Swiss Züpfe

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

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 (10 minutes by hand)
Cover and let rise one hour until size has doubled.
Cut dough into two equal size pieces.
Braid as shown below.
Put on a cookie sheet and brush with water.
Let rise one hour.
Before baking, baste with egg yolk mixture.
Bake for 40 minutes in the lower part of a preheated oven (200° C)
Allow to completely cook before slicing.
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 rollit over on it's side, strech it out a bit and tuck under the ends











Brush it with water and let it sit one hour...
Then brush it with a beaten egg yolk mixed with a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of milk.
Bake in a 200° C oven for 40 minutes and allow to cool completely before slicing.

Click the picture for an extreme close up...