Great recipe and a fantastic bread. My only comment - my stepmother is Swiss and she lets the bread rise for 30 mins before plaiting, and then lets it rise a further 30 mins after plaiting. This doesn't add anything to the taste but it makes it look prettier! I think it does help the texture; however - it's more open and softer. She has had difficulty in the UK and in NZ with finding correct flour (in Switzerland you can buy special zopf flour). She suggests using a strong white flour. One reviewer has suggested brushing with butter rather than the egg yolk and water mix. I personally wouldn't recommend this - the egg yolk mix gives a beautiful golden shine to the bread that is very attractive and butter doesn't have the same effect at all. It definitely DOES need salt, but not sugar!
A wonderful recipe for a great bread. This bread is great with butter and honey or just jam on relaxing Sunday mornings. Be sure to use whole milk (not skim milk) or you will get a bread that isn't as rich as it's supposed to be.
Salt is very important; otherwise it will be too bland as the previous reviewer said. I also use a 15% Spelt Flour / 85% All purpose flour mix; it makes the texture much closer to real Zopf bread; Just using All Purpose flour results in a bread that is too much like normal white bread.
Texture: amazing- soft toasts very well dough easy to braid and work with. Taste: very very bland. This would be good to dip into flavored olive oil or toast with honey or jam. But as a bread itself the taste is lacking and flavorless. Process: I used my bread machine putting in the milk egg & butter followed by flour and yeast. I rose once in my machine. Then I took it out braided it and left it out for about 45 minutes (covered with a wet cloth) to rise (and it rose a lot so I recommend a second rise). cooked about 20 minutes. Very light bread.- (If) Next-time alterations: add 3/4 teaspoon salt (a must) 1 tsp sugar.
I am so happy!! Ive been born and raised in Switzerland and moved to the USA after ive gotten married to my american husband. I am very happy here but i sure missed my Zopf. Now I am able to bake it for my American family... I've got even my father in law hooked with that bread... Thank you soooooooooooo much
great recipie highly recommend. old world style texture and flavor
Delicious! Be sure to use whole milk so it has its nice creamy taste! It's great with a soup and its very addicting - disappears quickly.
Absolutely delicious! Mine turned out perfectly and looked beautiful. I would definitely brush over with butter and not egg/water mixture though. Also it needed a little salt.
This bread would have been very good if it had salt in the ingredients. It cooked for only 16 minutes before turning brown and was not cooked all the way through. It did look good and had good texture but was very bland.
