Easter Breakfast

My, this is getting complicated. Inspired by Zorra’s „Filled Easter-Hefe-Cake“ which she used to participate in WTSIM I decided to bake a yeast cake, too.

I wanted to do the filling with something orange-like, but I wanted it to be a little bit more sour and tangy. So I shamelessly filched the idea of kumquats from Ala Grecque, another participant of WTSIM. (I didn’t glaze them, though.)

And now that I published the recipe yesterday in German, I stumbled upon the Easter Cake Bake Event hosted by Julia on A Slice of Cherry Pie. Since I am still on time, I decided to participate.

Funnily I had some difficulties braiding the dough and I had to practice with some strings first. (I really can’t remember braiding anything for a very long time!)

Easter Braid with Kumquats

Ingredients:

Preparation:

Dissolve the yeast with some sugar in the milk and let stand for some minutes. Add sugar and soft butter and stir. Add flour, salt, egg (and egg whites) and knead with a cooking spoon or an electric mixer until the dough is soft but does not cling to the bowl. Cover with a clean towel and put in a warm place for one hour (better two) until the dough has risen to at least twice its original volume.

In the meantime carefully wash the kumquats, cut into halves and remove the pits. Mince together with the raisins and soak with orange liqueur. Add ground hazelnuts.

Knead the dough on a table with some flour and split into six balls. Take three balls and flatten them long and thin. Spread the filling and cover it lengthwise. Carefully roll into strings. Put them side-by-side and make a braid. Put the braid on a baking tray with baking paper. Repeat with remaining dough balls. Brush the braids with egg yolk.

Now start to heat the oven to 200°C, letting the dough rise one more time until the oven is hot enough. Bake for approx. 30 minutes.

Notes:

– The 1-2 egg whites are not necessary for the dough, But I wouldn’t have known what to do with them otherwise.
– I used wholemeal speltflour; with lighter wheat flour it wouldn’t have looked so rustic.
– Rezept auf deutsch