Austrian Sweet Easter Bread (Brioche Wreath)
Traditional Austrian Easter bread (Osterkranz) – a soft, sweet brioche dough formed into a wreath. Sprinkle it with coarse sugar, sliced almonds, or enjoy plain. It is traditionally baked for Easter Sunday in Austria but tastes great any time of the year!
Yield: 1 large wreath (or 2 loafs)
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup + 1/3 cup (200 ml) lukewarm milk
- 2 ¼ teaspoons (7 g) instant yeast or active dry yeast
- 5 ½ tablespoons (75 g) unsalted butter
- 1/4 cup (50 g) sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs (US size large, Europe size medium, 60 g in weight with shell)
- 1/4 cup (50 g) farmer’s cheese (you can substitute ricotta cheese OR 3 tablespoons sour cream/greek yoghurt + 1 tablespoon flour)
- 1 ¼ teaspoon (8 g) fine salt
- Optional (used here): 1 teaspoon brown rum, finely grated zest of ½ to 1 organic lemon
- 500 g (about 4 cups) bread flour or all-purpose flour
- Optional (not used here): 2/3 cups (100 g) golden raisins
In addition:
- 2 teaspoons milk for brushing
- Optional, for sprinkling: coarse sugar or almond slices
Instructions
Make the dough:
- You can make the dough by hand or in a stand mixer with the dough hook attachment.
- In a large bowl add warm milk, sprinkle instant yeast on top and let it sit for 1 minute (or 5 minutes if using active dry yeast). Meanwhile, melt butter and let cool.
- Add sugar, vanilla extract, 1 whole egg and 1 egg white (keep 1 egg yolk for egg-wash), farmer’s cheese, melted butter, and salt to the bowl with the milk. If desired, add rum and lemon zest. Briefly mix everything with the dough hook or a cooking spoon.
- Add roughly half of the flour and stir until combined. If using raisins, add them now. Then add the rest of the flour and knead 5-8 minutes until the dough is smooth, moist, and elastic. If kneading by hand, I usually do it directly in the bowl since the dough is pretty tacky. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl towards the end of the kneading time. If not, add a bit additional flour (tablespoon by tablespoon).
- Let the dough rise, covered, at warm room temperature until doubled in size, about 1 to 1½ hours. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Braid dough:
- Divide the dough into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece into a rope (28-inch/70 cm). I find it easiest to do this on an unfloured counter. Line up the 3 ropes in parallel, then braid. If you start at the center and braid towards both ends, the braid will be more symmetrical. Join the two ends by pinching them together to make a ring/wreath.
- Transfer the wreath to the parchment paper-lined sheet, and let it rise at warm room temperature until nicely puffed up, about 3/4 hour. If this takes longer, spray/brush the dough with water or cover to avoid drying out.
Bake:
- Preheat oven to 350°F/175°C. Mix the remaining egg yolk with 2 teaspoons milk, and brush the dough with this egg-wash. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.
- Bake in the preheated oven, middle rack, until golden for about 25-30 minutes. Let cool and enjoy!
Notes
Long cold rise:
Right after kneading, let the dough rise, tightly covered, in the refrigerator overnight, 10-15 hours. About 3/4 to 1 hour before braiding, remove the dough from the fridge to bring it to room temperature.
Wreath or loaf:
Instead of a large wreath, you could also make 2 Challah-style loafs (“Striezel” or “Zopf” in German) or 4-5 mini loafs. You can bake the Easter bread(s) on a large baking sheet like I did here or divide the dough into 2 pieces, braid them, and then bake them in two 9x13-inch loaf pans.