A plate of deviled eggs.

Below you will find my favorite Easter recipes, from baked ham with mustard sauce to rack of lamb with tzatziki to scalloped potatoes and punch to buttermilk pull-apart rolls and hot cross buns. This post is organized as follows:

Hot Cross Buns

A cross section of hot cross buns in their baking dish.
Frosted hot cross buns.

Made with a mix of brown sugar and white and a dash of nutmeg, these Hot Cross Buns are perfectly sweet and subtly spiced. Halved and spread with butter, they are so, so delicious. Easy too: Assemble the pan of buns the night before and stick it in the fridge. On Good Friday morning, simply pop the pan in the oven. Recipe includes a currant variation, too:

A halved hot cross bun on a plate.
Just baked Currant hot cross buns.

Easy-Peel Hard-Cooked Eggs

If youโ€™re dyeing eggs for Easter and are dreading the post-holiday peeling process, dread no more! Here are two easy-to-peel egg-cooking methods: stovetop and Instant Pot. In both, the eggs are steamed, which makes the shells slip right off. While I love my instant pot, more and more I favor the stovetop steaming method, which I use in this deviled eggs recipe and this egg salad sandwich.

Easter Brunch Punch

If youโ€™ve never made a โ€œhouseโ€ punch, I highly recommend it, and I highly recommend this one: Philadelphia Fish House Punch,ย a mix of brandy, cognac, rum, fresh lemon juice, and simple syrup.

Ingredients to make Philadelphia Fish House Punch.
A vintage punch bowl.
Punch bowl!
Bundt pan ice ring!

Brunch (Sweet)

Brioche Cinnamon Buns

Prep these buns on Easter Eve. Rise to frosted brioche bliss โ€ฆ (and to very happy humans).

Buttermilk Blueberry Breakfast Cake

Ten years after posting this recipe, buttermilk blueberry breakfast cake continues to be one of the most popular recipes on the site:

Overhead close-up of buttermilk breakfast cake fresh from the oven.

Overnight French Toast

This is the easiest French toast you will ever make, and I believe itโ€™s one of the best, too. Itโ€™s crisp on the exterior and custardy on the interior. It emerges from the oven piping hot, ready for syrup, fruit, powdered sugar, or all three. Recently I made it with homemade brioche, and it was exceptional.

Blueberry Scones, Blueberry Muffins

Brunch (Savory)

Dinner

If youโ€™ve ever toiled over a roast turkey โ€” from the brining to the basting to the carving โ€” a baked ham feels like a complete dream. For one, thereโ€™s no marinating or brining. Second, you canโ€™t overcook it, because itโ€™s already cooked! Youโ€™re simply heating it through. Find all of my baked ham tips here.

Weโ€™ll be baking a brown sugar glazed ham this year and serving it aside my grandmotherโ€™s mustard sauce (the best). If you make a ham, be sure to save the bone and make this split pea and ham soup with it afterward.

Split Pea and Ham Soup made with the ham bone and leftover ham:

A bowl of split pea and ham soup topped with olive oil croutons.

If youโ€™re making lamb, here are two nice condiments:

Potatoes

Crispy Roasted Fingerling Potatoes

A platter of oven-roasted fingerling potatoes.
Just baked buttermilk pull-apart rolls.

Holiday Bread

Though I am partial toย rollsย on the holiday table, itโ€™s hard to beat thisย overnight, refrigerator focacciaย in terms of effort-to-reward ratio. Itโ€™s truly so easy and so delicious.

But if youโ€™re up for making rolls, both of the recipes below are no-knead, and each dough can be made ahead of time and stashed in the fridge until you are ready to bake.

Find a few more ideas below and here โ†’ย Favorite Bread Recipes

Popovers ๐ŸŽ‰

A tray of popovers in the oven.
A bowl of popovers.

Rolls ๐ŸŽ‰

Crusty Bread ๐ŸŽ‰

Biscuits ๐Ÿ‘

Bread ๐ŸŽ‰

freshly baked sourdough focaccia, cut

If making rolls is a page-turner for you, you could make a batch of this no-fuss focaccia. The beauty of this recipe is that itโ€™s best made the day before and tucked in the fridge โ€” on Easter morning, you would just let it rise at room temperature for 3 to 4 hours. You can bake it when the ham is out of the oven.

Salads & Sides

A jar of lemon vinaigrette.
A spring salad in a bowl: greens, radishes, carrots, feta, and walnuts.

With so many rich foods on the Easter table, a simple green salad on the side is nice. Iโ€™ve been loving this lemon vinaigrette, which is light and bright, and which Iโ€™ve been using to dress simple salads composed of tender spring greens, shaved carrots and radishes, feta, and walnuts.

If youโ€™re looking for a heartier salad or vegetable side dish, here are a few more ideas:

Dessert

A slice of carrot cake.
A frosted carrot cake.

The Ultimate Carrot Cake

I recently revisited an old carrot cake recipe, which I have long loved but which has gotten lost in the archives. I added weight measurements, simplified the mixing process, baked it in a 9ร—13-inch pan (as opposed to two 8-inch pans), and I frosted it with my favorite whipped cream-cream cheese frosting, which I use in this one-bowl birthday cake recipe. This carrot cake was just as delicious as I remember, and the family devoured it. Highly recommend!