Warning: braiding bread is addictive!
Every month, the Mellow Bakers nominate three recipes from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Bread for a group bake-off. September included the recipe for Soft Butter Rolls, which appealed to me in its simplicity, but not in its form.
I decided to try making the dough into a braided loaf, and was absolutely thrilled with the results! The bread is quite reminiscent of brioche (albeit a little denser), which is surprising given the relatively small amount of egg and butter in the dough. It worked beautifully into logs for plaiting, and held its shape well on baking.
I’ve made the recipe three times now, each with a slightly different mix of flour. The lighter loaf above was made with pizza flour, but the darker four-strand braid below was made with half bakers flour and half plain (AP) flour. I think both options give the bread a more tender crumb than straight bakers flour.
It’s quite hard to explain how to braid, and difficult to take photos as I didn’t have a free hand, but I found this wonderful YouTube clip for the six braid which you might find useful. If you have Hamelman’s book, I used the six braid (method two) on page 304 for the loaf above, and the four braid on page 300 for the two smaller ones below.
Braided Loaves
(adapted from Jeffrey Hamelman’s Soft Butter Rolls)
- 500g (4 cups) pizza flour or 50% bakers flour and 50% plain (AP) flour
- 230g (1 cup) water
- 1 egg
- 40g (3 tablespoons) butter
- 30g (2 tablespoons) sugar
- 25g (3 tablespoons) powdered milk
- 11g (2 teaspoons) fine sea salt
- 4g (1 teaspoon) instant dried yeast
- melted butter, for brushing
Note: I used the metric amounts (converted from the imperial provided in the book); the cup and spoon measures are as listed in the original recipe.
1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the flour(s), sugar, milk powder, salt and yeast. Cut the butter into small pieces, and rub it into the dry ingredients until crumbly.
2. Add the water and egg, and mix with your clean hand, squelching the dough together to make sure it’s well combined. Scrape off your hand, cover the bowl with a tea towel and allow the dough to rest for 10 minutes.
3. Spray a clean bench with oil, the turn the dough out and knead it briefly until it develops a silky elasticity. Spray the scraped out mixing bowl with oil, then return the dough to the bowl, cover with cling film and allow to prove for about an hour and a half. The dough won’t rise much, but it will soften in that time.
4. Turn the dough out and divide it into six equal pieces for the six-braid loaf, or eight pieces for two four-braid loaves. Roll each piece into a long log, and then braid accordingly. Lay the loaves onto a tray lined with parchment paper. Spray a piece of clingfilm with oil, then fit it snugly over the top of each loaf to keep out draughts. Allow to rise for a further 30 minutes to one hour. Preheat the oven to 200C (400F) with fan.
5. Remove the clingfilm, brush the loaf with melted butter and bake for 20 – 25 minutes, rotating the tray halfway through the baking time. When the loaf is cooked through, remove from the oven and brush again with melted butter while it’s still hot. Allow to cool on a wire rack before photographing and scoffing!
The dough recipe is sufficient for one large six-braid loaf or two smaller four-braid ones. The latter are pictured below, and were made with a mix of plain (AP) and bakers flour. As these were smaller, they baked a little browner, but the bread was still tender and delicious. We’ve just eaten the last of the loaf sliced up and cooked as French toast!
Click here for a printable version of this recipe
Edit: Serendipitously, Brydie has just posted about plaited loaves as well. Maybe it’s the weekend for braiding bread! If anyone else makes a loaf, let me know, and I’ll add the link here…
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
Q. When is a braid not a braid?
A. When it’s a plait.
Either way, your bread looks delicious.
Thanks, Peter! :)
They look like you’ve been doing them all your life! Wow! When Mellow Bakers get round to challah you’ll be way ahead :)
Really beautiful Celia, you’ve made me want to have a go at braiding bread now!
BEautiful, Celia!
I’ve been waiting for this post!
You did a wonderful job- I am so impressed- seriously- a six strand braid. Impressive.
It looks beautiful Celia and I bet it gives quite a different feel to the bread than rolls would. I’ve only plaited bread once when I made Challah on the bread course last year – not sure I’d remember how to do the braiding now, but I do have the instructions.
[…] more on braiding bread check out Celia’s latest […]
Joanna, it was so much fun, and the dough recipe so easy. It’s much easier than a true brioche, which means I can make it and play around with it over and over again. I’m going to make another batch today and braid it a different way!
