Hefezopf: braided German bread

As you may all probably know by now, I like to challenge myself in the baking department. I’ve made braided bread before but it’s always been three stranded so today…I decided to challenge the FOUR STRAND. I honestly didn’t know how it would turn out because I don’t even have the ability to do this with my hair but I don’t think I did too bad! Anyways, today we make Hefezopf, a type of braided German yeast bread that’s usually eaten at celebrations (like Easter!). The bread is typically adored with raisins, slivered almonds and coarse sugar pieces but since we didn’t have any of the coarse sugar, we just dusted some granulated sugar on top. It’s probably not the traditional way of making it but it was as close as we could get so we had to make do. The braided loaf is also left as a bread loaf and not turned into a wreath like we did but we were using our smaller oven and it wouldn’t of fit on the baking sheet unless we turned it into one. ): Okay, in hindsight I could of just separated the loaf into two smaller loafs but evidently it didn’t occur to me at the time…

Ingredients (1 loaf):

2 1/2 teaspoons yeast
1 cup warm water
1 teaspoon sugar
1 egg
1/2 cup oil
200 mL milk (set aside 1 tablespoon for egg wash)
3 cups whole wheat flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sliced almonds

sugar for dusting

1. Combine warm water, yeast and sugar in a measuring cup; set it aside to foam. In a large bowl combine the flour, oil, milk, sugar and salt. Add the yeast mixture to the flour. Stir in the raisins. Knead the dough for 8 to 10 minutes until it comes off the sides and becomes smooth and elastic-y. Cover the bowl with a tea towel and let rise in a warm place for 1 to 1 1/2 hours until it has doubled in size.

2. Roll the dough out into a 4″ wide log and cut it lengthwise into 1″ thick strips.

3. Create a 4 strand braid with the strands by weaving them through each other. Take the strand on the far left and and bring it over the first strand, under the second strand then over the last strand. Then you’ll be left with a new strand on the far left. This time you’ll bring the strand over the one beside it, then under, then over again.

4. Continue to weave the strands until you get to the end. Then seal the loaf by pinching the ends together and tucking it under the loaf. Brush the loaf with egg wash or milk and sprinkle sliced almonds and sugar on top.

5. This part is optional but since we were baking our bread in a smaller oven, our loaf was too large so we ended up bringing the two ends of the loaf together to form a wreath!