Ingredients
500g white bread flour or whole wheat bread flour
200ml lukewarm water
75g melted butter
2 eggs
2 tbsp sugar or honey
2tsp salt
2 tsp dried yeast
For the glaze
1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tbsp water
Instructions
1) Dissolve the sugar in the water. Add the yeast, stir and allow to stand for 10 minutes.
2) Break the eggs into a small bowl and beat lightly.
3) Put the flour and salt in a large bowl and mix.
4) Add the yeast-water, eggs and the butter. Mix to smooth dough.
5) Place the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 10 minutes.
6) Put the dough into a lightly oiled bowl, cover and put in a warm place to allow the dough to double in size
7) When the dough has doubled in size, punch it down recover and leave it to double in size again.
8) Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface, knock it back then knead for 3 minutes.
9) Spilt the dough into 4 equal pieces and roll each piece out into a sausage. About 45cm long.
10) Braid the strands. Transfer the loaf to a well-greased baking tray, cover and allow to proof for about 45-60 minutes. (I use parchment paper)
11) Brush the loaf with the egg glaze and sprinkle with poppy seeds or sesame seeds – optional.
12) Bake at 180oC/360oF fan oven, 200oC/400oF conventional oven for 3-40 minutes. Place the loaf on a rack to cool.
Remarks: I always use sourdough for all my bread baking. And my conversion for the above as below:
For those who use sourdough
Replace yeast by using 118g sourdough
Reduce flour to 440g
Reduce water to 142g
Change for Instruction (1): ----- Add sugar or honey to water and stir till dissolve. Mix to the sourdough
And mix well. Then follow same instructions 2 to 12.
For this SG50 loaf, I divide the dough into 6 equal parts and use the 3 strands method. (use scale to measure each dough to get even sizes).
Above dough good for making either 4 strands, 5 strands or 6 strands. Please go google search how to make braid bread for the video.