A nice braided sweet loaf for your next Sunday’s baking project.
Honey bread
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
Author: ZestyandSpicy.com
Serves: 1 big loaf
Ingredients
- 250ml of lukewarm water
- 6g of instant or active dried yeast
- 120g of honey (I used clover honey)
- 480g of all purpose flour
- 3.5g of fine sea salt
- 40g of melted unsalted butter
- a bit of oil to grease a proofing bowl
- Egg wash (beaten egg + water or milk)
- sesame seeds for topping (optional)
Instructions
- - If using regular active dried yeast; sprinkle on top of the lukewarm water and let proof for 10-15mins or until it's bubbly. If you're using instant yeast; sprinkle it on top of the lukewarm water and continue right away with the recipe.
- - In a second mixing bowl, mix the all purpose flour and sea salt. Reserve.
- - Once the yeast as proofed, mix in the honey and melted butter before adding the flour/salt mix.
- - Knead the dough for 10-15 minutes or until silky smooth. It will start by being a very wet and sticky dough. You can slap and fold the dough on the counter top until it comes together before starting the kneading. Once silky smooth, the dough won't be sticking to your hands and the top of the boule of dough will bee smooth.
- - Add a bit of light tasting oil inside of a bowl and turn around your newly form ball of dough in it. Cover it with a damp towel or plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 2h or until it has doubled in size.
- - Once doubled, deflate the dough and knead it gently for a minute before forming a boule and cut it in 4 equal pieces.
- - With each pieces, roll them in to a long snake like shape of the same length before starting to braid.
- - Braiding with four strands: Pinch the end of the dough together and spread appart each stands. Starting with the right side, bring your far right strand back to the middle, then the left one. Continue as such and braid decently tight from the beginning. Once finished, pinch the tips together and tuck both ends of the bread under.
- - Place your bread on a baking sheet and let rise for another hour. Pre-heat your oven at 375F.
- - Just before putting thee bread in the oven, brush thee top with the egg wash and sprinkle the sesame seeds.
- - Bake for 35-40minutes or until golden brown. Transfer on to a cooling rack and refrain from cutting through it until it's fully cooled down.
Hey Ariel !!! … first of all thank you very much for your wonderful stream … fascinating how you managed to bake all that …
I think that is the ‘One’ from the middle in the photo …
I’d like to try this ‘One’ …
what happens if i put s little more honey ? …
Sincerely
Gérard
Ahhh thank you so much for being there and it was quite the process indeed lol
If you put more honey in the bread you’ll increase the hydration in the dough and it might crisp a bit more during the cooking time. Not a big deal, I think, if you don’t add that much extra but if you do… add a bit of extra flour while kneading to help yourself a bit.
Good luck and have fun!! 🙂