Great simple yeast plait – always works and tastes good

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• 250 g spelt flour
• 250 g wheat flour
• 75 g sugar
• 65 g butter
• 1 m.-sized egg(s)
• 5 g salt
• 225 ml milk
• 30 g yeast
• 1 tsp, leveled lemon peel (organic), grated
• ½ packet of vanilla sugar (bourbon vanilla sugar)
• Flour for the work surface
• Butter for the baking tray
• 1 egg(s) for brushing
• 2 tsp milk for brushing
• some butter for brushing

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour 30 minutes; Rest time approx. 1 hour; Total time approx. 2 hours 30 minutes

from a Swabian farmer, to whom I am very grateful!

All ingredients should be at room temperature! First, sift both flours through a sieve into a mixing bowl. After making a well in the flour, add the yeast, crumbled with a teaspoon of the specified amount of sugar, and a little of the lukewarm milk. Now, mix a kind of pre-dough in this well until the yeast has completely dissolved and you have a dough similar to applesauce. Dust the mixture with a little flour and let it rise, covered (with a kitchen towel), in a warm, draft-free place for about 15 minutes. Then add the rest of the ingredients to the dough and knead it for at least 5 minutes with the dough hook of the hand mixer until you have a glossy dough that can be easily removed from the bowl. Now let it rest for about 45 minutes. At this point, the dough should have roughly doubled in size. Dust a large work surface with a little flour and divide the dough into three equal pieces. Shape each piece by hand into even rolls about 40-50 cm long. Bring the ends of the rolls together and form a plait by folding the outer roll over the middle one until the three ends are slightly pressed together. Place the whole thing on a buttered baking tray and let it rise for another 20 minutes. During this time, preheat the oven to 190 degrees Celsius (top and bottom heat). At the end of the proving time, brush the entire plait with a mixture of one egg yolk and two teaspoons of milk using a pastry brush. Place in the oven. The total baking time is 30 minutes. After a quarter of an hour, brush the plait with a little melted butter – this gives it a nice shine. It’s also a good idea to keep an eye on the plaited loaf throughout the baking time to ensure it doesn’t overcook (in this case, you can turn the oven down a bit and use the lowest rack). Once the plaited loaf is done, let it cool completely on the baking sheet (after about 15 minutes, I brush it with melted butter again to retain that lovely shine). If you leave it overnight, loosely cover it with a kitchen towel and slice it the next day. Otherwise, it tastes best fresh, of course.