How to Make Braided Nutella Bread

This is one of my most popular videos on YouTube and I am often asked for the written recipe. So here it is at long last.

I am a visual learner and use YouTube as my ‘go to’ when I need to find out information whereas Michele, my wife, likes to see things written. So I hope now I have covered both in the post below.

Nutella Braided Tear and Share Bread – This one is a Corker of a Recipe and will impress everyone when you serve it up.

It is an enriched dough rather like a Brioche, so with the added Nutella it is absolutely delicious. It is not as difficult as it looks just follow the steps carefully and ‘Voila’ you will soon be serving up a masterpiece.

Prep Time: 20 minutes plus 10 minutes kneading. Prove Time:1-2 Hours, depends on room temperature Oven Temperature: 180’C / 350’F Cook Time: 15 to 20 minutes Servings: 8

Ingredients

*450g /1lb of Bread Flour. NOTE: *some people are finding the dough too dry so start with 400g of flour, add the rest if it needs it. It’s all to do with egg sizes, butter and milk fat contents. Hope that helps.
70g / 2.5 oz / 1/3 of a cup of Sugar
2 Teaspoons of Active Dried Yeast
A pinch of Salt
30g / 1oz of melted Unsalted Butter
180ml / 6fl oz / 3/4 of a cup of warmed Milk
2 Egg Yolks (keep the whites to glaze the bread)
1 cup of Nutella
2 Tablespoon of Vegetable Oil

Instructions

Start by placing 400g of the Bread flour into a bowl (see note above regarding the rest of the flour) and then add the dry ingredients – that’s the sugar, yeast, and salt.
Use a fork to mix them together.
Next add the wet ingredients – the melted butter, warmed milk and egg yolks.
Using the fork, start to bind all the ingredients together and then using your hands form the mixture into a dough.
Remove the dough from the bowl and place onto the work counter. Using the heel of your hand knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes until the dough is beautifully smooth and silky.
Pour the vegetable oil into your bowl and roll the dough in the oil so it is coated all over.
Seal the bowl with plastic wrap or cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place for at least a couple of hours to allow the dough to rise.
Now, how quickly the dough rises depends on how warm the area is where you place the bowl but you want the dough to at least double in size.
Once the dough has risen remove it from the bowl and place it on a warm surface. Knead it gently to knock the air out. Form the dough into flat oblong and roll it up to form a sausage shape.
Now cut the dough into 4 equal pieces.
At this stage you will be working on one piece of dough so keep the other pieces covered with a damp cloth.
Taking one piece of dough roll it into a ball. Dust the counter with a little flour and using a rolling pin roll the dough out to form a 25cm or 10 inch circle.
Place a piece of waxed paper on a baking tray and slide the dough onto it.
Mark a circle on the dough – I used an upturned dinner plate as a guide and just pushed it onto the dough to form an impression. This is just to show the area that I spread the Nutella onto.
Place the Nutella into a small bowl or ramekin and warm it in the microwave for about 30 seconds to make it easier to spread onto the dough.
Using a knife evenly spread some of the Nutella onto the circle of dough, try to cover as much of the circle as possible.
Now take the second piece of dough and roll it out to form another 25cm or 10 inch circle.
Once it is the right size gently lift it onto of the first circle (which is covered with Nutella). Use the plate again to make the circle impression and spread it with Nutella.
Repeat this process with the third piece of dough.
For the last piece of dough roll it out to the correct size and lift onto of the other layers but don’t spread this layer with Nutella.
Taking the dinner plate once again lay it on top of the doughs and using a sharp knife cut through all the layers to form a perfect circle of layered dough. Discard the excess dough. (I would suggest you watch the video from 5:45 to see how the next process should be done)
Take a small drinking glass and place that in the centre of the dough as a guide.
Use a sharp knife and cut through the dough from the edge of the glass to the edge of the dough at 3 o’clock, 6 o’clock, 9 o’clock, and 12 o’clock. (So from the centre of the dough out to the edge)
Then divide each quarter in half and then in half again so you have 16 cut sections in total.
Now take hold of one piece of dough and twist it twice around in the same direction and then lay it down on the paper. Then take the piece next to it and twist it twice around in the opposite direction and lay it down.
You can take two pieces at the same time and twist them in opposite directions to each other.
To finish each petal off lift the ends of the twisted bread and pinch them together tightly.
Work around the dough until all 16 pieces have been twisted and you have 8 twisted and pinched petals.
Now cover the dough with a damp cloth and leave for 20 minutes or so to allow the dough to rise once again.
Once the bread had risen, take the egg whites that you kept from earlier and using a brush gently brush it over the surface of the dough.
Preheat the oven to 180’C / 350’F and bake the bread for 15 – 20 minutes until golden brown in colour.
I brushed sugar and water over the surface once it came out of the oven to give it a nice glossy finish.
Allow your bread to cool slightly and it is ready to serve. Just pop it on a plate and let everyone pull it apart.
Delicious! Enjoy!