Braided Star Nutella Bread - Bonus Pie-Spired Week 2

This recipe was easy as pie! Round sweet dish served in triangular slices.... but not pie. Throughout this next year, I plan on sharing a variety of pie-spired recipes in addition to my regular weekly sweet pies.  This is just the first of many.

The ingredient list is super short. And this is a great beginner recipe if you've never made your own homemade bread before.  I did purchase fresh yeast as it had been awhile since yeast had been used in our house. It is a good idea to make sure that your yeast is fresh as it loses its effectiveness when it expires. 

The other special ingredient required is nutella. I had never bought this creamy chocolaty hazelnut spread. It is tasty, however my household typically purchases the 4 pound container of peanut butter at a time, so I've never considered it feasible to purchase the spread until now. I really enjoy it and think it may be a staple from now on. Next time, I may buy the store brand as it was more reasonably priced.

This recipe was actually a lot of fun. There are many places on the web that actually show you how to roll, cut, twist to help make this simple work of art.  

Ingredients:

1 t. quick rising Yeast
1 c. Water (divided)
2 1/2 cup Flour
1 t. Salt
1 T. Sugar
1/2 cup Nutella
1 eg, plus water for egg wash.

Directions:

Dissolve yeast in ¼ cup water. Let rise (proof) for 10 minutes. Mix flour, salt and sugar. Add yeast and remaining water. Mix until thoroughly mixed. Turn out onto floured surface and knead for 7 minutes. Lightly oil a bowl and place dough in it and cover. Let rise for an hour to double in size. Roll half of the dough out to make a +/- 10” circle. Spread nutella over dough leaving 1/2” margin. Roll the other half of the dough. Place dough circle on top of the nutella covered dough. Trim edges and cut into 16 slices with leaving the center intact. Twist each 16^th section a couple of times alternating directions to make the 8-point star. Let rise for another 20 minutes in a dry place covered. Brush with egg wash. Bake 20 minutes at 350 degrees. Then raise temperature to 425 and bake for another 5-7 minutes.

This bread tempts you to tear off a piece as soon as it gets out of the oven. It's a good thing I took my picture before anyone else came into the room because it didn't take long for the first piece to be taken. We found this to be a simple bread that gives just a hint of the chocolaty hazelnut spread. This would be a great bread to make for a get-together as it appears very impressive even though it is as easy as pie!

I think other fillings could be used instead of the nutella. 

What would you like to try on the inside? Leave a comment below.