How to Make an Ultra Soft Braided Easter Bread

Easter is the time of the braided loaf, and you can find a few good examples of this in the Breads of Easter playlist on my channel. This loaf is inspired by the Greek tsoureki. A sweet rich white bread flavoured with orange, mahlab, mastic, and topped with almond slices.

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How’s it going my Bakers hope you’re having a great day so far welcome back to another video today I’ll show you how to make a super soft and delicate braided Easter bread so let’s get in the kitchen and get started Easter is the time of the braided loaf you can find a

Few good examples of this in the breads of Easter playlist this particular loaf is inspired by the Greek turki a sweet rich white bread flavored with orange mahlab mastic and topped with almond slices this version does not contain mastic as I could not find it anywhere I

Replaced it with some vanilla paste here but it does contain the other unique spice the mahab it is made from Cherry stones but you can of course adjust the spices to your taste and to availability you can even use some cinnamon instead if you like you can also change the

Shape of the bread make some rolls perhaps or little mini braids whatever you end up doing it will turn out Ultra Soft and flavorful perfect for a thick layer of jam just like this so let’s get right to it let me show you how it’s made so you can make yours starting with

The ingredients we’ll need some white bread flour couple of eggs milk butter salt yeast sugar orange zest the mlab you might be able to find it in the shop nearby I ordered mine off Amazon and if you can’t find it replace it with some cinnamon it won’t be the same but it’ll

Still be good I’m also using some vanilla paste in this recipe as I mentioned earlier is to replace the mastic you can use vanilla Essence instead but vanilla paste will be better we need some sliced almonds for decoration an egg for glazing and some sugar and orange juice we’ll make a

Syrup out of these and brush the loaf with it after baking this is also optional when it comes to the equipment we’ll need a tray with some nonstick paper a bowl scales a dough scraper temperature probe a brush and a fine grater for the orange zest with the

Ingredients and the equipment out the way let’s start making the dough first things first temperature control my kitchen was relatively cool today at around 20 20° C or 68° F so I’m using warm milk at around 35° C or 95° F this might seem too warm but I’m using my

Eggs from the fridge so they will bring down the temperature as always I’m aiming for around 25° C or 77° fhe final dough temperature this dough is very straightforward in a large bowl combine the milk the yeast the salt the sugar the mlab the orange D the eggs the

Vanilla and the melted butter then mix until the sugar and salt have compl completely dissolved and then add the final ingredient the white bread flour the dough will seem slightly sticky at the beginning but that’s totally normal that’s because of the eggs and the sugar it will become nice and smooth once we

Give it a couple of folds I always like to give the dough a light fold right after mixing I usually wet my hands with water and I fold the dough whilst I’m holding it in my hands up in the air and before I place it in a clean Bowl to

Perform this move simply fold the sides of the dough down and then push them back up into the center of the dough it builds a bit of tension and it makes it nice and smooth and it doesn’t take any extra effort okay let’s place the dough in the bowl and check its temperature

Around 25° celius is what I was aiming for and 25° cus is what I got bulk fermentation will take an hour and a half it be punctuated by two folds at 30 minute intervals so after the first 30 minutes of fermentation remove the dough from the bowl place it on the table to

Smooth side down flatten it out and fold the edge over the middle going around in circle until reach point where you started then flip the D with the SM move side up again tighten it against table place it back into the bowl cover it up and leave it to ferment for another 30

Minutes after the second round of 30 minute fermentation remove the dough from the bowl and perform the same fold as previously this time around it’ll feel a lot tighter than the first time after the fold place it back into the bowl cover it up and leave it to ferment

For another 30 minutes once the bulk fermentation is over weigh the dough ball and divide it into three equal pieces that is if you’re making a three strand braid you can do four strand braid then divide it into four equal pieces or you can do a bunch of mini

Braider rolls and divide the dough into 18 pieces I’ll leave those decisions up to you but whatever you do after dividing pre-shape the dough giving it a blunt cylinder shape flatten it cross the two sides over in the middle then fold the top down turn it around and

Fold over the loose end after pre-shaping cover the dough leave it to rest for around 20 minutes during this time the dough will relax and it will be a lot easier to work with after rest we can roll these blunt cylinders into long strands first flatten the piece of dough

Fold the top third down then turn it around and fold over the loose third next gently and gradually roll it out to a long strand the length is up to you you can make a long skinny loaf or short stubby one just like I did I made my

Strands around 30 cm or 1T long I like to taper the ends of the strands I find that it’s easier to braid that way when it comes to braiding the three strand braid is the simplest one and most of most of you already know how it goes you

Connect the strands at one end and then you go over under over under I like to start the braid off with the middle strand on top and once I’m finished I like to tuck the ends of the loaf underneath if you would like to learn

How to make a four strand braid I have video on that it is my lemon flavored Hala recipe I will leave it link below a four strand braid is the second easiest braided shape and it makes for quite a unique loaf or whatever shape you choose after shaping place the loaf in a

Nonstick paper line baking tray cover it up leave it for the final proof which should take around 1 hour this is a quick bread during this time you want to preheat your oven to 15° c 300 F fan on this may seem like a low temperature but

This loaf colors very quickly if your oven doesn’t have a fan set it to 170° C or 340 F okay this baby has puffed up beautifully there are a couple things left to do before we bake it we need to glaze it and decorate it and to make the

Crust look extra Rich we’ll use the double glazing technique brush the loaf with egg once leave it dry for 5 minutes and then brush it again this will make the glaze extra thick and it will make the crust look extra beautiful and the sliced almonds will stick to it even

Better this way I was real careful when I decorated with the almonds I placed them on pretty much one by one you could just throw them on top and press them in using the palms of your hands but when you take your time and place them one by

One it’ll make the loaf look extra fancy okay this thing looks like a it’s very eager to get baked so let’s get it in the oven it’ll take around 35 to 40 minutes just before the loaf comes out the oven let’s make the syrup combine the sugar and the orange juice in a

Small pan bring them up to a boil once the loaf is ready remove it from the oven and immediately brush it with the boiling hot syrup this will make it extra shiny sweet and sticky and it will make it stay softer for longer if you are not a big fan of the stickiness

Leave the syrup off but I do like to use it I mean just look at that shine a syrup like this one is especially useful for smaller rolls it really helps them keep their softness but there you go that’s how you make a braided Easter Loaf the soft texture of this bread is

Something else that is of course all thanks to the eggs the milk the butter and the sugar they all work together for this amazing texture and the best part was that it was super quick and easy to make it was only 2 and 1/2 hours from mixing to baking without any special

Methods with barely any equipment without any special ingredients except one which like I said you can replace with something else so if you need a quick Easter bake in a pinch this will be a great option if you want to make more elaborate Easter breads head over

To the breads of Easter playlist you’ll find plenty of great options there so what do you think this bread love what is your favorite type of Easter bread let me know down in the comments you want to see more like this one click over here subscribe to the

Channel click right here that’s all I have for you today thank you so much for watching I’ll see you in the next one