St. Joseph's Day Bread
- Ready In:
- 2hrs 55mins
- Ingredients:
- 9
- Yields:
-
2 braided loaves
ingredients
- 1 1⁄2 cups water (not hot)
- 2 (2 ounce) packages active dry yeast
- 2 tablespoons shortening
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil
- 2 teaspoons salt
- 4 - 4 1⁄2 cups flour
- 1 beaten egg
- 1⁄4 cup sesame seeds
directions
- In a small bowl, combine the water, yeast, shortening, sugar, oil and salt.
- Let stand for 5 minutes.
- In a large mixer bowl, put 2 1/2 cups of the flour, add liquid (yeast) mixture.
- Beat by hand or on low speed of electric mixer until all ingredients are well blended.
- Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can mix in with a spoon.
- Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface.
- Knead in enough of the remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic (about 6-8 minutes of kneading).
- Shape dough into a ball and place it into a lightly greased bowl.
- Turn dough once to grease all surfaces.
- Cover the bowl, and let the dough rise in a warm place until doubled (about 40-60 minutes).
- Punch down dough, and divide it into 6 equal pieces.
- Cover it and let it rest for 10 minutes.
- Roll each piece (by hand) into a 12 inch long rope.
- Using 3 ropes for each loaf, braid the dough and secure the ends of the braid by tucking the ends underneath.
- Place the braids on greased baking sheets.
- Cover the braids, and let rise until nearly doubled (about 30-45 minutes).
- Brush top and sides of loaves with the beaten egg.
- Sprinkle with sesame seeds.
- Bake in a 400°F oven for 25 minutes, or until bread tests done and is golden brown.
- Remove from baking sheet and cool on wire rack.
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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY
Dee514
United States
I'm married (53 years to the same lucky guy) and have 2 kids, a daughter 47, a son 43, and 2 beautiful grand daughters (11 yrs and 14 yrs). I have always enjoyed cooking and baking, especially breads :)