Gewürzzopf Brötchen (Spiced Braided Bread Rolls)
Baked, Book Reviews, Bread, Swabian, Vegetarian

Spiced Braided Bread Rolls (‘Gewürzzopf Brötchen’)

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These spiced braided bread rolls are another recipe from the amazing book “Hand Made Small Breads” by Robert from Fabolous Fricot. I have already reviewed the carrot bread rolls and they came out perfect on the first try. Fluffy, moist, and intensely flavorful.

I’m a big fan of braided bread so it is no surprise that I had to test Robert’s recipe from the book. To be honest, it is very uncommon to find braided bread served as a bread roll in Germany. Usually, you bake a full loaf. This was the first time for me to bake small individual braided bread rolls.

As expected, the recipe turned out great. I had to increase the hydration a little because the dough seemed a little too dry for me after mixing. And, unusual for me, the next time I would also increase the amount of sugar and add a bit of lemon zest for some freshness. Usually, I don’t like braided bread if it is sweet. But I think the Christmas spices really shine if the taste is a little sweeter, more like a French brioche that is rich and sweet. The sweetness would also allow me to increase the amount of spice added without it being overwhelming.

You can see a picture of the original recipe below:

Original recipe for spiced braided bread rolls

Don’t be surprised if my method is a little different from the original recipe. As already pointed out in my post about carrot bread rolls, I like to do things my way.

A visual guide to making spiced braided bread rolls

As almost always when making German bread: Knead your dough well. It needs to be smooth and elastic!

Smoothly kneaded dough for spiced braided bread rolls

The original recipe doesn’t tell you but you need to let your dough rest before rolling it out into a long sausage. Otherwise, it will be tense and resist your attempts to stretch it.

Pre-shaped bread sausages before shaping them
Long dough sausages

Shaping is easy but not so easy to do picture-perfect. I am no braiding master. I am someone who gets the job done and that’s it. The pictures below show you how to braid a bread roll from one strand.

1st stpe for braiding
2nd step for braiding
3rd step for braiding
Braided bread roll from one strang

Always make sure your spiced braided bread rolls have puffed up nicely before they go into the oven. And please make sure to brush them generously with egg wash.

Brushing egg wash on the spiced braided bread rolls
Bread rolls during baking

And lastly, look at that soft and cotton-like crumb.

Crumb tearing apart

Usually, you would just tear those bread rolls apart. Below you can see a picture of the crumb when you cut the spiced braided bread rolls open. Don’t do that! Just look at my picture. The best way to eat such tender bread rolls is to tear them apart and spread them with some jam or cream cheese. I love apricot or sour jerry jam on braided bread.

Crumb of braided bread rolls

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