Braiding Instructions

Züpfe Braiding

Braiding two strands of dough is not as hard as it may look. Once you've learned it, it only takes a few seconds to braid an entire loaf.

Before I found photos in cookbooks of how to braid, I went to a neighbor to learn. She pulled out two kitchen towels and rolled them into long tubes. We sat on her porch and I braided and braided until it felt natural. If you're concerned about trying to make this bread because of the braiding, try it with towels first. You'll see that it's not so bad.

(The images in the diagram are from the side of a package of special Züpfe flour from the Coop, a store here in Switzerland.)

	Place one strand on top of the other as shown. Grasp the top end of the 'orange' strand with your right hand and the other end with your left hand.
	Pick up the ends of the dough and cross your hands, left over right.
	Grasp the bottom end of the 'yellow' strand with your right hand and the other end with your left hand. Pick up the ends of the dough and cross your hands, right over left.
	Continue crossing the strands in front of each other in this manner, alternating with left hand on top and right hand on top until the end pieces are too small to braid. Squeeze the four ends together and tuck them under the end of the braid. (If you make a mistake - at any point - just undo the braid and start over.)