EASTER BREAD (JESUS WREATH)

These wreaths were a real pleasure for me to prepare. Although it is early for Easter, I decided to make them and froze half and the rest have already been eaten. Soft as cotton, they taste like kozinjak, I am delighted by the structure, aroma and taste. I found the recipe (with a small adaptation from me) somewhere on Facebook, and decided to give it a try. This Easter bread is also popularly made all over Europe. The wreath symbolizes the crown that Jesus wore on the cross and the eggs symbolize birth and life. My eggs are decorative, and for Easter I will certainly put real Easter eggs. From these amount of ingredients, you will get 6 pieces.

The size of the cup is 250 ml (US measure)

Ingredients:

° glass of 250 ml

• 1 bag dry yeast (or 20 g fresh yeast)

• 1 ¼ glass of high fat milk

• ½ teaspoon salt

• 80 g of butter (2/3 stick)

• 2 eggs

• ½ a cup of sugar

• 1 bag vanilla sugar or 1 tbs vanilla extract

• 5 cups of flour

• 1/2 tsp mahleb (aromatic spice made from the seeds of a wild cherries, usually used in kozinjak preparation) 

• raisins

• 1 egg + 1 teaspoon of water for coating

• colorful crumbs

• 1 tablespoon sugar + 4 tablespoons water

• 6 painted eggs - optional

Preparation:

1. Heat the milk and butter until the butter has melted.
2.  Leave to cool a bit and add half a cube of yeast or dry yeast, then add the sugar and stir to melt the yeast. 
3. No need to wait to activate, add a little salt, eggs, vanilla, flour, mahleb and turn on the mixer with the whisk attached to the dough and mix until everything is smooth. 
4. Finally, knead the dough by hand, so to see if it is soft enough. I didn't need to add water or flour. If  dough is too hard, add very little water and vice versa, if it is sticky, add very little flour. 
5. Cover the dough with plastic wrap and let it double its size for about 1 hour.
   
   
   
6. Once the dough is ready, divide it into 12 balls and add raisins or nothing to each one. 
   
   
   
7. From each we form a stick with the palms, about 15 cm long.
   
8. Knit 2 sticks.
   
   
   
9. And fold in the shape of a bagel as shown in the picture.
   
10. Arrange them in a non stick baking tray and leave them to rise for another 20 minutes. Then coat them with the yolk mixed with a little water, sprinkle a little sugar and put them in an unheated oven at 180 ° C (350 F). Bake for about 30 minutes, follow the color change.
11. After they are baked,  brush with water and sprinkle with colorful crumbs. This procedure is done after baking because the crumbs would melt during baking. Decorated eggs are placed in the holes.