Croatian Easter and Baking Bread:

V.H.: For Easter we go into church, we had a branch, my Mom had a palm, we called Easter Palm, and we went home. We made Easter bread, and had fish and meat, and that’s it.

ME: And what do you do to make Easter bread?

V.H.: Oh, for Easter bread to make, we use eggs, butter, flour, sugar, and uh, baking powder, making loaf in, uh, we had no oven at the time, but one outside. Mom had a fire inside burned, and we put into the oven the dough, to make the Easter bread.

ME: And you have kept the recipe the same to this day, when making Easter bread at your house, like recently?

V.H.: Yes, same recipe, like last time.

Based on my experiences of traveling to the country Croatia, and in the immigrant community in the United States, Croatians and Croatian immigrants abroad traditionally make an Easter bread, called pinca, which is a kind of sugar bread powdered on top with another bit of sugar. This bread is also served by the family on Christmas, and Thanksgiving, as well as other family events like weddings and anniversaries. It seems to have developed from being an Easter tradition, to an all-encompassing recipe that is served for dessert on those other occasions.