This Vegan Easter Bread recipe is based on our traditional family recipe! It's sweet, fragrant and melts in your mouth. Fill your kitchen with the delicious smell of warm, sweet bread and share a slice with loved ones!
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Easter Bread has always been a part of the spread we enjoy as a family together on Easter. I still remember the beautiful braided bread, studded with bright dyed eggs and nonpareils that my Grandmother brought every Easter.
The tradition of making and bringing the bread was passed to me about 6 years ago now and it was important to me that my family would still enjoy this Easter tradition without any sacrifice on flavor or texture.
Enjoy this soft and fluffy Vegan Easter Bread as a dessert, snack or as a sweet breakfast treat! It's so delicious toasted with a bit of vegan butter to crisp up those edges. YUM.
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Traditional Braided Easter Bread
While traditionally, Easter bread is a sweet brioche made with dairy, butter and eggs, there is no loss in fluffiness or quality by making this vegan! I've swapped out the eggs for flaxseed, switched the butter for vegan butter (I like Country Crock) and swapped the dairy for soy milk.
I know the absence of eggs in a brioche may sound blasphemous. But, believe me, after making this many many MANY times, it does not need them at all. I've made this both with flax eggs and without any egg substitute. Both methods work, but the version with flax is my preference as it results in a softer and more fluffy bread with less crumbs.

Ingredients
Let's gather our ingredients:
- raisins optional
- vegan butter- I like to use the stick variety from Country Crock
- soy milk
- ground flax
- active dry yeast
- warm water
- cane sugar
- bread flour
- salt
- lemon zest
How to make Vegan Easter Bread
The Traditional Easter Bread from my family has many steps and believe it or not, I've condensed it as much as possible to try to make it easier for you. Let's break it all down:
Step 1: Prepare your Ingredients
Taking a moment to organize your ingredients and prep a few things will make the whole process much easier for you. So let's get to prepping!
- Soak your raisins in warm water. When ready to add to the bread drain them and pat them dry.
- Melt your butter and warm the soy milk in a small saucepan on the stove, then remove from heat. This should not be above 115°F when you're ready to add it to the bread. To the touch it should feel just lukewarm and not hot.
- Mix your flax egg in a small bowl by combining water and ground flax.
- Bloom the yeast by adding to a large bowl (or stand mixer bowl) with warm water (between 100-110°F, again lukewarm and not hot) and a pinch of sugar. Yeast should appear foamy after 5-10 minutes and this means it's ready to use!

Step 2: Prepare your dough
- To the large bowl with the activated yeast, add bread flour (start with 4 cups), sugar, salt, lemon zest, butter and soy milk. Add drained and dried raisins to the dough. Knead for 5 minutes to make a soft dough. You can do this all by hand or use a stand mixer if you prefer!
- Important Note: If your raisins are too wet when you added them to the dough, the dough may feel too sticky. Add a little more flour- up to ¼ cup.
- Return dough to bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and let it rise for 1 hour



Step 3: Braid, Rise again & Bake!
- Prepare a baking sheet with non-stick spray OR vegan butter.
- Divide dough into 3 even pieces for a very large loaf, or 6 even pieces for 2 medium sized loaves. Roll each piece into long ropes, equal in size. Take 3 ropes, press the ends together and braid into a straight loaf, gently pressing both ends to seal. (You can also choose to connect the sealed ends together to form a circular wreath.)
- Place on prepared baking sheet, lightly cover with damp tea towel and let rest for another 1-1½ hours until about doubled in size. Preheat oven to 350°F.
- When ready to bake, brush top of loaf with soy milk and decorate as you desire with coarse sugar, sprinkles, dried cherries or almonds.
- Bake for 32-36 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool completely before slicing.

Substitutions
Wondering if you can make some swaps in this recipe? These are the ones I've tested with good result:
- Bread Flour- you can substitute All Purpose Flour 1:1 for the bread flour in this recipe. It will lead to a denser bread, but it will still turn out very well. My family recipe traditionally uses AP Flour, I chose to switch to Bread Flour as I noticed better results.
- Flax Seed- Flax seed is your substitute for eggs in this recipe and leads to a nicer quality bread overall. You can leave the flax out completely and add a ¼ cup more soy milk if you prefer, your bread may be a bit more crumbly but will still be delicious.

Storage
Store the completely cooled Easter Bread in an airtight bag, it should remain fresh for up to 5 days.
Did you make this recipe? Please leave a comment and ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ rating below! Take a picture and tag me on Instagram @samcookskindness !
Looking for more Easter Ideas? Try these:
Recipe

Vegan Easter Bread
Ingredients
- ½ cup raisins optional
- ¼ cup vegan butter
- ½ cup soy milk
- 2 tablespoons ground flax + 6 tablespoons water
- 1 packet active dry yeast 2¼ teaspoons
- ¼ cup warm water
- ½ cup cane sugar (+½ teaspoon for yeast mixture)
- 4-4¼ cups bread flour 480g-510g
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ½ lemon, zest only
Toppings
- 1-2 tablespoons soy milk
- Vegan sprinkles or coarse sugar optional for decorations
- sliced almonds and/or dried cherries optional for decorations
Instructions
Prepare
- Add raisins (if using) to a small bowl and cover with warm water to plump up, set aside.
- On stovetop- add butter and soy milk. Warm over low heat until butter is just melted then remove from heat. This mixture should be luke warm when ready to add to the bread and should not exceed 115°F.
- Prepare Flax egg- mix ground flax with 6 tablespoons of water and set aside to thicken.
- Activate yeast, to a large mixing bowl (or stand mixer bowl) add warm water (not hot! Water should be around 100-110°F), yeast and ½ teaspoon of sugar. Let sit for about 5-10 minutes. Yeast should appear foamy on the top of the water when ready to use. (If yeast does not look foamy, wait a few more minutes or start a fresh mixture.)
Make the Dough
- To the large bowl with the activated yeast, add bread flour (start with 4 cups), sugar, salt, lemon zest, flax egg, melted butter and soy milk. Mix until just combined, drain raisins very well, pat dry, and add to dough. Knead for 5 minutes to make a soft dough. (If too sticky add a little more flour- up to ¼ cup.) NOTE: a stand mixer with a dough hook can also be used for mixing and kneading if preferred.
- Return dough to bowl, cover with a damp tea towel and let it rise for 1 hour.
Braid & Bake
- Prepare a baking sheet with non-stick spray OR vegan butter.
- Divide into 3 even pieces for a very large loaf, or 6 even pieces for 2 smaller loafs. Roll each piece into long ropes, equal in size. Take 3 ropes, press the ends together and braid into a straight loaf, pressing both ends to seal. (You can also choose to connect the sealed ends together to form a circular wreath.)
- Place on prepared baking sheet, lightly cover with damp tea towel and let rest for another 1-1½ hours until about doubled in size. Preheat oven to 350°F.
- When ready to bake, brush top of loaf with soy milk and decorate as you desire with coarse sugar, sprinkles, dried cherries or almonds.
- Bake for 32-36 minutes until golden brown. Allow to cool completely before slicing.
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Nicole says
Hello! The recipe never states when to add the flax seed mixture?
Sam says
Thank you!! I'm making a batch right now and just noticed that as well. Recipe is updated!