Braided Nutella Star Bread

Back to back Nutella recipes on blog is enough to prove that how much I'm obsessed with Nutella!! I tried Nutella only after moving to the US, I know I was living under a very large rock all these years!! But I'm totally compensating for all those years I missed eating this deliciousness..
If you know me well, you know that I bake cake very often, just like that for no occasion or celebration whatsoever.. When I told my mom that I'm baking 'bread' for H's birthday, she was like 'bake a cake for his birthday, save the bread experiment for some other day' But I was sure H would like this more than a cake on his birthday, cake is too mainstream anyway!

This recipe is a must try for all the bakers/Nutella lovers/instagrammers/food bloggers.. Its not that complicated as it seems.. If I can do it, even a monkey can do it!!*SMUG LOOK* Also its a  tear-n-share bread, you'll not have heart to tear up this pretty thing but that gooey-ooey Nutella will make you wanna rip the bread and stuff your face with it.. I swear!
Ingredients

1. All-purpose flour - 450 grams(3 1/2 cups) plus some extra for sprinkling
2. Sugar- 1/2 cup
3. Active Dry Yeast- 1 envelope( 2 1/4 tsp)
4. Unsalted butter(melted) - 2 tbsp
5. Milk- 3/4th cup
6. Egg yolks- 2 ( save the egg whites for later to be used as egg wash)
7. Vegetable oil- 2 tsp
8. Nutella/ any chocolate spread- 1 cup
9. a pinch of salt  

Ok first things first,

•  Keep the eggs and butter out of fridge. We need them to be at room temperature.
• Separate egg yolks from egg whites.
• Warm the milk to 80-100* F , add yeast and 1 tbsp sugar and dissolve all the ingredients. Keep it aside.
• Sieve the flour into a large bowl. Add sugar and salt to it. theses are the dry ingredients.

METHOD

• Add yeast mixture, melted butter, egg yolks to the bowl with dry ingredients. Mix well with a fork just until well combined.
• Now with your hands, knead the dough for about 10 mins or until it forms a smooth dough.
• Coat the dough and bowl evenly with oil. Cover the bowl with cling wrap or damp cloth and leave it in a warm place for 40 mins-1 hour.
• Dough would have doubled in size, take it onto a lightly floured surface, knead it just once and divide it into 4 equal parts.
• Now take 1 ball of dough, stretch it out using a rolling pin into a 10 inch big circle. slide this rolled dough into a baking paper/aluminium foil.
• Take a plate/round cake tin and make a impression on the rolled dough. Cover the marked area with Nutella with a butter knife.
• Roll another ball of dough and place it over the 1st one and mark it with the plate and spread the Nutella only in the marked area.
• Repeat the process for the 3 rd ball too.
• For the last layer, put it over the 3 rd layer and mark it with the plate and with the help of knife cut out the excess dough so that we'll have a perfect round one
• Place a cup in the center of the dough-circle. Divide it into quarters all the way through the dough. 

Then each quarter into 4 equal parts. Now you'll have 16 equal segments.

• Now take a segment and twist it twice around very delicately. And the piece next to it, twist twice in the OPPOSITE direction. Press together the ends of the segments. Repeat the process with the rest.

                                        

• You'll end up with this beautiful braided bread. Slide it slowly into a baking tray. Cover it with a damp cloth and let it rest for 20 mins. You'll see a beautifully risen braided dough.
• Pre-heat the oven to 350 F/180 C. 
• Brush the braided dough with egg whites(egg wash).

•  Pop it into the oven for 15-20 mins. Keep an eye on it after 15 mins to make sure it wouldn't go too dark. Cool it completely.

TIPS

• Remember the excess dough which we scraped off, Yes don't throw it!! I made this out of it

Follow the last part of this video if you want to learn the braiding style for this bread.

• You can use your Kitchenaid for kneading the dough.

If you have any doubts/questions, you can ask me here. I'll try my best to help you out. 

As usual if you try this, I would love to see your creation, so please let me know by tagging me on Instagram/Facebook

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