As soon as the yeast hits the warm milk and that wonderful smell rises up through the kitchen, I’m a little girl again. My Mom’s hands are mixing the flour, butter, eggs, milk and yeast in her giant pink and white glass Pyrex mixing bowl. When she made this bread, she made batch after batch…after batch. She made sure that everyone she knew received a loaf. Well, except for one Easter…

My Mom had a day-long marathon of choereg-baking. It was ridiculous, really. I have no idea how many batches she had made, but I can tell you that every square inch of our dining room table was covered in loaves and loaves of choereg all carefully wrapped in aluminum foil. When my Dad came in from work and saw the sea of bread, he decided to take us all out to our favorite Chinese restaurant for dinner. We left Duke, our sweet, loyal and perpetually hungry Labrador home to guard the precious silver loaves. I was very young, but I do remember coming in the door to my Mom screaming at the dog. I can still picture the carpets, speckled with bits of silver confetti here and there…and really, everywhere. It was all over the house. Not one, truly, not one loaf of choereg was left. I have no idea how Duke survived that one. My sisters and I thought for sure that if 20 loaves of choereg didn’t kill him, my Mom certainly would.

You have seen this bread before on Taste Love & Nourish, but I wanted to change things up a bit for Easter. This recipe is slightly different from my original. It’s a bit lighter in texture, but still has that wonderful flavor from the mahleb (a Middle Eastern spice made from the seeds of sour cherry pits). It’s a warm and nutty flavor. You’ll love it.

Normally, choereg is a long braided loaf, but since I can’t seem to ever leave anything alone, I took my braided loaf, brought the ends together to make a braided round. I had no idea how they’d turn out…but I love the way they look!

With a bit of butter and your favorite jam, choereg makes breakfast (or anytime) feel special. We love this so much, I make it all year round.