Bohemian braid

12 Servings

Ingredients

Quantity Ingredient
½ cup Water
2 packs Yeast
1½ cup Lukewarm milk
½ cup Sugar
2 teaspoons Salt
2 Eggs
½ cup Shortening
7½ cup Flour
2 teaspoons Lemon rind grated
¼ teaspoon Mace
1 cup Raisins
1 cup Blanched almonds
Maraschino cherries halved
Pecan halves
1 Egg yolk
1 tablespoon Water
Chopped

Directions

Mix together the water, yeast, milk, sugar, salt, eggs, shortening, half the flour, the lemon rind, mace, raisins, and almonds. Add flour until dough is smooth and workable. Knead on a floured board until smooth and elastic. Put in a greased bowl, turn to coat, cover with a damp tea towel and place in a warm spot to rise until double, about 1½ hours. Punch dough down. Divide in half. Set one half aside and divide the other into 4 equal parts. Shape three of the pieces into 14 inch long strands and braid on a lightly greased cookie sheet (you may want to arrange this diagonally. These get big!). Fasten ends together and tuck under. Take fourth piece and divide in thirds and make a second smaller braid to go on top of the first. Repeat with other half of dough on a second greased cookie sheet. Cover each braid loosely with damp tea towels and let rise for 45 minutes to an hour. For decoration, gently press halved maraschino cherries (well rinsed) and/or pecan halves into joints of braids. Brush loaves with a glaze made from egg yolk and 1 Tbsp water, and bake at 350 degrees for 30-40 minutes, until golden brown, but not dark. When loaves have cooled completely, mix a confectioner's sugar glaze of four Tbsp butter, about ⅓-½ c milk, and confectioner's sugar until the consistency is thick but will still run down the sides, and drizzle glaze over the tops of the loaves.

Recipe By: Betty Crocker, 1956 Serving Size: 12 Preparation Time: 0:00 In my house we always had Bohemian Braid on Christmas morning. Hubby doesn't like it because it has nuts and raisins, and prefers a particular type of kuchen his mom used to make. ("It's an old family recipe," he told me, so I asked his mom for it, and she pulled out one of her Woman's Day cookbooks. . .) I'll have to track it down. It's in one pile of paper or another. But here's the Bohemian Braid (and someday soon I'll upgrade MasterCook and this may turn out better looking.) * From the Polka Dot Cottage, 1-201-822-3627, NJ's BBS for Homemakers! Posted by FAYLEN on 12-11-95

Posted to MC-Recipe Digest V1 #710 by Lisa Clarke <lisa@...> on Aug 1, 97

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