Hefekranz literally means "yeast wreath," and is a sweet yeast bread formed in the shape of a ring. I baked a filled Osterkranz last year. For WTSIM hosted by Johanna from thepassionatecook, I decided to do a braided Hefekranz with a different filling. Unfortunately I forgot to place an inverted, buttered, oven-save cup or small ramekin in the center (as I did here). So it has no hole in the center and it's not anymore a Kranz. It's now a sort of a cake. The good thing is, it's much more juicier, than the one from last year.

Before serving normally your brush the Kranz with a powdered sugar icing. As I do not like it too sweet, and it has enough sugar in it, I did not glaze it, I did just the egg glazing before baking.

The original recipe (from Betty Bossi) asks for apricot jam. Instead I used sirop d'Ardennes I bought a while ago. I reduced the amount of sugar and hazelnut and replaced the cream by Ricotta.

Filled Easter-Hefekranzcake

Fresh from the oven. Half of the cake I have frozen. For 2 people this is too much.

400 g flour
80 g melted butter
20 g fresh yeast
125-150 g lukewarm milk
80 g sugar
1/4 ts salt
1 egg

filling
200 g finely ground hazelnuts
65 g sugar
1 apple, finely grated
1 egg
100 g Ricotta
6 tb sirop d'ardennes or apricot jam

glazing
1 egg

sugar icing/glaze
5 tb powdered sugar
1 tb water

Dissolve yeast and 1 ts sugar in 50 g lukewarm milk. Let sit this mixture for about 5-10 minutes. Add dissolved yeast and the remaining ingredients (sugar, egg, salt, cooled down melted butter, milk) and knead well, either manually or with your kitchen machine until dough can be easily removed from the bowl (non-sticky). Cover bowl with a plastic wrap and let dough rise in warm place for at least 2 hours (size of dough should almost double).

To shape the wreath: Divide dough into three even pieces. Roll each piece into a rectangle. First Spread on every rectangle 2 tb sirop d'Ardennes then spread the filling.

Roll up the rectangles and braid. Move braid to a buttered baking ring and form into a circle. If the circle has little room in the center, place an inverted, buttered, oven-save tea cup or small ramekin in the center.

Cover and let rise again 30 minutes. Paint with egg. Bake in the preheated oven at 200C for 50 minutes. Remove baking ring after 20 minutes.

I don't like a dark crust, so I covered the wreath the last 20 minutes with aluminum foil.

The next morning: Delicious breakfast!

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