HefeZopf / Challah / Braided Sweet Bread

Posted On May 20, 2010

When my daughter is back from her Kindergarten we used to share the happenings of the day. I used to ask her about the day and how she did enjoy and what activities she did?. This is usual mothers bothering about children. The conversation starts with morning breakfast. She takes her breakfast most of the days in Kindergarten, as she enjoys having it with her friends. The Kindergarten provides a little Buffet Breakfast with fresh fruits, Musili, Corn flakes, Fruits, and some Bread. She says that she likes Sour Bread mit Frisch Kase ( Sweet Bread with fresh cream cheese). Being Curious just peeped inside the Breakfast table and the teacher showed this HefeZopf (direct translation- yeast plait). After that bought several times from German bakeries.

Googled and came to know that it is also called Challah. Wiki has a long story about this in http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Challah

I tried to get more sections in the bread. So went for 6 strands, but used my own way of braiding. Nevertheless, the texture and taste were mostly equal to the store-bought one. Got a word from my daughter, she said it tastes and smells like shop one.

Ingredients:

1. All-purpose flour – 500 gm
2. Butter – 50 gm in room temperature
3. Egg – 2
4. Sugar – 100 gms
5. Salt – 1 tbs
6. Milk – 150ml, warm
7. Water – 50 ml, warm
8. Yeast – 25 gms
9. Raisins – 50 gms
10. Almonds – 50 gms, chopped
11. Egg – 1 for final touching

Method:

1. Mix yeast, warm water, 1 tbs of sugar, 1/2 tsp salt to a bowl and keep it a warm place for 15 minutes.

2. Mix the flour, eggs, sugar, milk, raisins, and yeast mix together in a vessel to make a smooth dough.

3. Cover the vessel and dough with the kitchen towel and keep the warm place. Let it sit for 2 hours or until it becomes more than double the size. ( I used the dough after 5 hours, as I had other work to do when the dough was ready)

4. Knead the dough and divide into 6 equal parts. ( The divisions in the bread depend upon how many strands and a good braiding)

5. Take each part and make it like strands using both your hands in the workplace. Do it for all 6 parts.

6. Start braiding. This is what I did to get this shape.(Join all the strands together in one corner. Take the rightmost bring it to 3rd position from left. Take the leftmost and bring it to 3rd position from right. Continue till end.)

7. Rest the braided dough for 1 hour in a warm place to rise for the second time.

8. Now beat the 1 egg in a small bowl and using a pastry brush, do the egg wash for the braid and sprinkle the almonds on top. It will stick on an egg coat.

9. Preheat the oven to 180 C and bake it for 25 minutes. After that take it out of the oven and cool it.

TIP: 1. Tastes awesome with spread cream cheese.

2. As far as I know, 2 types of all-purpose flour are available in Germany, type 405 and 550. I used flour type 550, the other did not give me better results. But for other bread recipes 405 suits good.