Austrian Brioche (Germzopf) - cooking recipe

Ingredients

500 g flour
250 ml milk
20 g yeast (fresh cake works the best)
2 eggs
75 -100 g sugar (i prefer brown)
100 g butter (melted)
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon, cest (optional)
2 tablespoons almonds (slivers or \"flakes\")

Preparation

Warm milk to medium heat, add sugar and yeast.
Stir until yeast has dissolved.
Add lemon cest, if using, and 1 egg to the warm milk/yeast/sugar mixture.
Sift 500g flour into a bowl and pour in milk mixture, salt and melted butter.
Knead to a soft and shiny dough using a mixer or kitchen machine/food processor. The longer you knead, the better/fluffier the result.
Form a ball out of dough and let rest covered with a kitchen towel until its volume has doubled (up to 1 hour guesstimate).
Separate dough into 3 equal portions, knead again and form long, inch thick rounds.
Braid/shape the three dough rolls like you would a pig tail.
Mix the second egg with a dash of salt and 1 tsp sugar.
Brush surface of dough with this mixture (keep a bit of this mixture for later) and let rest again for 30 minutes.
Then bake brioche at 180\u00b0C for about 30-45 minutes. In case the surface darkens too soon, cover with aluminium foil.
Take brioche out about 5 minutes before it is done and brush with the rest of the egg glaze.
Sprinkle with almonds and return brioche (uncovered) to oven.
Bake until done.