Festive Easter bread from my father
A rich, layered festive Easter bread enriched with milk, eggs, sugar and softened butter, folded and rolled to a fluffy crumb, then baked in the oven.
Ingredients
| 1000 g | Bread flour / wheat flour (300 g / 2 cups for small batch) | |
| 4 pcs | Egg 38 g (1 for small batch; 1 yolk for brushing) | |
| 9 tbsp | 135 ml | Sugar (3 tbsp for small batch) |
| 500 ml | Milk (150 ml / 0.62 cup for small batch) | |
| 11 g | Dry yeast (3 g / 1 tsp for small batch) | |
| 6 g | Salt (3 g / 1/2 tsp for small batch) | |
| 90 g | Softened (not melted) butter (28 g / 2 tbsp for small batch) | |
| — | Butter for greasing | |
| — | Egg for brushing |
Instructions
Whisk together the eggs, sugar, yeast and milk. Add the flour on top and sprinkle the salt over it. Knead a dough and let it rest for 20 minutes. After resting, an elastic thin skin can be stretched from the dough without it springing back to its original state. Take out the dough. Stretch it by hand into a small sheet and place some of the soft butter on it. Fold it over with the sides of the dough. Start kneading the dough until the butter is absorbed. Repeat this until the butter is fully absorbed. Then cover it (in the video they covered it with a large glass bowl) and let it rest and relax for another 20 minutes. In both cases of relaxing the dough, no proofing or doubling of the dough is expected! Stretch the dough lightly by hand, dust it with flour and roll it out into a large rectangular sheet about 5 mm thick. Grease the surface with softened butter. In the video the butter is spread by hand. Fold 1/3 of the sheet (from the narrow side) and pat it on top to push out the air. Then fold the other 1/3 of the sheet over the top and again pat on top by hand to push out the air. Then roll it out lightly across the width (along the long side) with the rolling pin, then along the length. Then again across the width until you reach the same length of the sheet as before folding. Grease again with butter and roll it up into a roll across the width. Before finishing rolling, thin out the edges of the sheet and finish rolling. Cut the sheet into 2 or 4 parts depending on how many breads you will bake. Shape them (in the video he simply cut the dough into small rolls and transferred them directly into the baking pan). THE SHAPED DOUGH IS COVERED IN THE BAKING PAN AND LEFT TO PROOF FOR ABOUT 60 MINUTES! Brush with egg or milk! Bake in the middle of an oven preheated to 170 degrees for 22 minutes. During baking the bread rises further.