Zopf – Plaited Swiss Bread

Zopf is one of my favourite Swiss breads and is traditionally eaten for breakfast on Sundays with butter and honey.

  • Plaiting the swiss bread
  • Plaited swiss bread with a cover of milk and egg
  • Swiss bread with butter and honey
  • Finished swiss bread fresh out of the oven

Ingredients

for 3 small breads

  • 2 cups plain flour
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • 50g butter, soft
  • 1/2 cup milk (full fat), lukewarm
  • 5g dry yeast or 10g fresh yeast
  • 1 egg for the icing

Step 1: Mix all the dry ingredients

Mix the flour with the salt and the sugar.

Step 2: Knead in the soft butter

Add the soft butter and mix it in by rubbing it between your fingers.

Step 3: Add yeast and milk

Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk.

Step 4: Mix by hand

Add the milk and mix it all together until it’s well combined and smooth.

Step 5: Knead

Knead by hand for at least 5-10 minutes. Kneading dough allows gluten to form which enables the dough to rise better, be lighter and fluffier.

Step 6: Let it rest

Let it rest at room temperature coverd by a damp cloth for 2 hours or until it has reached double its size.

Step 7: braid it

Here you can find a short video how to braid it.

Step 8: let it rest again

Put the breads on the baking tray and let them rise for another 15 minutes.

Step 9: brush with egg

Wisk one egg and brush the breads with it.

Step 10: bake

Preheat the oven to 200°C (400°F) and bake the breads for about 20 minutes (for one big bread it’s approx. 35 minutes). You know they’re good when they are golden and make a hollow sound when you knock on the bottom.

Enjoy!

And let us know how it turned out 😀