Easter in Baden-Baden

In Germany, in the kindergarten „Le petit prince“, the Easter bunny comes every year to bring a little nest to the children. This year we celebrated Easter a little differently. The children built a large nest out of sticks in the forest. Some days later, they hiked to the nest that they had made and actually found some Easter eggs, little rabbits and chicks, all made of chocolate, as well as other goodies.
Happily loaded with their treasures, they returned to the kindergarten, where Nikolaj’s father had prepared a huge buffet with hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, cucumbers, bread and other delicacies. This is how we celebrated Easter this year.

Heidi Quéré

Happy Easter

Easter in Portugal

In Portuguese, “Easter” is written “Páscoa”, from the Hebrew “Pessach”, which means “going through”.

In Easter, Christians celebrate the resurrection of Jesus, three days after Jesus had been crucified and returned to life on the next Sunday.

On that Friday, Catholics don’t eat meat and by tradition they eat a variety of seafood, but only some of them.

On Sunday, Easter’s day, the Portuguese go to church. The godparents generally give their godchildren a present.

Another traditional symbol of this day is the Easter egg. In Portugal the eggs are made of chocolate and parents, relatives or friends give them to children.

Almonds are also given to children and people.

There is a traditional Portuguese cake called “Folar da Páscoa”, which is made of dough and spices, like cinnamon and anise. One or more boiled eggs decorate it.

Easter - Folar Recipe

Easter in Portugal is celebrated with a sweet bread called Folar da Páscoa.
Folar is one of the best known of Portuguese Easter foods.

The recipes vary from region to region.
The bread is usually served as a dessert after Easter meals.
Folar is typically associated with having a boiled egg embedded into the top of the bread and held in place by a cross of bread dough.
Most recipes are slightly sweet and contain cinnamon although some Portuguese regions eat it as a savoury bread which sometimes includes meats.

Ingredients:
400g Flour
15g Fresh Yeast
45g Caster Sugar
90g Butter
1 Large Egg
300ml Milk
1 teaspoon Powdered Aniseed
1 teaspoon Cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon Salt

For Decoration
2 hard boiled eggs
1 beaten egg for brushing

In a bowl combine the yeast, 1/4 of the flour, a 1/3 of the milk (warmed) and half the sugar.
Mix together to make a dough, cover and leave in a warm place for 1/2 hour
Beat the eggs with the salt and spices and remaining milk and sugar.
Kneed in the rest of the flour and egg mix to the dough gradually.
Kneed in the butter.
Cover the dough and leave it to rise for about three hours in a warm place.
For traditional portuguese Folar, break the dough into two (or leave whole) and place the eggs on top.
Make a cross with two rolled lengths of dough to put on the top, holding the egg in place.
Brush the bread with the beaten egg.
Cook at 210c until golden brown.