Homemade sweet braid with sourdough

A naturally leavened sweet braid that you can enjoy at breakfast or as a snack. Here is a new recipe to prepare at home with sourdough, inspired by the Sicilian tradition. With the indicated ingredients you will get two sweet braids weighing about 500 grams each. Choose organic ingredients as much as possible.

A naturally leavened sweet braid which you can enjoy at breakfast or as a snack. Here is a new recipe to prepare at home with sourdough, inspired by the Sicilian tradition.

With the indicated ingredients you will get two sweet braids weighing about 500 grams each. Choose organic ingredients as much as possible.

Ingredients

150 gr of refreshed sourdough
500 grams of spelled flour
250 ml of milk at room temperature
100 gr of whole cane sugar
50 ml of extra virgin olive oil
3 small eggs
2 teaspoons of grated lemon zest
1 teaspoon of vanilla powder
1 teaspoon of honey

Preparation

In a large bowl pour the sourdough already refreshed according to your habits weighing 150 grams. Add the milk at room temperature and mix with the sourdough as you would water for a refreshment. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the help of a fork or a whisk together with the brown sugar.

In the bowl with the milk and the sourdough, gradually add the beaten eggs with the sugar, the spelled flour and the extra virgin olive oil. While you combine the ingredients, start kneading with your hands. Also add a teaspoon of vanilla powder, a teaspoon of honey and two teaspoons of grated zest made from an organic lemon.

You will have mix all the ingredients with your hands with energy as you would do to prepare bread. The dough should also have a similar consistency. So if you need to add a little more milk or flour to get a homogeneous and elastic dough, not too sticky.

Cover the bowl of dough with a tea towel and leave rest in a warm place until doubled. The indicative time for leavening is about 6-8 hours, but it all depends on how active your mother yeast is.

When the dough has risen well, divide it into two equal parts. Divide each of the two parts into three balls of the same size. You will need them to form two braids with your dough. With each of these balls, make a stick of intertwine.

Weave the dough directly onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. Cover with a cloth and let it rest for an hour. Before putting the braids in the oven, brush them with a little milk and garnish them with a few grains of brown sugar. Cook in a preheated oven at 180 ° C for 30 minutes.

If you want, to enrich the braid, you can add to the dough, during processing, raisins, candied fruit, chopped almonds or chocolate chips, depending on your tastes. Alternatively, you can stuff the braid with homemade jams or spreads after cooking. Good preparation!

Marta Albè
(Texts and Photos)

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