Bread Bunnies

It's spring! What better way to celebrate then with bread bunnies?

Bread Bunnies (makes 24-32 bunny rolls)

2 1/2 cups flour + 3-4 cups

1 package or 2 1/4 tsp yeast

2 1/4 cup milk

1-2 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp Sugar

1 Tbsp each- parsley, sage, rosemary, & thyme.

1 1/2 tsp Kosher Salt

1 egg white

1 Tbsp water

Whisk 2 1/2 cups flour with yeast. In a saucepan, heat the milk, butter, sugar, salt, and herbs to 130 degrees (butter almost melts). Add it to the flour, combine, then turn the mixer up to high speed for 3 minutes. (This helps the gluten form it's characteristic stickiness which is essential for the rising process because it traps the yeasty bubbles).

Add enough flour to make it fluffy and not super sticky, a little bit sticky on the inside is good.

Grease a bowl and plop your dough into the bowl, turn the dough to coat it in the oil. Put a towel over the bowl and let it rise in a warm place for 1 hour (or until it doubles).

Separate dough into 6 -8 equal portions (depending on how many bunnies you want, 6 makes 24, 7 makes 28, & 8 makes 32.) Cover the portions you are not using (this theoretically traps heat next to the dough to help it rise).

Roll the portion into an 6-8" circle, then cut the circle into six equal pie wedges.

Take two of the six wedges and cut them in half longways (these will be 4 bunny heads). Take your kitchen shears and cut from the point towards the fat end of the bunny heads to make the ears, stop about an inch before the end.

Take the remaining 4 wedges and cut off the tips (these will be tails) and roll them into balls. Shape the body piece how you want and attach a head and tail to each bunny, you may wet your finger to help them attach.

Mix the egg white with 1 Tbsp water. Brush the egg mixture over the bunnies.

Choose a topping:

1. Sugar sage (my favorite) -1/4 cup Sugar, 1 Tbsp Sage

2. Rosemary Parmesan- 1/4 cup fresh Parmesan, 1 Tbsp crushed Rosemary

Mix up your topping and sprinkle it over your bunnies. Bake the bunnies at 350 for 15 minutes (if you have two sheets of bunnies in at the same time, set a timer for half so you can switch their oven locations for even browning).

The rosemary parmesan topped bunnies are especially good with marinara or pizza sauce for dipping. My college roomies joked that they were bloody bunnies. We tried stuffing the bunnies with pizza toppings and sauce, it wasn't my best work, but it makes one think of what sort of yummy surprises a bunny might contain... thanks to the Better Homes and Gardens Annual Recipes 2003 cookbook.