Growing up we had Hefezopf quite often for breakfast or afternoon coffee. Most of the time it was homemade, but sometimes it was store bought. Hefezopf is a soft, lightly sweet , braided yeast bread. Here I don't have the choice to buy it in the store. Sure, you can buy similar items, but then they have tons of sugar and are usually quite expensive. At least that's my opinion. So if I want Hefezopf I have to make it myself. But that's really not a problem, because they are easy to make. And I use my old bread maker to knead the dough, that makes it even easier. But even made completely by hand it is not a lot of work. So, here is my basic recipe for Hefezopf.
5 cups flour
1/2 cup sugar
10 tbsp butter or margarine, softened
1 egg
1 cup warm milk
2 1/2 tsp yeast
For bread maker: Just add all the ingredients into bread maker according to your models directions and use the dough setting.
By hand: Put flour, sugar and yeast into a bowl. Add butter, egg and milk. Stir together until it is too hard to stir. Pour ingredients out onto the kitchen counter. Knead dough until it is soft and elastic. It should be somewhat tacky but not sticky. Now let dough rise about one hour. For this you can put your dough back into your bowl and cover it. Or you can just leave the dough on the counter and put your bowl over it. That's what I usually do.
Now divide dough into three equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope. Make a braid out of the ropes. Place your braid onto a baking sheet. Cover and let it rise for about half an hour, or until doubled in bulk.
Take 1 egg yolk and 1 tbsp milk and mix together. Brush on the braid.
Bake in preheated 350 °F oven for 30-35 minutes
Tips:
Don't use all the flour at first. Use about 1/2 to 1 cup less than what it says. Then add more as needed. It is a lot easier to add flour to a dough that is too soft, than add water to a dough that is too dry.
You can add some flavorings like grated lemon peel, a hand full of raisins or whatever else sounds good to you.
I love to eat it with butter and jam, or plain, dipped in coffee.
Looks yummy :)
ReplyDeleteThanks, it was.
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