🎄 Christmas (traditional Czech)

📝 Ingredients:

• 500 g plain flour
  (you can also use a mixture of plain and semi-coarse flour)

• 200 g caster sugar

• 1 packet of vanilla sugar

• 1 cube of fresh yeast (approx. 42 g)

• 250 ml lukewarm milk

• 2 eggs

• 100 g melted butter

• a pinch of salt

• 100 g raisins

• sliced ​​almonds for sprinkling

For rubbing:

• 1 egg

• a little milk

To finish:

• powdered sugar for sprinkling (optional)

👩‍🍳 Procedure:

1️⃣ Kvass

Crumble the yeast into a bowl, add a tablespoon of sugar, a little lukewarm milk and a tablespoon of flour.
Mix and let rise for 10–15 minutes .

2️⃣ Dough

In a large bowl, add the flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, salt, eggs, melted butter, the rest of the milk and the ready-made yeast.
Knead a smooth, elastic dough .

3️⃣ Raisins

Mix the raisins (pre-soaked in warm water or rum and dried) into the dough.
Cover and let rise for about 1–1.5 hours , until doubled in size.

4️⃣ Shaping a Christmas tree

Divide the dough into strands and knit a Christmas tree (classically from 6-9 strands).
Transfer to a baking sheet with baking paper and let rise for another 30 minutes .

5️⃣ Baking

Brush the Christmas tree with a beaten egg with a little milk and sprinkle with almonds.
Bake in a preheated oven at 170 °C for about 40–45 minutes .
If the surface darkens quickly, cover with foil.

🍽️ Serving:

• Best fresh or the next day

• Excellent with butter, jam or honey

• Traditional Christmas pastries for coffee and tea

✨ Tip:
Before baking, you can pierce the Christmas tree with a skewer to help it keep its shape better.