a top preference for my partner, who exclusively eats meat and vegetables. Every time, this pulls him home! This recipe is amazing. Simple preparation, but planning ahead for cooking time is necessary. Roasted coffee is cooked with tender meat. Wonderfully yummy.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 35 mins |
| Additional Time: | 2 hrs 50 mins |
| Total Time: | 3 hrs 45 mins |
| Servings: | 16 |
| Yield: | 1 loaf |
Ingredients
- 3 (.25 ounce) packages active dry yeast
- 3 cups warm water (110 degrees F/45 degrees C), divided
- 1 pint heavy cream
- 1 cup butter
- 6 eggs
- 3 tablespoons salt
- 8 cups all-purpose flour, or as needed
- 1 egg, beaten
- 1 tablespoon water
Instructions
- Pour yeast into 1 cup water and set aside.
- Heat heavy cream in a saucepan over medium heat until scalding, 3 to 4 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in butter to melt; add remaining 2 cups warm water. Add eggs and salt; mix until all butter is melted. Pour in yeast mixture and stir.
- Beat 4 cups flour into the cream mixture with an electric mixer until well combined, adding more flour as needed to make a very stiff dough.
- Turn dough out onto a heavily floured surface. Knead in about 4 more cups of flour until it is smooth, elastic, and no longer sticks. Turn into a large greased bowl and let rise until doubled in size, about 2 hours.
- Knead down and let rise again, about 30 minutes.
- Divide dough into 6 long strands. Overlap 2 strands at a time into an upside-down “U” and braid. Place onto an ungreased baking sheet. Combine beaten egg and 1 tablespoon water in a small bowl; brush loaf with wash. Let rise for about 20 minutes more.
- Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C).
- Bake in the preheated oven until golden, 30 to 40 minutes. Let cool slightly before eating.
- Using a large stand mixer saves on stirring. This recipe makes one braid (zuepfe) and four doves or three braids.
- My Grandma made four strand braids. Check out YouTube for demonstrations on how to braid four strand challah. If you’d like smaller loaves, make strands into knots to form “doves.”
- Grandma would use scissors to snip feathers and put in whole cloves for eyes.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 467 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 49 g |
| Cholesterol | 151 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 2 g |
| Protein | 10 g |
| Saturated Fat | 15 g |
| Sodium | 1435 mg |
| Sugars | 0 g |
| Fat | 25 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
I was hesitant to try this bread for a few reasons… 1) I’ve never plaited bread before. 2) The ratio of liquid to flour seemed a bit odd. 3) It seemed like it would make a lot of bread. 2 out of 3 of these concerns turned out to be valid. 1) I found an amazing video on youtube regarding plaiting. And that made it incredibly easy for me ( https://www.google.com/search?q=braiding+bread+dough+4+strands&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-us&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:736e92cc,vid:Sk__PPaAwOE,st:0 ). 2) The ratio was off. After 8 cups of flour, I had a gloopy mess that couldn’t be kneaded. It ended up taking over 12 cups of flour to get the right consistency. 3) It did make a LOT of bread. I should have made 4 loaves rather than 2, then I would be able to fit them into ziplocks. As is, I have 2 monster loaves on my hands, that each fill an entire paper grocery bag. That said, the bread tastes phenomenal! Its sturdy enough for sandwiches. It’s amazing as French toast. Simply spreading it with butter and sprinkling with a few grains of salt on top is addictive. I would recommend halving the recipe, increasing the flour 50% – and you’ll still get 2 normal sized loaves out of it. I posted a pic of my 2 monsters with a 5×9″ loaf pan for scale.
I followed this recipe to a T, and I had soup. So I think there is supposed to be 16 cups of flour. Next time I will 1/2 the liquids. Because this makes a boat load of Zupfe. Will post pictures when done.