Here is an email to me from my aunt, Rachel Cala:

In Italy, food has always played a symbolic and important role in Easter Festivities. The egg is the Christian emblem of the Resurrection, and Sicilians love to make charming miniature pastry baskets, breads and “dolls” of homemade bread called Buba Cul’Uova. I can remember my own Sicilian grandmother, Rachela Sacco, my namesake, showing me at an early age, the intricacies of pulling, folding and placing an egg in a doll’s nest. My Mom had told me that old timers could not afford expensive chocolate and substituted these dolls for their children on Easter morning. We always looked forward to helping Grandma make them. Of course, we lived right next door to her, so it was easy sleeping over the night before Easter to get an early start. Today, I make me own recipe of sweet roll dough with yeast to create them. You can also make or buy bread dough. My own grand daughters, Jesalyn and Melissa Cala take delight in coming over on Easter and helping me to fashion their own “doll. ” They love to cover them with icing and decorate with sprinkles and maybe even a bow, eating them with their Easter Brunch or dinner. Here’s how you do it: Measure in mixing bowl:

• 1/2 cup warm water

Add, stiring to disolve:

• 2 packages active dry yeast

Stir in the following:

• 1 1/2 cup lukewarm milk
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup soft shortening
• half of 7 to 7 1/2 cups sifted flour

Mix with wooden spoon until smooth. Add enough remaining flour to handle easily, mix with hand. Turn onto lightly floured board, knead until smooth and elastic (about 5 minutes). Round up dough and place in greased bowl, and cover with damp cloth. Let rise in warm place until double,about 1 1/2 hours. Punch down, let rise again until almost double, about 1/2 hour. Divide dough in about 7 lengths, about 10 inches in length. Bring together ends and braid together, place egg in top part, cover again for about 1/2 hour. Bake at 375 F for about 20-25 minutes. When slightly cooled down, frost and sprinkle. The egg will cook in the oven. Allow bread to cool and enjoy!

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This entry was posted on Monday, April 13th, 2009 at 7:56 pm and is filed under Blogroll, Food, Friends, Kids. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.