Yeast plait with dulce de leche

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 500 g flour
• ½ cube of yeast
• 5 g salt
• 40 g sugar
• 1 egg(s)
• 100 ml water, lukewarm
• 100 ml milk, lukewarm
• 75 g butter, very soft
• 3 drops of bitter almond flavor
• 2 tbsp condensed milk (dulce de leche or caramel sauce)
• 1 egg(s), for brushing

Instructions

Working time approx. 15 minutes; Rest time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 35 minutes; Total time approx. 2 hours 20 minutes

also milkmaid caramel or caramel sauce

I never make a pre-dough, as I always manage to make it without it and therefore don’t need it. But if you want to make one, feel free to do it the way you know best. Mix the milk with the water and dissolve the yeast in it along with the sugar and salt. Set aside for a moment. Briefly knead the flour and soft, but not too runny, butter and add the bitter almond extract. Add the yeast milk and egg and knead thoroughly for at least 10 minutes, either with a mixer or by hand. The main thing is to knead well for a long time until a smooth dough forms (the dough should pull away from the sides of the bowl). Cover and let rest for at least 1-2 hours. (Of course, you can also prepare this in the bread baking oven, which I highly recommend). After resting or proving, beat the yeast dough again vigorously and knead well. Now roll out the dough on a floured surface into a large rectangle; it should be about 1 cm thick. Divide the dough in half to create two strands. Now spread each one with 1 tbsp of dulce de leche or caramel sauce, roll them up and press the edges together well to form a normal log or 2. Now shape the dough into a plait using the 4 strand method or however you like. (I have a photo of this in my photo album.) Let the plait prove for another 30 minutes until the dough has visibly increased in volume. Now brush the plait with a well-beaten egg. Now bake the plait in a preheated oven at 165°C fan/convection oven or 185°C top/bottom heat for a good 30-40 minutes. Every oven heats differently, so it may take a little longer. It’s best to do a skewer test. If no dough sticks to it anymore, it’s done. To get a nice crust, I sprinkled sugar on the dough before putting it in the oven to bake. You can easily make dulce de leche yourself using a recipe in my cookbook, as a milkmaid caramel recipe in the German online shop, or you can buy it ready-made from the supermarket. It’s very sweet; if you don’t like that, you can reduce the sugar in the braid to 10g.