Poppy seed and nut plait

➊ Take a 1 l pot. Gently heat 50 g milk with 60 g butter until the butter has dissolved. Allow to cool and stir in 60 g sugar and 20 g yeast when it is lukewarm = under 40 °C. Stir in 100 g flour well and leave to stand at room temperature for 1 hour.

➋ Separate an egg, whisk it lightly and stir it into the yeast mixture. Weigh 100 g milk, lemon zest, 150 g natural yoghurt, rum and 5 g salt into the mixing bowl. Add the remaining ingredients to the mixing bowl and prepare a yeast dough. Cover and leave to rest for 1 hour. Knead the yeast dough again and leave to rest for another 15 minutes.

➌ For both fillings, weigh the ingredients listed into a bowl, mix and leave to stand for 15 minutes so that the ingredients can combine. The filling should be easy to spread; if it seems too soft, just add a little more breadcrumbs. If it is too firm, just add a little more milk.

➍ Divide the yeast dough into two pieces. Roll out both pieces into a rectangle and spread the poppy seed or nut filling all the way to the edge - if you want, you can also add the sour cherries (sour cherries) marinated in corn. Now roll them up tightly. Prepare a baking tray with baking paper. Place the rolls on the work surface with the end, the seam, facing down and use a serrated knife to cut each roll lengthways exactly in the middle. This creates two nut and two poppy seed strands. Take one nut and one poppy seed strand and lay them on top of each other to form an X. The strands should lie on top of each other exactly in the middle of the X. Now cross the nicely cut strands over and over again to create a two-strand plait, the cut surfaces should always be visible upwards. At the end, press the two strands firmly together. Spread the poppy seed and nut plait with the egg and milk mixture, starting with the nut filling, as the poppy seeds spread more easily on the nut filling. Let rest for 20 minutes.

➎ In the meantime, equip the grill with a pizza stone and preheat to 190 °C. Before the plaited loaf goes into the grill, brush it again with the egg and milk mixture and sprinkle with sugar or nuts if desired. Then place it on the pizza stone - I use a 3 cm thick stone from Pimotti, which protects the plaited loaf from too much bottom heat. Bake the plaited loaf for around 45 minutes until it has reached a core temperature of 96 °C.

Jenny's baking tip: If you don't have any poppy seeds at home, mix 1 tablespoon of cinnamon and 4 tablespoons of sugar, brush 100 g of melted butter onto the rolled out yeast dough, spread the cinnamon sugar, roll up and bake straight away. Without the sugar, the rolls can be frozen and thawed and taken to school, leisure time or work.