Delicious Zillertal Easter Bread

You can already tell that the days are getting longer, the air smells a bit like spring, and the first little flowers are poking their heads out of the ground. With spring comes Easter time, and with it the time for traditional Easter baking. Particularly popular on the Easter table are Easter lambs made of sponge or shortcrust pastry, Osterpinze, Fochaz and also Reindling. An Easter Striezel, a braided yeast dough loaf, is also a must for Easter breakfast.
We at Hotel Kössler, your Berg Hotel Hintertux Tux, are pleased to present you with the recipe for our ever-popular Easter bread made from yeast dough today.

Our recipe for 2 Easter breads

The ingredients:

• 1 kg wheat flour (type 700), sifted
• 550 g water (28 degrees Celsius)
• 100 g butter, room temperature
• 150 g fine granulated sugar
• 10 g salt
• 20 g yeast or 1 packet of dry yeast
• 2 egg yolks
• grated zest of one organic orange
• 1/2 grated tonka bean (for a delicate marzipan flavor)
• 1 egg for brushing
• Rye flour for dusting

How to make the dough:

We recommend taking the butter out of the refrigerator a few minutes earlier, as it will then be easier to process. Now cut the butter into small pieces.

Mix the wheat flour well with the water, sugar, butter pieces, salt, yeast, egg yolk, aromatic tonka bean and grated orange zest in a mixing bowl. Now knead the dough in the food processor for 2 minutes on a low setting. Then knead for another 8 minutes in the food processor on a high setting to form a smooth, silky dough.

As a next step, the dough must now rest in a covered container for about 1 hour at room temperature. Then briefly knead the dough again and then place it in the refrigerator, covered with foil, for at least 12 hours. The dough is initially very soft, but it becomes firmer when chilled and is then easy to process.

Preparing the strudel dough:

Put all the ingredients in a bowl and stir with the dough hook to form a smooth dough – a kneading machine makes things much easier here!
The dough is best when it is finally kneaded again by hand!
When the dough starts to bubble, it is ready and perfectly kneaded.
Now shape the dough into a ball and place in a deep plate.
Brush with a little oil, cover with cling film and let rest at room temperature for about half an hour.

Now it’s time to braid the loaves:

The dough is now divided into 2 equal portions and dusted well with flour. Let rest again for about 30 minutes, covered.

Both halves of the dough must now be portioned into 5 equal parts. Then shape each piece of dough into an elongated roll. In the next step, a loose braid will be braided from 3 parts on the floured work surface. Twist 2 more rolls around each other and place on the braid – the first braid is ready! Now braid a braid from 3 parts again for the second braid and put the two remaining rolls on it. Place the two braids side by side on a black baking sheet with space in between and brush with beaten egg – this gives the wonderfully golden brown color when baking!

Cover the two braids again and let them rest for at least 10 minutes, then bake in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 35 minutes.

Our recommendation:

For that certain something, the Easter bread can be refined with raisins or currants – simply add them to the dough as the last ingredient!

The braid is particularly pretty to look at if you sprinkle it with almond flakes, almond slivers or pearl sugar before baking. When the braid is baked and cooled, it can be coated with powdered sugar.

The team at Kössler . Your Berg Hotel Hintertux Tux wishes you lots of fun baking, good luck and enjoy your meal!

Source:

From our kitchen