EASTER BRAIDS

Beautiful decorative braids, ideal to prepare for the upcoming Easter. I made only 2 for my children because I didn't have enough flour, and the given dose is for 4 braids. A hole is made in one end of the braid and then an egg is placed in it, they look great and have a wonderful taste. I read somewhere that in Croatia they are traditionally made for Easter and are called Easter babies :)

The size of the cup is 250 ml

Ingredients:

• 1 packet of dry yeast
• 1 full cup warm milk
• 70 g softened butter
• 1 egg plus 1 egg white
• 4-5 tablespoons sugar
• a pinch of salt
• about 500-550 g of sifted flour (about 2,5 cups and some more)
• 1 teaspoon mahleb (grind seeds from wild cherries)
• 1 egg yolk for coating
• raisins (optional)

Preparation:

1.  First, yeast and sugar are put in warm milk for 10 minutes.
2. Then, all ingredients except the butter and egg yolk are mixed in the yeast/milk with a mixer, the flour is added gradually. You should get a soft dough maybe just a little sticky. Add more flour if needed.
   
   
   
3. Then add the softened butter by hand and knead the dough well. 
4. Form a ball and cover with plastic wrap. 
5. Allow 1 hour to double in volume on a warm place.
6. Then divide dough into 12 pieces. 
   
7. Take 3 pieces and stretch them into long shapes about 15 cm long, join all 3 on one side and knit a braid. 
   
   
   
8. At one end you open a hole in the braid and put a ball made of aluminium foil.
   
9. Repeat the procedure with the other parts.
10. Coat braids with egg yolk dissolved in a tsp of water or milk and leave them covered for another half an hour to grow.
11. Place in an unheated oven to bake for about half an hour at 180 C degrees (350 F).
12. After baking, after they cool down a bit, remove the foils and put eggs in the holes.
    

Tip: many of you probably wonder what is mahleb? Mahleb is what gives the best taste to the Easter bread, kozinjak, milibrod...you name it. It's a spice that you can probably make on your own with a little research. It's made by grinding the black cherries seeds.If you can't find mahleb, the only spice that can substitute mahleb are ground anis seeds.