How to make a whole-wheat Russian braid

Today I'll show you how to make a sweet Russian braid. I chose to combine two ancient grain flours, Gentil Rosso type 0 and Verna whole wheat . The end result, using these two flours together, is truly soft. Above all, it's very fragrant, with distinctive, raw, almost nutty notes on the palate. It's not at all sweet, so it's perfect with jams or spreads.

• 250 g Verna wholemeal flour
• 250 g Gentil Rosso type 0 flour
• 10 g fresh brewer's yeast
• 110 g sugar
• 2 whole eggs
• 90 g butter
• 1 level teaspoon of salt
• 40 g butter
• 20 g sugar

• Make a pre-yeast by dissolving the brewer's yeast in the milk at room temperature. Then add the flour taken from the total, just enough to create a sort of batter. Sprinkle the surface of the batter with a light dusting of more flour and cover with cling film. Leave to rise indoors until cracks form from which you can see the surface of the yeast underneath (1) .
• Place the pre-yeast in the mixer with the eggs and some of the remaining flour (2) .
• Knead at minimum speed. Then add the sugar and the remaining flour and mix everything together, continuing to knead. When the mixture is combined, add the butter, and finally the salt (3) . Bring the dough to a stringy state: to understand when it is ready, take a small piece and slowly stretch it out with your fingers: it should not break, but should become increasingly thinner and shinier, until you can see through it. It will take 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the speed and the way you knead.
• Grease a bowl and let the dough rise until doubled in size. Meanwhile, mix the butter and sugar. Once the dough has risen, place it on a floured surface and roll it out to a thickness of ½ centimeter, preferably in a rectangular shape.

Now you need to give it the classic braid shape . I can assure you, it's easier to do than to explain! You can find tons of videos on YouTube showing the procedure and the exact steps to follow to form the braid (you can see one below; the ingredients are different, but the steps are the same).

Here's the procedure: Using a spatula, spread the butter and sugar mixture over the surface of the dough. Then roll it up and proceed as follows:

A. cut 3 cm of the roll and set aside (it will be used to form the second rosette typical of the braid);
B. leaving 2 cm intact from the top, cut the roll in half lengthwise.
C. slide the uncut top part into the middle of the cut underneath: in this way you will have formed the first rosette that will give you the typical shape of this leavened product;
D. braid the remaining part of the roll, and at the end place the little rose that you made at the beginning by cutting the dough, in the middle of the cut of the roll, thus closing the braid.

• At this point, transfer the braid into a plumcake mould and let it double in size again. Then bake at 180° for approximately 35 minutes (4) .
• As soon as it comes out of the oven, sprinkle the surface with a drizzle of milk. Leave to cool and finally sprinkle with icing sugar (5) .

My plum cake pan was too small for that amount of dough, so I cut out two more roses after rolling it up and placed them in the muffin pan. I let them rise and baked them: they turned out incredibly soft brioche muffins, so this dough is versatile for any shape.