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Twist quite tightly. Now you have a spiral-shaped strand. Hold it at both ends and, twisted as it is, twist it tightly around each other again in a spiral shape. The plait has now visually shrunk considerably and looks much narrower at one end. This is what is desired and correct. This simple form of wrapping makes it look like a beautifully braided plait (warning, it requires some practice) and it will rise brilliantly.
Place the plait diagonally on the greased baking tray or one lined with baking paper. Now whisk a whole egg very well, preferably with the help of a mixer, and add a pinch of sugar and salt. This is very important because the egg-coated plaited bread will then not turn black when baked. If desired, sprinkle it thickly with sugar.
Now it should rise for another 30 minutes.
In the meantime, preheat the oven to 160 °C with hot air. Some recommend top and bottom heat, as the plaited bread can dry out more quickly with hot air because it rises too quickly and too much air gets into the dough. In this case, preheat the oven to 180 °C because the plaited bread needs a higher temperature with top and bottom heat.
Put it on the middle rack of the oven and bake for about 30 - 35 minutes. The plaited bread should have a caramel-colored brown color. It is easy to tell whether it is really baked through. Simply tap the bottom with your crooked finger. If it sounds hollow, it is ready.Ingredients for 1 portion
1 kg wheat flour type 405, good
500 ml milk, lukewarm
100 g sugar
42 g fresh yeast (1 cube)
150 g butter, soft
2 tsp salt
2 eggs
1 tbsp lemon zest or 5 drops of bitter almond flavoring
1 egg(s) for brushing
2 tbsp granulated sugar
possibly fat for the mold
Preparation
Working time approx. 30 minutes
Resting time approx. 2 hours
Cooking/baking time approx. 45 minutes
Total time approx. 3 hours 15 minutes
For a 500 g plait, simply halve the quantities.
Sift the flour into a large bowl. Warm the milk slightly and pour it into a mixing bowl. Add the sugar and crumbled yeast and mix everything together until the yeast has largely dissolved. Add the lemon zest or bitter almond oil and eggs and whisk everything together well. It is best to do this briefly with a magic wand, otherwise with a hand mixer.
Pour this liquid into the flour in one go, add soft butter and salt and immediately knead everything together vigorously.
A pre-dough is neither necessary nor desirable. Knead until the dough is elastic and smooth. By hand for about 10 minutes, with a food processor correspondingly less. If you want, you can of course add raisins. Cover with a damp kitchen towel (so that the dough does not dry on top) and leave to rise until doubled in size. (Can take 2 hours.)
The dough can also be made very well in the BBA, ‘Knead dough’ program. This takes about 1 hour and 20 minutes and of course reduces the rising time considerably. However, this only works with half the ingredients.
Sprinkle a baking tray with flour and place the risen yeast dough on it and knead it again by hand.
Now comes the shaping. You can braid the plait from three strands, or like this:
Divide the dough in half. Form rolls that are as long as possible, tapered at the ends.
Wrap both rolls around each other in a spiral shape. It is best to start in the middle and work towards the ends.The recipe consists of 2 pages. You can see the rest of the recipe using the button below.
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