Tips from “Zopfbegg” Dominik Spieser (37): How to make the perfect butter braid for holiday brunch

Spieser recommends using fresh yeast to ensure the dough rises well. Malt also helps: “It acts as nutrients for the yeast and thus allows the dough to rise better.” You should also be careful not to let the yeast get too hot because it breaks down at 45 degrees. But the most important thing is something else: Time. After kneading, the dough should be left at room temperature for at least two hours or in the refrigerator overnight. “The most important thing is that it roughly doubles its volume,” Spieser says. If you put the dough back in the refrigerator after knitting, it will become more stable and take a better shape while cooking. A longer fermentation time also helps make the braid more digestible and have a stronger flavor.

Malt not only helps the yeast rise, but also gives the dough a beautiful color. Spieser says you can trick the color a bit with a pinch of saffron. “The taste doesn’t change, but the braid turns golden.” To get a good crust, Spieser recommends brushing the braid with egg yolk twice after it has finished rising. Brush once after knitting and fluffing. And before putting it back in the oven. Adding a little sugar to the egg yolks adds even more color and helps make the crust crispier.

Baking time for butter braid (see recipe below) is 45 minutes at 190 degrees top and bottom heat. According to Spieser, the rule of thumb is: “The smaller the baked goods, the hotter and quicker they can be baked.” It is important that the core temperature of the knitting reaches around 95 degrees. Since this is difficult to determine at home, Spieser has two tricks to check if the braid is cooked enough. You can weave the bottom part of the braid. If it feels hollow, that’s a good sign. Or you can check the gaps between the braided wires. If they are no longer soft, the braid has been in the oven long enough.

If you want a fresh braid for breakfast without having to wait in the kitchen a few hours before brunch, you can pre-bake the braid and then freeze it airtight in a freezer bag with virtually no loss of quality, Spieser says. It doesn’t take too long to cook frozen braid either: “Five minutes at 200 degrees is enough.” And if the cooked braid dries out after a few days, the slices can be freshened individually in the toaster. “The butter inside the braid melts in the heat, making the slices moist and crispy again.”