Austrian Sweet Easter Bread (Brioche Wreath)

April 15, 2025

This sweet Easter bread (Osterkranz) is essentially a braided, fluffy brioche wreath. This delicious, soft brioche is subtly sweet since it only contains ¼ cup sugar and will melt in your mouth. It is traditionally baked for Easter Sunday in Austria but tastes great any time of the year!

Sweet Easter bread wreath

Easter is the second most important holiday after Christmas in Austria. This is why I have already posted some traditional Easter breads like this Giant Brioche Crescent, Fluffy Easter Bunny Rolls or a soft Brioche Braid (Striezel). You can find them all in my article for the Best Easter recipes.

easter bread
Nothing better than a fluffy Easter bread.

Wreath or loaf

This traditional Easter bread is a soft brioche yeast dough braided and formed into a large wreath. You could also make 2 Challah-style loafs (“Striezel” or “Zopf” in German) or 4-5 mini loafs.  

You can bake the Easter bread(s) on a large baking sheet like I did here or divide the dough into 2 pieces, braid them, and then bake them in two 9×13-inch loaf pans.

sweet easter bread
The crumb is super soft and will melt in your mouth.

Recipe Easter bread

mix wet ingredients
Mix wet dough ingredients.

You can make the dough by hand or in a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment. In a large bowl add warm milk, sprinkle instant yeast on top and let it sit for 1 minute (or 5 minutes if using active dry yeast).

Meanwhile, melt butter and let cool. Add sugar, vanilla extract, 1 whole egg and 1 egg white (keep 1 egg yolk for egg-wash), farmer’s cheese, melted butter, and salt to the bowl with the milk. If desired, add rum and lemon zest. Briefly mix everything with the dough hook or a cooking spoon.

mixing dough
Add half of the flour to the wet ingredients.

Add roughly half of the flour and stir until combined. If using raisins, add them now (I did not add any).

Mixing the dough
Mix the ingredients into a dough.

Then add the rest of the flour and knead 5-8 minutes until the dough is smooth, moist, and elastic. If kneading by hand, I usually do it directly in the bowl since the dough is pretty tacky. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl towards the end of the kneading time. If not, add a bit additional flour (tablespoon by tablespoon).

Brioche dough
Left: before the rise, right: after rising.

Let the dough rise, covered, at warm room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 to 1½  hours. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

3 dough strands
Roll dough pieces into 3 strands.

Braid the dough:  Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope (28-inch/70 cm). I find it easiest to do this on an unfloured counter.

braiding with 3 strands
For a more uniform braid, start in the middle.

Line up the 3 ropes in parallel, then braid.

Braiding easter bread
Braiding with 3 strands.

If you start at the center and braid towards both ends, the braid will be more symmetrical.

yeast dough wreath
Join the 2 ends by braiding/pinching them into each other.

Join the two ends by pinching them together to make a ring/wreath.

Sweet easter bread wreath
Easter wreath after the 2nd rise – nice and puffy.

Transfer the wreath to the parchment paper-lined sheet, and let it rise at warm room temperature until nicely puffed up, about 3/4 hour. If this takes longer, spray/brush the dough with water or cover to avoid drying out. Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C.

Sweet easter bread ring
The Easter bread just before baking.

Mix the egg yolk you’ve set aside earlier with 2 teaspoons milk, and then brush the dough with this egg-wash. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Baked Easter Wreath
Bake until golden.

Bake in the preheated oven, middle rack, until golden for about 25-30 minutes.

Sweet Easter Bread recipe

Let cool and enjoy!

How to eat Easter bread

In Austria, we traditionally bake the Easter bread for Easter Sunday and eat it for breakfast. Of course, it’s also terrific in the afternoon with a cup of tea or coffee. It tastes great plain, with butter, or butter and jam. When freshly baked, I prefer to enjoy it plain – it’s soft and fluffy, and simply tastes delicious!

