Braided Bread with Chia Seeds

Like many of us, I don't bake as much as I'd like. Baking takes time and life tends to distract, so I usually just end up collecting recipes and not doing anything with them. So, I was pretty excited when I discovered the Fall Baking Challenge on Swap-Bot. For this (email) swap we are challenged to bake one item each week for 8 weeks. It's a proper excuse to bake up something delicious on a regular basis.

The first item of the challenge was this: a savory bread. I chose the braided bread mostly because it looked pretty enough to merit the effort of taking photos of it and sending the recipe to my swap partners. It turned out to be a real hit: it's not just pretty, but also delicious and wholesome. Perfect to serve family and friends for lunch, dinner, or as a snack. My family had some for all three.

The dough of this bread is soft, almost sweet, and neutral enough to go with anything. It is perfect to go with sweet sandwich toppings, garlic butter, or just to dip it in your soup. The best part about it is that it looks fancy, but it's actually very easy to make and it doesn't take long at all. I put all the directions in the recipe below. 

Have fun and enjoy!

Ingredients:

•  500 grams of flour
• 2 tsp fine sugar
• 7 grams of dried yeast
• 45 grams of butter (room temp.)
• 2 tsp fine sea salt
• 2 eggs
• 250 ml lukewarm water
• chia seeds

Directions:

1. In a bowl, mix flour, sugar, yeast, butter, water, salt, and 1 egg. Knead until dough is elastic and cohesive.
2. Shape dough into a ball and put in a greased bowl. Cover with plastic foil and let rise for 1 hour, or until dough has doubled in volume. 
3. Knead dough and divide in 5 equally large pieces. Roll each piece into a string of more or less 30 cm (11.8 inch). If the dough is too wet or sticky, dust the working surface with some flour. It will stick to the dough and make it easier to handle.
4. Put the strings on a parchment lined baking sheet and press them together on 1 side. Braid the dough until you've reached the end of the strings and press them together there, too.
5. Pre-heat oven to 200°C or 392°F. Split the 2nd egg and whisk the yoke (you don't need the egg white). Brush or gently rub the yoke onto the bread and sprinkle with chia seeds. 
6. Bake bread 20-25 minutes in the center of the oven. Let cool for 30 minutes.   

How to braid the dough:

1. Bring the outer right string to the left and place it in between the 2 outer left strings.
2. Now, bring the outer left string to the middle. When it's there, take the string left of it and put it over it. 
3. Then begin again by taking the outer right string and putting it in between the 2 outer left strings, and so on.