Braided yeast bun

by Angela Braun | Apr 7, 2024 | Recipes

When I was a child, my mum made a braided yeast bun almost every weekend. When on Saturday evening the smell of freshly baked yeast dough wafted through the house, we knew that we were in for a treat. Unfortunately, waiting wasn’t a strength of any of us and more often than not, somebody (usually my dad) stole a piece of the bun before it had even cooled off!

When I was old enough to bake myself, Mum gave me her recipe which I still think is the best. There are many variations to braided yeast buns: you can make them with raisins, nuts or different flavours, add fillings and form them not only like a braid but in many different shapes.

The classic braided yeast bun, however, is my favourite and I love making it for my family.

Braided yeast bun

Ingredients

750 g all-purpose flour (I usually use spelt, but wheat is also ok)
1 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp vanilla sugar
1 pinch of salt
1/4 l lukewarm milk
7 g dried yeast or 40 g fresh yeast
100 g soft butter
3 eggs, medium size
1/2 tbsp grated lemon or orange zest
100 g raisins OR 100 g almond slivers (both optional)

Instructions

1. If you use fresh yeast, activate it by crumbling it into a bowl, adding the sugar and a bit of the lukewarm milk. Stir until it’s dissolved and let it rest for 10 – 15 minutes until you can see air bubbles and the liquid starts to expand.
2. Sieve the flour into a bowl and mix it with sugar and salt. If you use the dry yeast, add it to the dry ingredients, otherwise, add the activated fresh yeast. Dissolve the butter in the (remaining) milk, add the liquid and 2 eggs to the flour and mix it well.
3. 
   Knead the dough on a floured surface for 5 minutes until it is smooth and elastic. My mom always said: “It has to lay in the bowl like a freshly bathed baby!”
4. Put the dough into a bowl, cover it with a cloth and let it rest for one hour until it has risen well. Divide the dough into two pieces, the smaller one about one-third of the whole. Divide each dough piece into three parts, roll them into “cords” and make a large and a smaller braid.
5. Preheat the oven to 200 °C /fan oven 180 °C. Cover a baking tray with baking parchment and set the larger braid onto the tray. Put the smaller one on top, cover the bun with a cloth and let it rest for 30 minutes.
6. Brush the whole braid with the beaten egg. You can now sprinkle it with sugar crystals or almond slivers or leave it like that.
7. Bake the braided yeast bun for 40 – 50 minutes.

Recipe spinach lemon lasagna

by Angela Braun | Mar 27, 2024 | Recipes

I love lasagna! Not only the classic one (which is adorable!) but lasagna in every variety. It’s such a great dish to experiment with different vegetables, herbs, spices, sauces and flavours. Take the combination of spinach and lemon for example: they are a dream couple of their own but add a great bechamel sauce, cheese and herbs and layer all that with lasagna sheets. The result is a creamy and savoury main course with well-balanced tartness. You’ll love it as much as I do! Here’s the recipe of a tasty spinach lemon lasagna:

Spinach lemon lasagna

Admittedly, preparation time is a bit longer as you’ll have to blanch the spinach and mix it with different ingredients to make one part of the filling. Additionally, you’ll need a classic bechamel sauce which also needs some time to make. However, the wonderful taste of this spinach lemon lasagna rewards you for all the effort.

Ingredients

lasagna sheets
1/2 bunch of basil
1 quarter slice fermented lemon
4 tbsp
2 spring onions
300 g fresh spinach
400 g ricotta
salt
pepper
30 g butter
30 g flour
freshly grated nutmeg
300 ml vegetable broth
300 ml milk
200 g grated cheese (parmigiano, gouda or similar)

Instructions

For the spinach-ricotta filling

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil. In the meantime, wash the spinach and blanch it for one minute in the boiling water. Drain in a sieve and rinse with cold water.
Wash the spring onions and slice them.

2. Roughly chop the basil and the lemon and puree it in a food processor together with 3 tbsp olive oil.

3. In a bowl, mix the spinach and onions with ricotta and the basil-lemon puree. Add salt and pepper to taste but be careful with the salt as the lemons are salty already.

For the bechamel sauce

4. Melt the butter and slowly bend in the flour. Slowly add the vegetable broth while constantly stirring. Make sure that no lumps form! Add the vegetable broth and let it come back to the boil briefly. Add salt, pepper and nutmeg to taste, add half of the grated cheese and stir until it’s melted.

Assemble the lasagna

5. Preheat the oven to 180 °C (fan oven: 160 °C). Grease an oven dish and layer lasagna sheets, spinach-ricotta mix and bechamel sauce in that order until the mix and the sauce are used up. The last layer is sauce. Sprinkle the remaining cheese on top of the dish and bake it in the oven for 30 – 40 minutes.