This braided bread recipe has a filling of raspberry jam and cream cheese. Here’s how to braid bread and make this showstopper, perfect for brunch or book club.
This recipe was reprinted with permission from Holiday and Celebration Bread in Five Minutes a Day by Zoë François and Jeff Hertzberg.
How gorgeous is this braided bread? This one’s not our own recipe: it’s from our friend Zoë François. She’s behind the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes Per Day cookbooks and a true badass baker. If you don’t follow Zoë, check out her Instagram where she’s always baking up picture perfect treats. This braided bread recipe is from her new book, all about holiday and celebration breads! This one is filled with raspberry jam and cream cheese, and it’s a stunner. We had no idea how to braid bread, but with the tutorial from Zoë’s book, it wasn’t as hard as we thought! This braided bread in particular is perfect for a fancy brunch or a book club. Keep reading for the braided bread recipe.
Related: Looking for a quick bread? Healthy Banana Bread
How to braid bread
This braided bread recipe takes a bit of time to put together, but it’s doable even if you don’t have a background in baking! The nice thing about the bread is that as the title suggests, the dough is a no knead recipe. The night before you want to make the braided bread, simply combine the dough ingredients and let them sit at room temp for 2 hours, then refrigerate overnight.
When it’s time for baking, roll the dough into a rectangle and place a line of the cream cheese and raspberry jam filling down the middle. Here’s where the fun starts: use a pizza cutter to slice the two sides of the dough into strips. Then starting from the top, pick up the strips, twist them, and then fold them left over right over the filling. Below is a photo of our braided bread recipe halfway through to show what it looks like!
Related: No Knead Dutch Oven Bread
About the book
Zoë is a bread master and Holiday and Celebration Bread in Five Minutes a Day is a masterpiece! Every culture has its great bread traditions for holidays and celebrations―traditional Christmas loaves from Ukraine, Greece, Germany, Italy and Scandinavia; celebration breads from France and Israel to name a few. The book is full of fragrant, yeasted treats made for celebrations and special occasions (like this braided bread recipe!). And, it has beautiful color photos of every bread, by our dear friend Sarah Kieffer! This is the perfect holiday gift for aspiring bakers: or anyone who loves baked goods!
Order it: Holiday and Celebration Bread in Five Minutes a Day
Looking for holiday treats?
This braided bread recipe is a perfect holiday treat! Here are a few more of our favorite Christmas time treats:
- Holiday Shaped Homemade Biscuits
- Christmas Cranberry Pudding with Butter Sauce
- Chocolate Banana Bread
- Soft Gingerbread Cookies
- Peppermint Meringues
- Chai Spiced Snowball Cookies
- The Best Soft Ginger Molasses Cookies
- Shortbread Cookies with Chocolate Drizzle
- Cherry Quinoa Chocolate Bark
- Healthy Peanut Butter Buckeye Balls
Raspberry Braided Bread Recipe
- Prep Time: 4 hours
- Cook Time: 40 minutes
- Total Time: 4 hours 40 minutes
- Yield: 2 large loaves 1x
Description
This braided bread recipe has a filling of raspberry jam and cream cheese. Here’s how to braid bread and make this showstopper, perfect for brunch or book club.
Ingredients
For the challah dough
- ¾ cups + 2 tablespoons (200 grams) lukewarm water (100F or below)
- ½ tablespoon (5 grams) active dry yeast
- ½ tablespoon (8 grams) kosher salt
- 2 large eggs, lightly beaten
- ¼ cup (170 grams) honey
- 4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
- 3 ½ cups (495 grams) bread flour
- All purpose flour, for dusting
- Egg yolk wash: 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for brushing
For the filling
- 4 ounces cream cheese
- ½ teaspoon grated lemon zest
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- ¾ cup raspberry jam
For the icing
- ½ cup confectioners’ sugar
- 2 tablespoons heavy cream (we used whole milk)
Instructions
Mixing and storing dough: Mix the water, yeast, salt, eggs, honey, and melted butter in a 6-quart bowl or lidded (not airtight) food container. Mix in the flour without kneading, using a heavy-duty stand mixer with paddle, a Danish dough whisk, or spoon. If you’re not using a machine, you may need to use wet hands to incorporate the last bit of flour.
Cover (not airtight) and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises for 2 hours.
The dough can be used immediately after the initial rise, though it is easier to handle when cold. Refrigerate the container and use over the next 5 days.
Make the cream cheese filling: Mix the cream cheese, lemon zest, and sugar in a bowl until smooth. Set aside.
Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Dust the surface of the refrigerated dough with flour and cut off a 1-pound (grapefruit size) piece. (Another dough will be left over; you can make a second loaf and double the filling quantities, or refrigerate it for up to 5 days.) Dust the piece with more flour and quickly shape it into a rough ball by stretching the surface of the dough around to the bottom, rotating the ball a quarter-turn as you go.
Using a rolling pin, roll the dough out to a 1/4-inch-thick rectangle, about 9 x 13 inches. As you roll out the dough, add flour as needed to prevent sticking.
Lift the dough onto the lined baking sheet. Place the cream cheese filling down the length of the dough in a 1-inch strip in the center, and add the raspberry jam on top.
Using a pizza cutter, cut about 1/2-inch-wide strips down the each side. (See the photo). Twist and then fold the strips, left over right, crisscrossing over the filling. Lightly press the strips together as you move down the pastry, creating a braid. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and allow to rest at room temperature for 60 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 350F, with a rack placed at the center of the oven.
Brush the braided bread lightly with egg wash.
Bake the braided bread for 35 to 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Allow to cool.
Make the glaze: While the braided bread is cooling, mix together the confectioners’ sugar and cream. Add enough cream so you can drizzle the glaze from a spoon.
Once the braided bread is fully cooled, drizzle with the glaze and serve. (We made 2 loaves and froze one: to freeze, freeze on a sheet pan until frozen, then wrap in plastic wrap and place in a sealed container.)
- Category: Bread
- Method: Baked
- Cuisine: American
Keywords: Bread, Braided Bread, Braided Bread Recipe, How to Braid Bread, Braided Bread with Filling, Braided Sweet Bread
This looks so yummy and I love Zoe’s baking! Quick question, does “granulated yeast” refer to instant or active dry yeast?
It is active dry yeast! I’ll add that to the recipe. THANKS!
Can you use the sweet dough recipe in the book?
And does the dough just makes two loafs?
Good questions! It sounds like you’re a Bread in 5 follower! Are you referring to a dough recipe in this Holiday book? This one we used the challah dough, but you can also use a few other doughs in that Holiday book. And we halved the quantities so this only makes 2 loaves. Thanks for the questions!
Hi! I’d like to try freezing this in advance, so I can bring it to a few holiday parties. Do you recommend putting the glaze on before or after freezing? Also, should it be warmed in the oven or brought to room temperature on the counter? Any recommendations regarding timing? Thank you!
Hi Rachel! I spoke with Zoe, the recipe author, and here’s what she had to say! Freeze it right after it cools completely, without glaze. Defrost on the counter, still wrapped, then warm in the oven for about 10 minutes. Cool slightly and glaze. Good luck and let us know how it goes!
Hi! I was wondering if I should proof the yeast first. Thank you!
You can if you like, but we do not generally do this step.
Can you use instant yeast?
Yes