St. Nicholas Bread

Ok! As promised here's the Christmas bread recipe. I converted the grams into cups which is why the measurements are weird.  Also, you'll be using more flour than this--just keep adding until you get a nice bread dough consistency.

Warm up 2.1 cups of milk
In a big bowl put 1 TBL yeast and a tsp sugar--add a little of the warm milk and set aside while you do the next step.

In another bowl beat 3 egg yolks and mix in the rest of the milk.
In yet another bowl mix 4.23 cups flour, 1/2 c sugar, 1 tsp salt, 1 TBL grated lemon peel and a little lemon juice, add 1/2 c softened butter knead until there is a fine texture.  Now, add the egg mixture to the yeast and then add the flour and knead until dough becomes a ball leaving the bowl clean (add added probably another 3 cups of flour to achieve this.  Let rise for two hours.

After the two hours you're supposed to mix up still more flour and water to make a dough for a braid around the bread.  Believe me it isn't necessary.  Punch down the dough and set aside a hunk (maybe two fist size).  I divided the remaining dough into two round loaves and put them on a cookie sheet.  Wrap a coin in tinfoil and hide it in the bread while you're forming the loaves.  Take the hunk you've set aside, divide into three, roll into long snakes and make a braid--put the braid around each loaf using a little egg and water to help it stick.  Let rise for another hour or so.  Bake for about 40 minutes at 350.  Delicious.  Whoever finds the coin gets good luck.