More Easter recipes:

In my Best Easter recipes article, you can find even more recipes, which are fantastic for Easter breakfast and brunch.

Did you make this recipe? Let me know in the comments how it turned out and also leave me a star rating if you want :)

sweet easter bread
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Austrian Sweet Easter Bread (Brioche Wreath)

Traditional Austrian Easter bread (Osterkranz) – a soft, sweet brioche dough formed into a wreath. Sprinkle it with coarse sugar, sliced almonds, or enjoy plain. It is traditionally baked for Easter Sunday in Austria but tastes great any time of the year!
Prep Time35 minutes
Cook Time25 minutes
Proofing2 hours
Yield: 1 large wreath (or 2 loafs)

Ingredients

  • 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup (200 ml) lukewarm milk
  • 2 ¼ teaspoons (7 g) instant yeast or active dry yeast
  • 5 ½ tablespoons (75 g) unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 2 eggs (US size large, Europe size medium, 60 g in weight with shell)
  • 1/4 cup (50 g) farmer’s cheese (you can substitute ricotta cheese OR 3 tablespoons sour cream/greek yoghurt + 1 tablespoon flour)
  • 1 ¼ teaspoon (8 g) fine salt
  • Optional (used here): 1 teaspoon brown rum, finely grated zest of ½ to 1 organic lemon
  • 500 g (about 4 cups) bread flour or all-purpose flour
  • Optional (not used here): 2/3 cups (100 g) golden raisins

In addition:

  • 2 teaspoons milk for brushing
  • Optional, for sprinkling: coarse sugar or almond slices

Instructions

Make the dough:

  • You can make the dough by hand or in a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment.
  • In a large bowl add warm milk, sprinkle instant yeast on top and let it sit for 1 minute (or 5 minutes if using active dry yeast). Meanwhile, melt butter and let cool.
  • Add sugar, vanilla extract, 1 whole egg and 1 egg white (keep 1 egg yolk for egg-wash), farmer’s cheese, melted butter, and salt to the bowl with the milk. If desired, add rum and lemon zest. Briefly mix everything with the dough hook or a cooking spoon.
  • Add roughly half of the flour and stir until combined. If using raisins, add them now. Then add the rest of the flour and knead 5-8 minutes until the dough is smooth, moist, and elastic. If kneading by hand, I usually do it directly in the bowl since the dough is pretty tacky. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl towards the end of the kneading time. If not, add a bit additional flour (tablespoon by tablespoon).
  • Let the dough rise, covered, at warm room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 to 1½ hours. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Braid dough:

  • Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope (28-inch/70 cm). I find it easiest to do this on an unfloured counter. Line up the 3 ropes in parallel, then braid. If you start at the center and braid towards both ends, the braid will be more symmetrical. Join the two ends by pinching them together to make a ring/wreath.
  • Transfer the wreath to the parchment paper-lined sheet, and let it rise at warm room temperature until nicely puffed up, about 3/4 hour. If this takes longer, spray/brush the dough with water or cover to avoid drying out.

Bake:

  • Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Mix the remaining egg yolk with 2 teaspoons milk, and brush the dough with this egg-wash. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
  • Bake in the preheated oven, middle rack, until golden for about 25-30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!

Notes

Long cold rise:
Right after kneading, let the dough rise, tightly covered, in the refrigerator overnight, 10-15 hours. About 3/4 to 1 hour before braiding, remove the dough from the fridge to bring it to room temperature.
Wreath or loaf:
Instead of a large wreath, you could also make 2 Challah-style loafs (“Striezel” or “Zopf” in German) or 4-5 mini loafs.  You can bake the Easter bread(s) on a large baking sheet like I did here or divide the dough into 2 pieces, braid them, and then bake them in two 9×13-inch loaf pans.
Austrian Sweet Easter Bread (Brioche Wreath) was last modified: April 15th, 2025 by Ursula

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