An immensely flavorful loaf with raisins, lemon, and nutmeg commonly made at Christmas and Easter time in the Czech Republic. There's a bright fruitiness and a light spice throughout the bread. It's rich and so amazing on its own!!! I really hope you try the recipe because the result is wonderful! The recipe is here, and pictures of the process are below.
Ingredients:
90 g raisins
1/2 cup milk (134 g)
2 Tbsp. water (~33 g)
2 tsp. active dry yeast (6.5 g)
30 g white sugar
1 tsp. table salt (5.8 g)
2 large egg yolks (~30 g)
Zest of one lemon (3.3 g)
1/2 tsp. ground nutmeg (1.5 g) - optional
About 300 - 320 g bread flour or all purpose flour (2 1/8 cup - 2 1/4 cup)
45 g soft salted butter
One whisked egg for egg wash
Sliced almonds and powdered sugar (optional)
Directions:
Begin soaking the raisins while you start the dough. Note: Don't soak the raisins more than 1-2 hours, or they will get too soft.
Warm the milk and water until slightly warm, 80-95°F. Mix in the yeast and 1/2 tsp. of the sugar. Let sit 5-10 minutes until the yeast is foaming. Note: If using instant yeast, skip this yeast activation step and just mix the milk and yeast together with the other liquid ingredients.
Whisk the egg yolks, nutmeg, lemon zest, salt, and rest of the sugar into the yeast mixture.
Begin adding the flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, mixing completely between each addition. At some point you will need to start kneading to incorporate the flour. The dough may seem dry but don't panic, just keep mixing. The butter will fix it.
Once all the flour is incorporated, take the dough out onto a clean work surface. Knead for about 5 minutes.
Then, add the soft butter and begin mixing and kneading it in. First it will be messy and you may have to force it into the dough, but eventually it will come together. Then knead until it passes the window pane test, 10-20 minutes. Note: You can use a stand mixer instead, about 5-10 minutes of kneading on speed 2 after the flour is mixed in.
Shape the dough into a ball and place in a butter-greased bowl. Cover and rise 1 to 1.5 hours in a warm place, or until doubled in size and puffy.
Drain the raisins. Pat them dry with a clean towel or paper towels.
Take the dough out and flatten it. Add the raisins and knead in, until the raisins are distributed, about 2-5 minutes.
Remove the dough and cut into 6 pieces, 3 should be larger (about 140 g each) for the bottom braid and 3 should be smaller (about 85 g each) for the top braid.
Start shaping the dough into strands, cover, and let rest for about 30 minutes.
Roll the strands out thinner (the dough should be more stretchy after resting).
Braid into two braids, then squish the larger braid down and brush the middle with egg wash. Place the smaller braid on top of the bigger braid, and tuck the smaller braid ends under the ends of the larger braids, forming a loaf.
Place on a parchment lined baking tray, cover and rise about 1 to 1.5 hours, or until about doubled.
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
Brush the loaf with egg wash, top with sliced almonds if using. Place in the oven and then decrease the temperature to 325°F and bake the loaf for 30-45 minutes, or until the internal temperature is 200°F.
Note: Watch the loaf while baking, if it gets too dark on the bottom move the pan to the upper shelf, if too dark on top add a loose layer of tin foil.
Let rest on the pan 10 minutes before removing to a wire rack to cool for about 2 hours before cutting into.
Store in an airtight container up to 4 days at room temperature, or freeze up to one month. It's delicious on its own but feel free to add toppings!
Makes one very delicious loaf.
The ingredients I used.
Start soaking the raisins when you start the dough.
Before activating the yeast in warm milk, water, and sugar.
After activating the yeast.
Add the egg yolks, nutmeg, lemon zest, rest of the sugar, and the salt to the yeast mixture.
And mix together.
Start adding in flour, about 1/2 cup at a time.
Mix in, and repeat.
Once you've gradually added about 2 cups of flour the dough should look kind of like this. Sticky and it needs to be kneaded.
After kneading for about 5 minutes. I added a little more flour as I kneaded and now it's a bit smoother.
Add the butter and begin mixing in.
It will get messy first.
But then it will smooth out once the butter is mixed in. At this point it needs to be kneaded further, about 10-15 minutes.
After kneading about 15 minutes. A lot smoother!
Before the first rise.
Halfway through the first rise, next we will fold the dough.
The raisins after soaking.
Drain the raisins, and then pat them dry! I definitely recommend patting dry because they are easier to mix into the dough.
Squish the dough down, and add the raisins.
After mixing in the raisins. Next we will divide and shape!
Divide.
And start shaping into strands, but the dough will need to rest for about 30 minutes before it's relaxed enough to roll out more. I cover with plastic so it doesn't dry out.
After resting 30 minutes, now they should be easier to roll out!
Okay, not the prettiest strands... but they're ready to braid!
Shape the bigger strands into a large braid, and smaller into a small braid. Smoosh the bigger braid and brush with egg wash. (The braids are a little uneven, which is because of my uneven strands, but powdered sugar can cover a lot of sins!)
And add the small braid on top, pressing down and tucking under on the ends. Brush with egg wash. Then rise again.
After the second rise.
After the second rise, side view.
Brush with eggwash and top with almonds.
After baking! I took this photo at an angle because the bread is lopsided...the top braid slipped to the side, but even still, it's gorgeous!!!
Cool on a wire rack. So golden and glorious!
You can dust the finished bread with powdered sugar, if you'd like!