Poppy seed braided heart bread

bread dough

This beautiful poppy seed bread is a great way to impress your guests at dinner this holiday season. With a golden crust and softly sweet interior, it's great with a cup of warm drink. If you have any leftover it also makes fantastic french toast in the morning! Sieve the flour into a large bowl. Add the salt and mix it. Take 1 dl tepid milk in a glass, 1 taspoon sugar and mix with the yeast, set aside for 5 minutes. Melt the butter a bit and add to the flour with remaining tepid milk, sugar, yeast mixture and egg. Knead for 10 mins while you will get a well formed smooth dough. Cover the bowl with a damp teatowel and leave to rise until doubled in size, it takes about 1 hour in a warm place. Knock back on a floured board, knead a very little and split into 1 cm thin chopsticks, I used a pizza cutter. Now to twist 3 equal sized stick and form a heart, place on baking paper covered tray. You will get about 12 pices of hearts at the end. Leave to prove for about 30mins, it should be puffy now.

topping

Beat the egg and brush all over to glaze. Mix the grounded poppy seeds with icing sugar and sprinkle the top of hearts using your fingers. Preheat your oven to 180 C degree and bake for 40 minutes until getting light browened. Serve warm with a cup of tea or coffee.

Conversion equivalents