What is this daisy braid you keep referring to, and why is it necessary?

So asks Marla, and this innocent question requires a complicated answer.

Daisy Braid starts out like this:

That is: approximately 6 cups of flour measured out onto a piece of waxed paper, two packets of active dry yeast, half a cup of sugar, a quarter cup of softened butter, and two eggs. The bowl is full of warm water in the sink to warm it for the yeast. Plus a cup of warm milk that you can't see here because it's still in the microwave.

After some vigorous mixing, it looks more like this:

This gets divided in half and vigorously kneaded for about twenty minutes total, requiring much eggnog (to keep up the strength, of course). Then each half is wrapped in plastic, covered with a towel, and allowed to rest for twenty minutes while I clean off the counter and sweep flour from the floor.

The fun part--punching down the dough--doesn't last nearly long enough.

Each half is then made into a log--

--which is rolled out into a piece of dough 18"x6" and cut into three strips. The three strips are braided, placed into a round cake pan, and brushed with cooking oil.

These are covered loosely with plastic wrap and refrigerated for 2-48 hours. When they come out of the fridge (on Christmas morning) they look like this:

Put this in a 375 oven for 25-30 minutes, or until the top is a nice crusty golden brown. This intermission is the time when my family traditionally would open the Christmas presents, or at least the stockings. Take it out of the oven, turn it out onto a plate or a wire rack, and drizzle it with an icing made of 1/2 cup of icing sugar and 2-3 tsps of milk.

It is a fragrant, heavy, moist, sweet bread with a wonderful crunchy crust, and it is heaven fresh from the oven. It was also made by my mother every Christmas since before I was born, and I can no more imagine opening stockings without the scent of daisy braid coming from the kitchen than I could imagine celebrating the season by throwing eggs at the fireplace.

Christmas morning=stockings, a cup of warm tea and a slice of daisy braid hot and fresh from the oven.

Posted by Andrea at December 26, 2005 10:11 AM under The Winter Holiday of Your Choice!

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