Braided rolls – Czech Housky
An authentic recipe for Czech favorite white bread: braided housky.
Servings 8 housky
Ingredients
- 4 cups (520 g) all purpose flour
- ½ stick (55 g) unsalted butter softened at room temperature
- 1 and ½ tsp salt
- 20 g fresh yeast or 1 and 1/2 tsp active dry yeast
- 1 and ¼ cups (280 ml) milk lukewarm
For topping:
- caraway seeds
- poppy seeds
- coarse sea salt
Instructions
- Add all ingredients to a bowl. First, mix with a fork, then knead with your hands until you have a smooth, non-sticky dough.
- Place the dough on a lightly floured work surface and split it into four equal parts.
- Form a bun out of each piece, cover it with a dishtowel and let it rise in a warm place for 20 minutes.
- Roll a cylinder out of each piece and split it again into 8 equal pieces. Roll each piece out and split it into 3 stripes. Braid housky out of the stripes.
- Lay the housky on a parchment-lined baking tray, cover it with a dishtowel and let it rise for a further 45 minutes.
- Brush with water and sprinkle with poppy seeds, sesame seeds, or sea salt and caraway seeds mix (1:1 ratio).
- Fire up the oven to 440 °F (230 °C) and place a pot with water inside to bake the pastry in a steamy environment.
- Put the tray in the preheated oven and bake for 15 minutes until they turn golden brown.
Notes
You’ll make about 8 housky from this recipe.