Welcome to Easter Recipes Page — This is the latest in my occasional series (beginning with Christmas Recipes) on festival foods and dishes. With Easter now on the way I thought I'd start next tackle this particular festival. Though considered a Christian festival these days Easter is basically an amalgam of various spring-time festival, celebrating the re-birth and re-awakening of the earth in a different guise. Almost all civilizations above the tropics have a version of the spring-time feast and various spring-time practices to do with re-birth and renewal. In the Romance and Celtic languages, the name of easter derives from the Greek name, Pascha, which itself is derived from Pesach, the Hebrew festival of Passover. In the Germanic languages English name, 'Easter', and the German, 'Ostern', derive from the name of a putative Anglo-Saxon Goddess of the Dawn known variously as Ēaster, Ēastre, and Ēostre in various dialects of Old English and Ostara in German. In most Slavic languages, the name for Easter either means 'Great Day' or 'Great Night'. For example, Wielkanoc and Velikonoce mean 'Great Night' or 'Great Nights' in Polish and Czech, respectively. Великдень (Velikden', Velykden') and Вялікдзень (Vyalikdzyen') mean 'The Great Day' in Ukrainian, Bulgarian and Belarusian, respectively.

Easter is the most important of the religious festivals in the Christian liturgical year and celebrates the resurrection of Jesus, which Christians believe occurred on the third day after his crucifixion some time in the period AD 27 to 33. Many pagan elements have become part of the celebration, and those aspects are often celebrated by many Christians and non-Christians alike.

Popular Halloween activities include trick-or-treating (or the related guising and souling), attending Halloween costume parties, carving pumpkins or turnips into jack-o'-lanterns, lighting bonfires, apple bobbing, divination games, playing pranks, visiting haunted attractions, telling scary stories, and watching horror or Halloween-themed films.

Easter is such an important celebration in the Christian calendar that it is hardly surprising that various culinary traditions have grown up around it. From Europe, through Africa, the Middle Easy and to the Americas there are drinks and dishes that are specifically served at Easter only.

Part of this tradition is to do with the fasting days of lent. The days leading up to Easter are meatless and either vegetarian or fish-based dishes only are served. The period of lent itself begins with Shrove Tuesday (also known as Pancake Tuesday) where the last of the year's rich produce is consumed. There are then meatless or lenten days leading up to Easter itself.

As well as being served for Easter it is also traditional to decorate eggs for Easter itself and many cakes and desserts are often decorated with eggs (originally coloured chicken eggs, though candy and chocolate eggs are often used today).

For the complete list of recipes, please scroll down to the 'links to Easter recipes' below.

The Stages of Easter

Good Friday

Easter proper begins with Good Friday (also called Holy Friday or Great Friday), this being the Friday before Easter and commemorates the commemorates the crucifixion and death of Christ. It has long been traditional to eat hot cross buns on Good Friday and below are three recipes for this sweet, fruity bread:


Hot Cross Buns
Hot Cross Buns With Cream Cheese Frosting
Lemon Cross Buns
Bermudan Hot Cross Buns

On the South Coast of England and Especially in Devon and Cornwall it's been traditional to serve a fish pie as the evening meal on Good Friday. Below is a link to the recipe for this pie:

Good Friday Fish Pie

Also, remember that any of the fish-based recipes presented in their own section of this site are suitable for a Good Friday meal.

Easter Saturday

The evening of Easter Saturday is traditionally time to decorate eggs or to make Easter eggs and Easter biscuits (cookies) which are then hidden around the house in preparation for the easter egg hunt on Sunday morning. Below are a few recipes for Easter eggs and biscuits:


Bunny Biscuits
Easter Biscuits
Glazed Easter Biscuits
Easter Bunny Biscuits
Koulourakia (Greek Easter Biscuits)
Gingerbread Easter Bunny Biscuits

Easter Sunday

Easter Sunday was traditionally important as the time for Easter services. It is also the day for traditional Easter hunts for eggs and biscuits. Easter Sunday is the day for the main Easter meal and below are some suggestions for an Easter-themed dinner.

Snacks

Certain snacks, such as tansies have been an essential part of the Easter celebrations for centuries. Often, they were flavoured with bitter herbs as a sign of penitence and this Easter Tansy recipe going back to the 15th century is a classic example of the fare:

Easter Tansy

Breakfast

This is more a modern than an ancient tradition, but Easter breakfasts have gained prominence in recent years and here are some classic examples:

Easter Brunch Sausage Strata
Easter Frittata

Starters

Devilled Eggs

Soups and Salads

Bavarian Herb Soup
This is a very traditional soup and hearkens back to the time when bitter herbs were traditionally eaten at Easter in Christian countries as a sign of penitence.

Mayiritsa (Greek Easter Soup)
Polish Easter Soup
Minestra siciliana di Pasqua (Sicilian Easter Soup)
Polish Horseradish Soup
Carrot Salad

Main Course

Lamb, of course, is the traditional Easter meat par excellence, with its association with the Jewish Passover. Roast lamb being the traditional meal. But below are a few variants on this old stalwart that you may like to try:


Easter Leg Of Lamb With Apricots
Easter Greek Lamb
Ellenike arnie aiga Paschast (Greek Easter Lamb or Kid)

These days roast hams are gaining popularity during the Easter meal. Here are some recipes for you to make your own roast hams:
Easter Ham
Honey Glazed Easter Ham
Easter Ham with Rhubarb Sauce


Fowl such as Chicken and turkey are becoming popular these days. Here are recipes for chicken and turkey dishes, including the ever-popular roast turkey:
The Ultimate Roast Turkey

If you would like to try something new, then have a go at these recipes:
Easter Brisket

Easter Savoury Breads

The breaking of bread is a traditional part of the Jewish passover meal an this has survived in the Christian tradition, though most Easter breads are sweet rather than savoury. The recipe below, therefore is for a rather rare savoury Easter cheese-based bread.

