
Most of my weekends will include me baking an yeasted bread. Weekends are meant to be relaxing and baking such breads are so therapeutic and unwinding for me from all those hectic weekdays. I keep the quick breads for the weekdays in case I get the baking bug. Anyways one such weekend found me baking this utterly beautiful and delicious Swiss white bread. Zopf translates to braid and this is exactly what this bread is all about. White flour, butter, eggs and yeast constitute the bread – There is nothing about this which you cannot like and this recipe which I noted from ‘God knows where’ has been my friend for last 2 years. It comes out perfect every time I make and tastes like your local professional baker’s bread.

For me nothing beats out the feeling of having some beautiful breakfast – Some fruits, fresh beautiful looking breads and some tea is my kind of royal breakfast.Any bread goes – be it wheat, rye or sourdough. I resort to whole grains most of the time, but on rare cases I don’t mind homemade white breads too. Last weekend was one such Bed and Breakfast for us
Refreshing and enticing.

Few months back when I treated a friend to this bread, she loved it and also asked me how I make the braid. I explained but she wanted me to do it my style – through the blog with step by step pictures. Every time, I am informed how useful someone finds my blog, it gives me unprecedented joy. This post is for you Aaliyah.
MethodCombine the wet ingredients (except the egg), Stir and let it stand for 15min until dissolved

In a large bowl, mix together the flour and salt. Make a well and add the egg and the yeast mixture.

Combine well to obtain a rough dough

Transfer to a floured surface

and knead until smooth and elastic

Place in a clean bowl, cover with plastic wrap

and let it double about 2 hours (depending on climate you enjoy)

Grease a baking sheet. Punch the dough and divide into 3 equal pieces. Roll each into a long thin rope.

Bring one of the ends together.

Start braiding by bringing right end across the center rope. Now the right rope comes to the center and the center ones goes to the right hand side.

Now bring the left most rope on top of the center one.

Repeat the process

till you reach the end of the rope

Tuck the ends beneath the braid.

I had some more dough left over and I thought I will make them into small knots. I rolled the dough into a long rope.

I brought the ends together to form sort of a circle

Stretch one end and put it into the circle

and pull it from the other side to form a knot.

Cover them loosely

and let sit for another 30 min until risen

Preheat Oven 375F. Now brush the braid and the knots with egg yolk and bake them for 30-45min or until golden.
Let them cool and

slice them.
Enjoy with your favorite Jam/preserve or with some soup. What about storage you ask me? Storage- what storage? It wont last you more than 1 day (2 days max!)

