Lemon Poppy Seed Plait

Fresh Bakes

And as you can see my banal efforst to get the bread to look the slightest bit like a plait. I blame it on my inexperience in the subject of hair-braiding of course since I was more prone to pulling the pig tails of my pre-school classmate rather than offer to help re-braid her messy plaits.

Let's talk about hair. To start with, I've never had long hair as a little girl. Looking at magazines overcrawling in ladies with impeccable dress sense, flawless skin and thick tresses. I often find myself admiring these women and their incredibly beautiful manes. And as I grew older, (specifically after my ordeal with nanyang primary school which had a strict ruling of no hair below the school collar. haha) opportunity finally knocked on my door. However, as quickly as the initial notion of having long hair clinged on, it rapidly dimished as well as soon as the cool air stopped circulating my neck area. Then, I knew that maintaining long tresses, especially in the tropics was going to be a pain-in-the-ass.

Since then, my hair hasn't changed much. Fluctuating between the skimpily thinned down and almost a little limpy version to the thick helmet like structure that sticks to my head when it thickens. Although my persistance wanes in the aspect of ever reaching a longer stage, i still look to those magazines and give a sigh of envy. Once in a while at least...

Back to the lemon poppy seeds plaits. These were wonderful. Lemon scented with the crunch of poppy seeds, they were a joy to nibble on with a generous coating of butter and jam. Just the way I like it.

Lemon Poppy Seed Plait
adapted from Don Yong's 'Bread Winners'

Ingredients:
Bread Flour 150g
Plain Flour 200g
Milk Powder 12.5g
Bread Improver 4g
Instant dry yeast 5g
Sugar 20g
Salt 5g
Egg 20g
Water 125g
Butter 20g (softened)
Lemon flavor 2.5g
Poppy Seeds 12.5g

1. With an electric mixer and a dough hook, mix all the dry ingredients together for 1 min under low speed. Add egg and water and mix on low speed for another min. Increase to medium speed and develop dough for 3 minutes. Add butter, lemon, flavoring and poppy seeds. Continue mixing until dough has completely developed ( passed window pane test)
2. Round up the dough and leave in an airtight container for 1 hr until double in size from rising. Divide dough into 50g pieces and round up dough and allow to rest for 10min.
3. Flatten dough pieces and mold the dough into strings that are thicker at the edges. Join 5 strangs of dough from left to right and plait.
4. Prove the plaits in a warm place for about 1hr and brush with beaten egg over the surface gently and sprinkle with more poppy seeds over. Bake in a preheated oven at 190 degrees celsius for 20-25 mins.