Dessert

Easter Ledge pudding is a truly ancient kind of dessert. It's been around probably from ancient times but became associated particularly with Easter during the Middle ages. Serve this as a dessert and bring a note of ancient Easters to your meal.

Easter Ledge Pudding

Here are other Easter-associated desserts:

Easter Neapolitan Grain Pie
Liv Syrnyk (Easter Cheesecake with Sultanas)
Easter Rice Pudding
Baked Rice with Garlic (a traditional Spanish Lenten dish)

Drinks

Tansy Cordial

Sweet Breads and Cakes

Sweet breads are particularly associated with Easter. Here are a selection for you to bake:
Tsoureki
Easter Rolls
Paskalya Çöreği (Turkish Easter Bread)

Though Saffron originates from Greece, saffron cakes and small saffron buns were traditionally eaten with clotted cream in Devon and Cornwall during the Easter period, most especially on Easter Sunday:

Easter Sunday Saffron Cake

Resurrection Rolls are sweet rolls baked with marshmallows in the centre. As the bread bakes the marshmallows dissolve into the bread, leaving the roll hollow in the centre... just like Christ's tomb on the third day:>

Resurrection Rolls

There are many versions of the following classic plaited Easter bread, which is also known as 'Easter Crown Bread'. This recipe is for the simplest version, which is a plain bread studded with eggs. Other versions have flavourings, typically candied peel and aniseed. The eggs studded in the plaited bread echo the crown of thorns whilst the eggs are also symbols of resurrection and re-birth.

Braided Easter Bread
Easter Crown Bread

There are also other traditional Easter cakes for you to make:

Cathedral Windows Chocolate Nest Cake Easter Cake Easter Fruit Cake Easter Lamb Cake La Pastiera di Grano (Neapolitan Easter Cake) Simaya Pashka (Easter Cheese Cake) Kulich (Russian Easter Cake)

Paska Babka (Easter Babka) Houska (Bohemian Easter and Christmas Cake) Cheese Paska Pane della colomba di Pasqua (Italian Easter Dove Bread) Easter White Chocolate and Lime Cheesecake Goosnargh Cakes Easter Chocolate Cake Welsh Simnel Cake Bury Simnel Cake

The following are modern recipes for cupcakes, but they're nice and something you can get the kids involved in making:
Easy Easter Bunny Icing

For something different, the following is a recipe for a traditional jam tart topped with egg meringue in the shape of a nest that's filled with marzipan eggs:

Sweets and Candies

The tradition of sweet egg-shaped candies goes back to the Middle Ages, though the giving of chocolate eggs is a rather modern development:

Marshmallow Easter Eggs Cherry Nut Easter Eggs Rainbow Mallow Eggs Rice Krispies Easter Eggs Sugar Eggs Home-made Creme Eggs Quick-as-a-Bunny Easter Egg Nests Bunny Corn

Easter Monday

Easter Monday is the day after Easter Sunday and formerly marked the beginning of a week of secular celebration though this was reduced to only one day during the 19th century. Events on Easter Monday include egg rolling competitions and, in predominantly Catholic countries, dousing other people with water which, at one time, had been holy water blessed the day before at Easter Sunday Mass and carried home to bless the house and food.

Easter Season

In past times the Easter season lasted from the beginning of Lent (Ash Wednesday) until Easter itself, with the purpose of Lent (with its associated abstinence from meat and dairy) being the preparation of the believer — through prayer, repentance, almsgiving and self-denial — for the annual commemoration during Holy Week of the Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which recalls the events linked to the Passion of Christ and culminates in Easter, the celebration of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. In Britain, traditional observance of Lent lasted well into the 18th century, and Hannah Glasse, in her book: The Art of Cookery Made Plain and Easy (1747) devotes a whole chapter to Lent Dinner Dishes. One of the major festivals during this period was mid-Lent Sunday (now Mothering Sunday) where he devout parishioners went to the Mother Church of the parish, or the Cathedral of the diocese, to make their offerings. Sometime in the 17th Century the day became the festival of human motherhood when the whole family met together and apprentices and servants were given the day off – probably the only holiday in the year – and took flowers gathered from the hedgerows and, sometimes the gift of a simnel cake to their mothers from their employers. This is how Simnel cake became associated with Easter.


Though Simnel cake is now an Easter cake it began as a cake for Mothering Sunday. The cakes themselves are known from Medieval times and it's likely that the word 'Simnel' itself derives from the Latin simila, meaning fine as the wheat flour from which the cakes were made was the finest milled at the time. All Simnel cakes tend to be very rich but some are simple, some use yeast doughs and some use a creamed mixture. The recipe below is for a 'Shrewsbury Simnel'. Basically flour, spices and fruit. All Simnel cakes are covered in white almond paste and decorated with 11 almond paste balls (all the apostles with the exception of Judas).

Originally Simnel cake was a case of hard pastry, coloured gold with saffron and filled with all types of dried fruit. In later years the fruit filling became a fruitcake and the pastry was replaced by marzipan.

The original Medieval Simnel Cake (actually a pie) is given below:
Medieval Simnel Cake

Below are two modern recipes for Simnel cake, the first made without yeast and the second made with yeast:
Simnel Cake
Yeast-based Simnel Cake

This next recipe is for an Estonian lenten bun that, like hot cross buns, can be eaten throughout the Easter season:
Estonian Lenten Buns

On Ash Wednesday, at the very beginning of the Easter period salt cod was commonly eaten and this recipe for salt cod comes from Mrs Beeton's cookbook.