How to make Swiss Züpfe Bread

[SWISS_CHEF]

Swiss Züpfe

This bread is traditionally baked on Friday and is supposed to last over the weekend but rarely lasts that long because everyone devours it.

Ingredients

500 gr. of bread flour

1 package of dry yeast

1.5 teaspoons of salt

.5 teaspoon of sugar

75 gr. melted butter

1 egg yolk

1 cup of milk

1 egg yolk beaten with 1 teaspoon of milk and a pinch of salt for the glaze

Preparation:

Mix flour and salt in a bowl, add yeast sugar, butter, egg yolk and milk, knead until soft (15 minutes by hand or 8 minutes in a machine)

Cover and let rise one hour until size has doubled.

Cut dough into two equal size pieces.

Braid as shown below.

Step 1:

Roll out 2 strings of dough...

Cross them...

Cross one over the other...

then again...

...and again...

Keep crossing and building it higher...

...and higher...

until you run out of dough then roll it over on it's side, strech it out a bit and tuck under the ends.

Put on a cookie sheet and brush with water and let rise one hour.

Before baking brush it with a beaten egg yolk mixed with a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of milk.

Bake for 40 minutes in the lower part of a preheated oven (200° C)

Allow to completely cook before slicing.