Time needed: 4 hours.

Ingredients list

Dough:
1.3 lb (600 g) medium coarse flour (all-purpose if you don’t have a choice)
4.3 oz (120 g) unsalted real butter (at least 83% fat)
4.3 oz (120 g) powdered sugar
4 egg yolks
3-4 pinches of salt, yes pinches 🙂 as every salt has a different power and everyone’s preferences on it are different, you just need to go by taste rather than exact amount
ground lemon peel from 1/2 to 1 lemon
dash of vanilla extract, 1/2 tbsp vanilla sugar or real vanilla
1 cup (250 ml) whole milk (adjust depending on the flour if needed)
1.5 oz (24 g) fresh yeast
2 tsps granulated sugar
raisins
almonds
1 egg

1. Start the Yeast

   Warm the milk up to be lukewarm to touch.. something around 105°F. Stir in the granulated sugar. Remove from heat and add the fresh yeast crumbling it between your fingers. Let rise.

2. Measure your Ingredients…

   Measure the flour, sugar, slightly softened butter, ground lemon peel, vanilla and put all in your mixing bow.

3. Separate the Egg Yolks

   Add the egg yolks into the bowl. Add 3-4 pinches of salt to your taste.

4. Add the Yeast with Milk

   and start incorporating all the ingredients with a wooden spoon.

5. Knead-stir the Dough

   There is a special technique for kneading this dough. You don’t roll it on a pastry board pressing it down with the heel of your palm like other doughs but rather fluff it in a bowl with a wooden spoon to get a lot of air in it and get it smooth and elastic. This tedious process is a bit challenging but rewards you with well developed gluten and much better texture of the baked bread, than if you take shortcuts. You might hear: “Oh, just put the ingredients in a bowl and stir shortly. It will rise too.” Well, it might, though not so much, the air bubbles will not hold nicely in the dough and will not be evenly distributed which will result in non-uniform baking and poor bread texture and taste. So be patient and fluff your dough until it is springy and smooth and doesn’t stick.
   

6. Let Rise

   When the dough finally reaches the right smooth, elastic texture and stops being sticky it is time to let it rest and rise. It might take 2-2.5 hours. Cover it loosely with a plastic bag wrapped in a kitchen towel so the dough surface doesn’t crust.

7. Risen Dough

   When the dough about doubles in size it is time to start braiding the bread.

8. Knead in the Raisins

   Very gently knead in the generous amount of raisins. But you don’t want to be harsh and press all the air out of the dough.

9. Divide the Dough

   First split the dough in half and work with one half at a time. Make a little loaf and divide it in thirds. Then divide each piece in more thirds so you’ll end up with 9 “equal” pieces.

10. Regroup

    Make a group of 2, group of 3 and group of 4 pieces. Pay attention so the pieces in each group are as similar in size as possible.

11. Braid the Bread

    Start with the group of 4. Roll each piece in a strand and start braiding them from the middle to one end then turn the bread around and finish braiding to the other end.

12. Grease the Baking Sheet

    Butter the baking sheet before transferring the first base braid on it.

13. Braid the Middle Section

    The middle braid is a classical 3-strand braid. Also start in the middle and braid to each end from there. Place on top of the base braid.

14. Top Braid

    Last two strands will just get twisted and placed on top of our bread.

15. Let Rise More

    Make a second bread from the other half of the dough the same way. Let them both rest and rise for about 20 minutes longer.

16. Preheat the Oven

    Don’t forget to turn on your oven ahead, and preheat it to 350°F or 170°C.

17. Brush with Egg

    Whisk the last egg and brush both breads with it well.

18. Sprinkle with Flaked Almonds

    Sprinkle generously with almond flakes. You can either buy already flaked almonds or get whole ones, blanch them to remove the skins and flake them on a flaking grinder, which is obviously better.

19. Secure the Shape

    It helps to pierce the Sweet Breads with wooden skewers at several places so they won’t unravel and slide apart while baking.

20. Bake

    Bake in the preheated oven for about 40-45 minutes. You might want to turn the Sweet Breads around in the middle of baking if your oven doesn’t bake evenly.

21. Testing

    When it looks like the Sweet Bread is done, you can find out by pulling out the skewers to see if the dough is not sticky inside anymore.

22. Enjoy!

    Now, when the bread cooled down you can serve it! Enjoy it just dusted with powdered sugar or lightly buttered with jam and a cup of coffee or your favourite tea.