Easter bread with egg

Updated at: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 14:19:02 GMT

Step 1

1. Melt the butter for the dough. Sieve the flour into a bowl, and scrape a wide hole in the middle of it. Warm up the milk, and mix it with the sugar, the vanilla sugar, a pinch of salt, the yeast, 3 egg yolks and the lemon zest, then pour it into the middle of the flour. Add the lukewarm butter, then use a hand mixer with the dough hooks to knead the dough. (You gonna get a somewhat hard, flexible dough.) Sprinkle some flour on top of it, cover with a cloth or the lid of the bowl and let it leaven for around 30-35 minutes. Notes: - I microwaved both the butter to melt and the milk to make it lukewarm - it doesn't say, but it's probably better to let the dough sit in a warm place, I left it at the top of the pre-heating oven.

Step 2

2. Pre-heat the oven to 200 C (392 F), and put a pan or tin can with two fingers of water at the bottom of it (you need steam for good baking / dough). Prepare the pan(s) with baking sheets. Knead the dough well and weigh it. Form a large sausage and cut it into ten equal pieces - 80-90 g each. (It's not worth skipping the weighing as that helps getting same size breads.) Notes: - The water will boil away, especially if you put it in at the beginning. You'll probably need to replace it, so pay attention to it. It also rusted my pan the first time I did it (it's a shitty pan though). I used a glass baking dish this time. - I made 80-90 g pieces and I ended up with a big extra one. I used that to make tiny shapes for my baby, without an egg.

Step 3

3. Spread every piece into a 70-80 cm long, thin tube, then fold it into half and make a tight braid. Connect the two ends and leave around 4 cm out, then turn those ends under the nest so it becomes its bottom. Place them onto the baking sheet 8-10 cm apart (they grow a lot in the oven!)

Step 4

4. Wash the eggs and place them into boiling water for 5 minutes, then cool them down, dry them, coat them in oil thinly and place them into the middle of the nests. Cover the nests with a cloth and let them leaven for 15-20 minutes. When done, coat the nests in egg yolk (avoid touching the eggs as it'll brown in the oven then), and bake it on the oven's middle shelf for 20 minutes, until golden brown. Leave it in the pan to cool down until lukewarm, then place it on a grid to cool off completely. Notes: - I boiled the eggs a bit longer, justtomakesure. - My nests were done in 15 minutes. When their top is brown, check the bottom too - if that's brown they should be done. - I cooled them on a grid on top of the oven.

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