Beautiful decorative braids, ideal to prepare for the upcoming Easter. I made only 2 for my children because I didn't have enough flour, and the given dose is for 4 braids. A hole is made in one end of the braid and then an egg is placed in it, they look great and have a wonderful taste. I read somewhere that in Croatia they are traditionally made for Easter and are called Easter babies :)
The size of the cup is 250 ml
Ingredients:
- 1 packet of dry yeast
- 1 full cup warm milk
- 70 g softened butter
- 1 egg plus 1 egg white
- 4-5 tablespoons sugar
- a pinch of salt
- about 500-550 g of sifted flour (about 2,5 cups and some more)
- 1 teaspoon mahleb (grind seeds from wild cherries)
- 1 egg yolk for coating
- raisins (optional)
Preparation:
- First, yeast and sugar are put in warm milk for 10 minutes.
- Then, all ingredients except the butter and egg yolk are mixed in the yeast/milk with a mixer, the flour is added gradually. You should get a soft dough maybe just a little sticky. Add more flour if needed.
- Then add the softened butter by hand and knead the dough well.
- Form a ball and cover with plastic wrap.
- Allow 1 hour to double in volume on a warm place.
- Then divide dough into 12 pieces.
- Take 3 pieces and stretch them into long shapes about 15 cm long, join all 3 on one side and knit a braid.
- At one end you open a hole in the braid and put a ball made of aluminium foil.
- Repeat the procedure with the other parts.
- Coat braids with egg yolk dissolved in a tsp of water or milk and leave them covered for another half an hour to grow.
- Place in an unheated oven to bake for about half an hour at 180 C degrees (350 F).
- After baking, after they cool down a bit, remove the foils and put eggs in the holes.
