Mini Easter wreaths

Ingredients for 1 servings:

• ½ cube of fresh yeast or 1 packet of dry yeast
• 80 ml water, lukewarm
• 30 g sugar, add some of it to the yeast
• 100 ml milk, lukewarm
• 1 egg(s)
• 50 g sunflower oil or rapeseed oil
• 400 g flour
• ½ tsp salt
• 1 packet of vanilla sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp milk
• 2 tbsp apricot jam without pieces
• 1 tbsp water
• Sugar granules
• 4 confectionery (chocolate eggs)

Instructions

Working time approx. 1 hour; Rest time approx. 2 hours 25 minutes; Cooking/baking time approx. 20 minutes; Total time approx. 3 hours 45 minutes

To make the yeast dough, first crumble the fresh yeast and dissolve it in lukewarm water along with a little sugar. Set the mixture aside for 10 minutes so the yeast can start working. After this time, add the remaining ingredients: put the flour, dissolved yeast, remaining sugar, salt, egg, oil, milk, and vanilla sugar into a mixing bowl and knead the dough with a food processor or your hands until it starts to pull away from the sides of the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise for two hours in a warm, dark place. After the rising time, divide the dough into eight equal pieces without kneading, roll them into balls, and then shape them into long strands of about 40 cm. Twist two strands of dough together and form them into a wreath. Place them on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and let them rise for another 15 minutes. Before baking, the wreaths are brushed with a mixture of egg yolk and milk and then placed in the oven at 180°C (fan oven) for 15-20 minutes. For a beautiful shine and fruity flavor, apricot jam is heated with water until it becomes liquid, and the mixture is then brushed onto the still-hot Easter wreaths. If you like, you can then sprinkle some sugar on the wreaths and attach small, colorful chocolate eggs to decorate them. This works best with a thick icing made from powdered sugar and a little lemon juice. Like all yeast-baked pastries, these Easter wreaths taste best fresh. The next day they taste only half as good because they dry out quickly.