This is my entry for A.W.E.D swiss hosted this month by the talented Curry Leaf.
Bookmark this page using the following link: http://chefinyou.com/2009/06/zopf-braided-bread/
Do you have a website? You can place a link to this page by copying and pasting the code below.
<a href="http://chefinyou.com/2009/06/zopf-braided-bread/">Zopf (Züpfe) – Swiss braided Bread</a>
now where are those smileys!!!!…I hate you dhivi…really I mean it…you make such awesome breads and I can’t even taste them…:(((((…
and my dear friend can you let me know minus that sole egg too?
LOL! will put them out for you Valli – Traditional and authentic Zopf is made with that sole egg – but for an adultered version just increase milk to 1-1/4 cup.:)
I am right there with you .. baking bread is theraputic, tho i had the biggest flop show today – bad yeast day.
This bread is beautiful, i need to make a braided bread now.
Oh thats sad Soma – More than bad hair days – bad yeast days are the ones that affect me most – But dont you worry – the next bread will be a master blaster for sure
Thanks for this. A definite keeper!
Thanks Carmen
I am glad you like it. Its def. one for me
Wow…ur braid looks so perfect and beautiful. Love the color. have bookmarked this one, will definitely try it.
Thanks Poornima – I am sure u will like it
Can I say Lovely..or maybe Too good…or else Wonderful??Nah,anything I say would sound like a cliche for this masterpiece creation.I am amazed seeing the last picture,of sliced bread.It looks straight out of a bakery.God knows when I’ll be able to bake something like that:).
One more thing-can we substitute white flour for bread flour?
Thats so generous of you Divs! Thanks a bunch – I am honored.
Bread flour is a high-protein flour which is so suited for such yeasted breads giving it a good rise. You can of course substitute it with All purpose flour, but I have to tell you frankly that the result would be good but little less remarkable. Usually for an ideal substitute you can add like a tsp of wheat gluten to all purpose flour – But I am not sure you will get wheat gluten in India. So you can of course make do with all -purpose flour, it will still come out decently.
woowow, this looks sooooo goood. Nothing like the smell of freshly baked bread. The braided bread looks yuumo. good job.
Thanks Karuna
I agree with you, nothing like it
Woow…it’s much better than any bakery shop DK…came out so beautiful and perfect!
Thanks Sonu….:)
This looks like the Challah that I made for years before I discovered a sponge bread recipe (Vienna Bread) that I got from my sister (she got it from the “Old World Breads” cookbook. Can this bread be made as a round or oblong loaf or as rolls?
Thanks Ruthey
Zopf is similar to Challah and the only difference I can think of is that Challah is made totally with egg yolks – and lots of it
Traditionally its made like a braid – but I already adulterated it by making few knots, so I guess rolls and oblongs would be just great too
Anything works
Wow this is better than perfect!!! braiding reminded me of good old school days when my mom used to braid my hair
I must say your step by step pictures are really helpful, bookmarked this, thanks for sharing !!!
Thanks Parita
Looks beautifully braided. I too love making breads.
Just made a challah few days back. This looks yummy yumm.
Thanks HC
That looks SO GOOD! Lovely braids!
Thanks Nags
wow, that one is perfect; perfect color and clear instructions!
Your still life shots are gorgeous.
Perfect Bread. Can’t find words to describe the bread.
Perfect braids there, DK! Bread looks FAB!
Lovely looking braided bread. Great pictorial as usual. Have a great sunday DK..
Thanks a lot sweetie! See, now this makes it so easy for me. Hopefully ,knowing my ‘bread baking skills’ i can make this and feed you instead of vice versa. Luv u for doing this
If there’s one thing I love, it’s the smell of bread baking. So much so that I get teased relentlessly for my shameless adoration of yummy bread. The braid is so perfect, girl! I did a braided loaf long back, but still need practice to get it so perfect. Btw, I completely agree about bread baking being relaxing and therapeutic. Great way to unwind and a great bonus at the end of the project!
That’s a beauty!
Perfect color of the bread..Look wonderful that beautiful brown color..perfect texture too..
PERFECT TO THE ‘T’ OR ‘Z’.GREAT GREAT GREAT DK,IT LOOKS SOOOOOO DIVINE.THANKS FOR THE PERFECT ENTRY I AM SURELY & TRULY ‘AWED’ BY THIS.I truly wish I could bake like you,my oven and baking part of my brain are ‘rusted’.Most of the things that go inside my OTG come out inedible.KEEP UP THE GREAT BAKING GOING.I WISH I WERE THERE WITH YOU ON WEEKENDS- JUST FOR THE DIVINE BREAD.THANKS AGAIN
LOL! U r something
I forgot to add – ‘THANKS” for the ‘TALENTED” tag.Its surely a boost to me.
What can I say – Its really true! I think you are much more than you care to let it out
. But I figured u all out girl….:)
Just WOW!!
Made this bread yesterday. I just added 200 gm raisins to the dough.
Will post in my place on friday.
It came out really so good.
Lovely Zopf! Thank you so much for sending it to YeastSpotting.
Just posted the delicous bread in my place.
Thankyou for the recipe.
Beautiful bread! Look at that soft, white crumb. I can’t wait to try this.
Such a gorgeous looking bread. It always help when there is picture to show the steps in making it too. Your braided bread look perfect.
What beautiful braiding! We make something similar called challah (my sister in law showed me how to make it).
Ma ma mia! What a good looking bread!
I have bookmarked this recipe. It looks gorgeous, like those center-piece bread baskets in 5 star buffets. Thanks for sharing the recipe in detail.