C, I so hope you have a go! My only advice would be to choose your dough carefully. I tried to braid my high hydration sourdough and, like the cottage loaves, it just all proved together. The braiding worked really well recently with a 60% sourdough though. I took photos, but accidentally deleted them! Sigh…
Heidi, I thought of you as I was making these, as I was inspired to try by one of your earlier posts! Thank you!
Choc, it’s interesting, a few of the MBs who made the rolls found them unimpressive, but as a loaf, the texture of the bread is tender and the flavour delicious and buttery. Definitely a keeper, particularly as Big Boy is a big brioche fan, and this is a much healthier version compared to regular brioche!
I blame heidi as well :-)
Your are right it is addictive, I can’t make a batch of bread anymore without doing at at least one that is plaited.
Oh, gosh! Braided bread, everywhere! Looks fabulous, Celia and a six braid? Amazing! That would require me to use too much of an underused portion of my brain. I have attempted a simple challah before and was struggling to find a ‘home’ for all of the strands. Well done, my friend. :)
Brydie, I’m going to try a different one today – must go knock up another batch of dough. I’ve just found great instructions here.
Chris, thank you! :) This would be a breeze for you, with your crochet and knitting and setting in sleeves! Best bet is to have someone calling out instructions to you as you go though – Pete’s far more spatial than I, so he shouts orders as I weave. Also, the youtube clip made all the difference for me – when I watched it, I realised that when making a six-strand, it was important to really swing the bread across and up, which made it much easier to keep track of what I was doing!
Absolutely beautiful braids, Celia! I had just taken out my starter for experimental sweet sourdough when I read your blog. You’ve inspired me to try to 6 braid some of it. I usually only stick with a 3 braid but have practiced on some rope. Thanks for posting the video–I’m too lazy to hunt for things on YouTube.
I usually have trouble getting the strands thin enough–must try adding the plain flour to get more extensibility.
Thanks Liz! The dough hydration has to be quite low for the braids to work – I find otherwise the sourdough ends up all morphing into a blob. Have a look at the link I posted in the comment above too – great step by step photos there. Have fun! :)
I love YouTube, it’ll teach you anything. I’m not really a baker, it hasn’t quite grabbed me the way it has my brother, but I’m a huge fan of trying it out, sampling it (of course). I’ll just be your taste pimp & cheer squad Celia :)
You should be thrilled at your results…looks fantastic. I can only imagine the perfume in your kitchen after baking fresh bread!…A job well done!…Yvette x
Anna, if you were closer than a 3 hour car drive from here, I’d drop some to your door today! :)
Yvette, thank you! :)
Oooh, looks so pretty! I imagine it tastes fantastic as well. I don’t think gluten free bread would work like that at all!!
I was just thinking that the lovely goldenness really reminded me of brioche! It looks gorgeous. Tell me, do you ever buy bread Celia? You seem to bake so many lovely loaves that you probably wouldn’t ever need to! :)
Celia I love brioche (who doesn’t?)! I once made a chocolate bread and butter pudding made with croissants and little bombs of 70% cocoa chocolate dotted throughout – I bet your bread would make an even better version with its denser texture.
Magnifique! I just braided the mane of a unicorn. Rather tricky it was too.
What gorgeous pics! Thanks so much for sharing your recipes….
Thank you all!
Chef R, sadly no, I don’t know how you’d ever get a crumb like this in gluten-free..
Lorraine, we haven’t bought a single loaf of bread since January 2007! :)
Sarah, this bread would make wonderful bread and butter pudding. We’ve been using it for French toast, and it’s been superlative!
Anna, thank you! I learn something new every day, I didn’t know they still had unicorns in Paris.. ;-)
Annabel, thank you and thanks for stopping by! :)
These look amazing! I got hooked on braiding bread myself last year when I made my first-ever egg bread, but I think I’m going to try again with your recipe, as it uses butter instead of oil. I was hoping for more brioche-ness than I got, and this looks much more like what I had in mind.
Probably just as well that we can’t smell over the internet! I suspect there would be a riot.
As always Celia, you are an inspiration and your work perfection.
:-) Mandy
Nancy, Lee, Mandy, thank you for the kind comments! Must bake more, the boys have been hoovering this since school hols started.. :)
I know I am a little bit late in reading this post but that loaf looks sooo good. I am going to try this tomorrow now!! Thanks for the post Celia. Your latest post about your garden is truly inspiring.