Holiday Bread - A bread for all celebrations

Have the post-New Year's Day blues got you down?  Does it feel like a long winter ahead?  This holiday bread, customarily served with Slovakian Easter dinners, is an excellent mood lifter.  It is buttery enough to be eaten plain, but is also delicious topped with fruit jellies and jams, or cream cheese, or even a slice of ham or Polish sausage.  This recipe is from my husband's family, who brought it with them when they emigrated from Slovakia to the US in the 1800s. 

1 cup milk
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons yeast, dissolved in 1/4 cup warm water
2 beaten eggs, reserving one tablespoon
2 teaspoons vanilla
4 1/2 cups flour (white flour or white bread flour, or half whole wheat and half white flour)

Scald the milk, then add the butter and sugar.  Stir to dissolve the sugar and butter.  Cool to lukewarm.  Then transfer the mixture to a large mixing bowl.  Stir in the dissolved yeast in water, the two beaten eggs (less one tablespoon reserved for later), and  vanilla.. Gradually add the flour, one cup a time, stirring after each addition.  When the mixture begins to thicken into a ball, turn it onto a floured surface and knead the rest of the flour into it.  Place the dough ball in a larger oiled mixing bowl.  Cover it with a plate and let it rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk (45 - 60 minutes).  Once risen, punch it down with a floured fist, and leave it in the bowl, covered, for a second rise of about 30 minutes until doubled in bulk.  After the second rise, turn it out of the bowl onto a floured surface.  Grease two loaf pans.  Divide the dough in half and shape it into two loaves, placing them into the prepared bread pans.  Let the loaves rise to the tops of the bread pans for another 20 minutes.  Brush the tops of the loaves with the reserved egg.  Bake at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes, or until the breads sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.  (Send them back to the oven in their pans for another few minutes if they do not sound hollow.)

Note: For regular bread, reduce the sugar for 1/4 cup and omit the vanilla.