Zopf or Braided Bread

Submitted by Artandkitchen

"This is a delicious traditional Swiss homemade Sunday bread"

 

• Ready In: 45mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 250 ml lukewarm milk
• 75 g butter or 75 g margarine
• 14.79 ml sugar
• 2.46 ml salt
• 500 g bread or 500 g baking flour
• 15 g fresh yeast
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 egg white
• 14.79 ml water

directions

1. In a large bowl mix the warm milk, sugar, salt, butter, egg yolk and 200 g flour.
2. Mix with the hook for 1 minute.
3. Add the yeast and mix for 2 minutes again.
4. Add the remaining 300 g flour and work with the hook.
5. When the dough has pulled together and becomes smooth and elastic (after about 5 minutes) you can form the braid.
6. Divide the dough into 2 equal pieces and roll each piece into a 60 cm long cylinder (or 3 pieces of 30 cm). Braid the pieces together and place on a lightly greased baking sheet. This is the method that I use: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcPnB0Sgc-Q.
7. In a small bowl, mix egg white and water and brush the bread with this mixture.
8. Let the dough rest after forming for 90 minutes until it doubles in size.
9. Bake in the preheated oven at 180°C for 20 to 25 minutes (heat and timing are basing it on convection oven), until golden.

Reviews

[Katzen]

What a lovely bread! The butter measured 1/3 cup, and the flour, 3 2/3 cup. I'd not braided bread successfully before, so I'm glad I found instructions (a video) that helped me succeed this time! I tucked the ends under for a finished look. The bread went to the landlord downstairs as a treat; they came up to say thanks and say how absolutely it was ten minutes after I brought it to them! It was so pretty and smelled so wonderful that I made a second one for us. I did use the bread machine on the dough setting to make the dough, and what a beautiful, soft, dough it made. Made for Veggie Swap 30 - January 2011 - Thanks so much for posting, awalde!!

 

[WiGal]

Lovely bread, soft, moist, yummy! I used food.com Measurement Converter towards bottom of page to help me. My liquid measuring cup has the ml on it, but the butter is 1/3 cup, flour 3 2/3 cups, and yeast 2 1/4 t. I had my oven set at 350 F but wonder if that should have been a tad higher-think so. I used my bread machine to make the dough. And smiling at Dienna's review because I am not as neat as awalde is-obviously-and my finished braided bread looked more like a chicken when I looked at the pics hence the sliced approach. LOL! Thank you awalde for posting.

 

[2Bleu]

This is a very easy bread recipe. DH made this in our KA mixer (he's my doughboy and bakes the bread in our home). He makes Challah bread often so he's quite familiar with braided breads. He used 1 packet of dry instant yeast and although it was rising nicely in the beginning while baking in the oven, it fell like a souffle after about 15 minutes (we did not open the oven). It didn't brown well either. That said, the flavor is very good and cake-like. We felt it could use a tad more salt, but overall a yummy bread served warm out of the oven with real butter smeared over top. Thanks for sharing the recipe.

 

[Chef PotPie]

I'm not much of a baker, and this turned out wonderfully for me! I Zmailed Awalde to ask about substituting dry yeast for the fresh, and she said to use 1/4 ounce, (one packet), of dry. As you can see in the photo, it is beautiful! I mixed everything in my KA mixer; easy peasy, and I formed 3 long rolls and braided them, tucking ends under. Katzen's conversion of the metric measurements, (1/3 cup butter, 3 2/3 cups flour), are just right, and the milk comes to 1 cup plus a few drops. This bread has a slightly different texture, almost a little cakey. We loved it, and it's great for dipping in soup. The cooking time was just right at 25 minutes in my oven. House smells lovely! Thanks Alwalde, for a great recipe! ZWT7 - Shady Ladies

 

[JustJanS]

We were ver lucky to have awalde and daughter M stay with us recently. awalde made the dough, we rested it overnight in the fridge, then baked it the following morning to take on a lunch time picnic . Russ was convinced one loaf (we made 4) wouldn't be enough for the 4 of us, but it was-it's a dense and delicious bread and I can't wait to use the two remaining in my freezer.