Braided Bread

Ingredients

Maida/Plain Flour: 2 cups

Milk: 1 ¼ cups (or as required)

Butter: 3tbsp

Refined Oil: 4tbsp + while kneading if needed

Salt: needed

Sugar: 2tbsp

Yeast: ¾ tsp

Warm water: ¼ cup

Egg: for egg wash

White sesame seeds: few

Method Of Preparation

In a bowl add yeast and ½ tbsp sugar. Add warm water to it.

Wait for 8-10 minutes till it gets fermented.

Warm the milk and add the butter and refined oil to it.

In another bowl take plain flour, salt and sugar.

Then add yeast and warm milk to it.

Knead to form somewhat sticky dough.

Apply oil on hand and knead for 5-8 minutes to get it soft.

Place in a greased bowl and keep it well covered for about 45minutes-1hour or till it doubles the size.

Take the dough and divide to 6 equal portions. Roll each ball to long elongated strands.

Take 3 strands, keep parallel to each other. Press the top edge of each strand together and press, now braid/pleat it like how we pleat the hair; press the end of three strands together after pleating.

Keep it on the greased or baking tray lined with butter paper.

Do the same with other strand too.

Brush the egg wash on it and sprinkle sesame seeds.

Cover the baking tray well and again wait for 20-30 minutes till it gets again double the size.

Preheat the oven and bake it at 160⁰C to about 60-75 minutes or till you gets it done.

Cool on a wire rack and keep in an air tight bowl lined with clean towel or kitchen tissues while the bread is warm itself. This will avoid the bread being hard.

Tips for making soft bread

Make sure the yeast is not expired.

Water should be blood hot (not too warm) (this will avoid the yeasty smell of the dough)

While kneading use warm milk in which butter and oil is added, this increase the softness.

The dough should be sticky, hard dough will make the bread hard.

Don’t keep the dough for more hours. (This will avoid the yeasty smell of the dough)