Mrs Beer's Butterzopf

Butterzopf, the butter braid, is the typical Sunday bread found on weekends on Swiss tables.

It is found in all bakeries and supermarkets, nowadays, every day of the week.

There are good and less good ones: the one from our baker, cooked in a wood oven, is superb.

But our garden neighbor Mrs. Beer also makes a great version of it!

After all, it is also a non-binding home preparation and I also delight in preparing it.

But I've always thought my neighbor's Butterzopf far better than what I made (even his lawn is greener than mine ...).

So I got his recipe and I tested it in my kitchen: I used the normal home oven (in static mode) and the result was more than satisfactory.
It had to be enough for a week and in three days it had already been brushed off!

Let's prepare it together starting, as always, with the ingredients:
at work!

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Weigh, mix together and sift the flours.

In the bowl, mix half of the water with the crumbled yeast and 2 tbsp. taken from the mixture of flour and spelled already weighed and sieved.

Leave to ferment in a barely warm place (eg the oven turned off with the light on) for about ten minutes.

Mix the rest of the flour mixture in the mixer, gradually adding the butter, salt and the remaining water. Let it mix gently for about ten minutes: the dough will be soft and elastic.

Work by hand on the counter to obtain a ball and let it rise, covered, for half an hour at room temperature.

Transfer to the fridge overnight, closing the container tightly (I use a plastic bag). Or knead in the morning and after the first leavening let it rest in the fridge for at least four hours.

Remove from the fridge, turn over on the counter, cover with a cloth and wait an hour for the dough to return to room temperature.

Divide it into two loaves and then form two rolls of about 2 cm. OR.

Arrange them crossed, one on top of the other.

Knot the first over the second and bring the ends out; then cross the second roll and bring these ends out as well. Proceed until the dough is used up, thus forming a braid.

Secure the ends under the braid and separate with your fingers, so that they are slightly apart, the components of the braid. Place on a plate covered with parchment paper, brush with part of the egg yolk (possibly mixed with a little milk) and leave to rest for another 30 '; it should double in size.

In the meantime, heat the oven (static) to 200 ° C, brush again with the remaining milk and egg mixture and bake for about 40 '/ 50'.

When cooked, beating on the lower part of the braid, it should give a sound like empty, otherwise lower the temperature and cook a few more minutes to dry the last traces of humidity. Leave to cool, slice and eat, sprinkling each slice with whatever suits you best.

Buon appetito!

ADVICES AND NOTES:

• Recipe, text only: to print or download.
• Milk: it is a variant of mine and can be omitted by replacing it with an identical volume of water.
• The braid, when it is cool well, it keeps some days in a bag of bread placed in a plastic; provided that it is not eaten all in the first minute of existence!
• See also: Butterzopf - Braid butter

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