going to be a leavened dough, but after thinking about it a lot, seeing how it behaved and how the dough I used for the savoury curried potato and spinach pie turned out, I decided to use a non-leavened dough. These have many advantages since they allow us to model much better and create decorations with much more detail. In addition, we know for sure that its appearance and final finish will be quite faithful to what we see without baking. Of course, following some guidelines.

The process of the dough is very simple to carry out, we only have to knead and let it rest for a few hours to help the dough to stretch without resistance. In addition to achieving a perfectly smooth and soft finish.

The laborious part, although entertaining, will come in the assembly of the basket. In my case I have left this format, but you can make it round, square, rectangular, oval…. As you like.

Since this basket will be filled with Easter eggs, I thought it would be nice to accompany it with the origin of this tradition.

Easter, tradition and symbolism.

Traditions and symbols of Easter have evolved throughout history, although some of them exist and have been maintained for centuries. For Christians, Easter is the celebration of the resurrection of Christ, but there are many Easter traditions that are still carried out today, even though they are not detailed in the Bible.

The most prominent secular symbol of the Christian holiday, the famous Easter bunny, was introduced to America by German immigrants who brought their stories of an egg-laying hare. Egg decorating is believed to date back to the 13th century, while the rite of the Easter parade has even older origins. Other traditions, such as the consumption of Easter candy, are some of the modern additions to the celebration of this spring holiday.

Many scholars believe Easter had its origins as an early Anglo-Saxon holiday celebrating the goddess Eastre and the coming of spring, in a sense a resurrection of nature after winter, according to Carole Levin, professor of history and director of the Medieval and Renaissance Studies Program at the University of Nebraska.

“Some Christian missionaries hoped that celebrating Christian holy days on the same dates as pagan holidays would encourage conversion, especially if some of the symbols were carried over. Eggs were part of the Eastre celebration. These were apparently eaten at the feast and also, possibly, buried in the ground to encourage fertility.”

An alternative history of Easter eggs sticks to Christianity, but in that version Easter eggs may have resulted from a practical matter. At that time, fasting rules during Lent were very strict. Christians could not eat meat or any animal products – including cheese, milk, cream or eggs – so they boiled the eggs their hens produced during that time and stored them for later consumption, according to Henry Kelly, professor of medieval studies at the University of California, Los Angeles. Since Lent ends in the run-up to Easter, that time when eggs would be distributed (often to the poor, who could not afford meat for their celebrations) would naturally occur right around the holiday.

Easter Bunny.

The Bible does not mention a cute mythical creature with long ears and a short tail that hands out decorated eggs to well-behaved children on Easter Sunday. However, the Easter bunny has become a symbol of Christianity’s most important holiday. The exact origins of this figure are unclear, but rabbits are known to be great procreators, hence an ancient symbol of fertility and new life.

According to some sources, the Easter bunny first came to America in the 18th century with German immigrants who settled in Pennsylvania and transported their tradition of an egg-laying hare called “Osterhase” or “Oschter Haws” Their offspring made nests in which this creature could lay its colorful eggs.

The meaning of Easter bunny is closely related to its historical use as a symbol of fertility: Easter coincides with spring, a time of rebirth and new life. A time when flowers begin to bloom and many animals are born.

Over time, the custom spread throughout the United States and deliveries of the legendary bunny on Easter morning expanded. In addition to Easter eggs, children enjoyed chocolate, candy and gifts. Children would often leave carrots for the bunny in case he got hungry from hopping around.

In Denmark, until the 1920s, the tradition was only celebrated in Jutland and on the island of Langeland. Today it has spread throughout Scandinavia. The Easter Bunny brings chocolate eggs and hides them in gardens for children to find on Easter Sunday.

The origin of Easter eggs.

Easter is a religious celebration, but some of its customs and traditions, such as Easter eggs, are probably related to pagan traditions. The egg, an ancient symbol of new life, has been associated with pagan holidays celebrating spring. From a Christian perspective, Easter eggs are said to represent Jesus’ emergence from the tomb and resurrection.

The decoration of Easter eggs is a tradition that dates back to the 13th century, according to some sources. One of the explanations for this custom argues that in ancient times, eggs were a forbidden food during Lent. So people painted and decorated them to mark the end of the period of penance and fasting. And, of course, they subsequently ate them at Easter.

PAGAN SYMBOLISM: Pagan holidays celebrating spring have long used eggs as an ancient symbol of new life. The vernal equinox marks the day when light equals darkness and continues to grow. It is a period to celebrate renewal, with eggs and hares as symbols of the season.

Another shared that eggs were especially prized at Easter because, before industrial agriculture, hens laid few or no eggs during the winter. Egg production depends on light and, given the scarcity of sunlight during the winter, egg production stagnated. When spring came, the hens would start laying again. Eggs were so prized that they were even used as partial payment for the salaries of shepherds, parish clerks and servants.

In the United States, the Easter egg race is held at the White House. This tradition, an annual event held on the Monday after Easter, involves children pushing decorated hard-boiled eggs across the lawn.

The first official egg race at the White House took place in 1878, when Rutherford B. Hayeswas president. The event has no religious significance, although some people consider the egg toss to symbolize the fact that the stone blocking Jesus’ tomb was removed, an event that led to his resurrection.

CHRISTIANITY: For the church, eggs symbolize the resurrection of Jesus. The hard shell is the tomb and the chick inside is Jesus. This explanation is especially convincing if we consider the traditional game of rolling eggs down a grassy hill. This is supposed to represent the tombstone rolling to reveal the empty tomb of Jesus.

Easter egg hunts are another popular activity celebrated on Easter Sunday. Eggs wrapped in beautifully colored paper are hidden in gardens and parks for children to find.

The chocolate Easter egg was first manufactured by Cadbury’s in 1875.

Two years after J.S. Fry & Sons of England devised the first chocolate egg.

Its production was due, in part, to the breakthrough in separating the cocoa butter from the cocoa beans, as this made it possible to work with a chocolate that could be molded, like eggs. However, it is not clear why an egg. Most likely, John Cadbury took the opportunity to capitalize on the popularity of decorative Easter eggs by making them edible.

The practice of decorating eggshells is quite ancient. They were already carried out on ostrich eggs, decorated and engraved. Some of them were found in Africa 60,000 years old. Depictions of ostrich eggs in gold and silver were often placed in the tombs of the ancient Sumerians and Egyptians.

One of the earliest accounts of dyed eggs in British history dates back to 1290, when the household of Edward I purchased 450 eggs to be colored or covered in gold leaf and distributed to “the royal entourage” for Easter, according to Stations of the Sun: A History of the Ritual Year in Britain, by Ronald Hutton, professor of history at the University of Bristol. The book also mentions that, two centuries later, the Vatican sent Henry VIII an egg enclosed in a silver case as a “seasonal gift.”

Such objects were also known as “eggsilver”. Today, the most famous decorated Easter eggs are Fabergé eggs, which were first presented to the Russian royal court in the late 19th century.