These treats from local purveyors are a hop above the average fare.

Tired of the same old chocolate bunnies in your Easter basket?

Use a little imagination, and pop into a few local shops, and you’ll find that, foodwise, there’s more to Easter morning than sugary jelly beans in weird flavors like canteloupe and the pastel-striped abomination known as Easter candy corn.

Here are a few sweet-and-savory alternatives we found looking around town that might help make Easter a little more fun and delicious:

A Ukrainian Easter bread from Aurora Provisions. (Yoon S. Byun/Staff Photographer)

A Ukrainian Easter bread from Aurora Provisions. Yoon S. Byun/Staff Photographer

UKRAINIAN EASTER BABKA, $13.99

This traditional sweet yeasted bread is available at Aurora Provisions, 64 Pine St. It’s made with lemon zest, vanilla and raisins, and drizzled with a sugar glaze. The babka (similar to a Russian kulich) is tall and cylindrical like an Italian panettone. Store manager Leslie Oster, who is of Ukrainian heritage herself, says it makes great French toast.

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Yoon S. Byun/Staff Photographer A wedge of St. Augur blue cheese from The Cheese Iron.

A wedge of St. Augur blue cheese from The Cheese Iron. Yoon S. Byun/Staff Photographer

EASTER CHEESE, prices vary

What a friend we have in cheeses. There’s plenty of high-end chocolate to choose from at The Cheese Iron in Scarborough, but the proprietors are also having a little fun with their customers, recommending a trio of cheeses that might be appropriate for the Easter table.

They include two French cheeses that have the word “saint” in their names – Saint Angel, a triple-creme brie from the Côtes du Rhône that pairs well with berries and sparkling wine, and Saint Agur, a rich, buttery, double-creme bleu cheese from the Auvergne region. The Saint Agur is $23.99 a pound, but we can personally testify that it will make your head spin with pleasure. Just show up at the Pearly Gates with a wedge of this heavenly bleu, and St. Peter will have to let you in.

The third choice is Moses Sleeper, a brie-style cheese from Jasper Hill Creamery in Vermont. Including this cheese is a stretch, since the cheese is not named after the Moses of the Old Testament but a Revolutionary War hero who defended Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom from the redcoats. Plus, Easter is a New Testament holiday. Oh well, we’ll give them a pass since the networks trot out Cecil B. DeMille’s “The Ten Commandments” every Easter. Charlton Heston ate brie after he parted the Red Sea, right?

Yoon S. Byun/Staff Photographer A chicken from Foley’s Bakery.

Easter chick cake from Foley’s Bakery. Yoon S. Byun/Staff Photographer

EASTER CHICKS, $4.75

These adorable chicks won’t lay you any eggs, but they will bring a smile to your face Easter morning. Made at Foley’s Bakery in Monument Square, they’re vanilla sponge cake filled with lemon Swiss buttercream and coated in yellow fondant. These little cakes are best suited for kids or adults with a big sweet tooth.

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Torched Peeps S’More Gelato at The Gelato Fiasco. Courtesy photo

EASTER-THEMED GELATO, small $4.35; medium $5.29; large $6.25; pint $9.35

Every year Gelato Fiasco brings back its custom Easter candy gelatos for Easter weekend at its Portland and Brunswick stores. Of course you don’t want gelato melting all over your Easter basket, so a gift card or special trip to one of the stores might be in order. If there’s a Peeps fanatic in your family, try the Torched Peeps S’More Gelato, which has a graham cracker base and is filled with lots of chocolate chips as well as everyone’s favorite marshmallow birds, singed from flying too close to an imaginary campfire.

Another flavor incorporates Cadbury Creme Eggs into a fresh cream gelato. Robin’s Egg Gelato is filled with candy-coated malted milk eggs.

If you have trouble making up your mind, there’s always the Easter Sunday Easter Sundae Gelato, which contains a whole Easter basket of candy folded into vanilla gelato: peanut butter cups, chocolate cookies, chocolate chips, brownies, and a ribbon of house-made caramel sauce. This flavor first appeared last year, and sold out.

These special Easter flavors will be available at both stores from Friday through Sunday.

Correction: This story was updated at 11:01 a.m. on Wednesday, April 1 to correct Leslie Oster’s title.


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