By Keighley’s Mike Armstrong, an award-winning master baker with a big passion for baking. See facebook.com/bakermike001

TSOUREKI bread is a celebratory Easter bread, traditionally eaten on Easter Sunday, given as a gift to godparents or grandparents from children.

The bread originates from Greece and is also very popular in Italy, as an Easter nest decorated with red dyed hard-boiled eggs representing Christ's blood, the rebirth of Christ rising from the dead and sometimes called a rosebud if made at other times of the year.

This bread is enriched with lots of butter, eggs and sugar, being very much like the brioche loaf. There is something satisfying about it, yielding a soft and tender slice with an eye-catching egg in the centre that will have your family and friends drooling over your beautiful creation.

The week leading up to Easter Sunday is termed Holy Week, with church services held most nights. It's also a busy week with the majority of food preparation taking place during this time – planning the family Easter Sunday meal, baking a simnel cake and hot cross buns, crafting Easter cards with the children, making lots of chocolate nests with an Easter egg trail maybe planned in too.

Easter traditions happen throughout the world, with the people in Ukraine throwing buckets of water over each over – known as wet Easter Monday, a tradition connected with baptism. Let's hope Ukrainians continue this tradition again this year, as the whole world has come together to support you in these troubled times.

In France the people gather on Easter Monday to share a massive omelette made with around 15,000 eggs, enough to feed thousands of people. Legend has it the French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte wanted to make one for his army.

Going beyond Europe, the USA has an annual Easter egg roll at the White House dating back to 1878 when President Rutherford ran the country.

In Scandinavia kids dress as witches and ask for chocolates, in Corfu old pots get thrown out of the windows onto the streets. In the UK we have an Easter egg hunt and binge on chocolate eggs.

It's an important religious holiday that comes with lots of traditions and customs over the years. These practices should probably be celebrated by everyone, everywhere – even if you don't believe in the Easter bunny!

RECIPE

TSOUREKI EASTER BREAD

Ingredients:

500g strong bread flour

10g salt

60g sugar

2 eggs, beaten

50g butter

2 sachets of fast-action dried yeast

200ml full fat milk, warm

6 dyed hard-boiled eggs, traditionally red or alternative colours can be used

Hundreds and thousands to decorate

Method:

1. Place into a large mixing bowl the flour, salt, sugar and dried yeast, then rub in the butter roughly to breadcrumbs.

2. Add the beaten eggs and milk to form a sticky dough, kneading well until smooth and silky.

3. Place the dough back into the mixing bowl and cover with a clean tea towel and allow to double in size.

4. Divide the dough into 12 balls and roll out long like a French stick, then rope together two long pieces by twisting them to form a nest shape, ensuring you tuck under the two ends to form a perfect nest for the egg to sit on.

5. Place your bread nests onto a well-buttered baking tray, allowing room to rise, then place somewhere warm to rise a little.

6. Gently egg wash and sprinkle over the hundreds and thousands, then firmly place the hard-boiled eggs in the middle of the bread nests.

7. Bake for around 25-30 minutes at 200C/180C fan/Gas Mark 6 till golden brown and well risen.