Zopf.

Name: Zopf (Swiss Sunday Butter Braid)
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 3 h 40 min
Yield: 10 servings
Cuisine: Switzerland
Ingredients: 500 g white bread flour, or Zopfmehl; 250 ml whole milk, lukewarm; 80 g butter, softened and cut into pieces; 20 g fresh yeast, crumbled; 10 g fine salt; 1 tbsp sugar; 1 egg yolk; 1 tbsp cream or milk

Swiss Sunday Butter Braid

Zopf / Tresse · say it: TSOPF

Zopf is a braided loaf of enriched wheat dough made with milk and a generous amount of butter, glazed with egg yolk and baked until the crust turns deep glossy brown. Inside it is soft, slightly stretchy and only faintly sweet — much less sugary than brioche, much richer than a plain white loaf — with a clean dairy flavour that suits butter and jam and does not fight with cheese or cold meat. The braid is not decoration. Zopf is traditionally plaited from two thick ropes rather than the three most bakers know, which is what gives the finished loaf its high domed ridges and the pale seams between them. Swiss households bake or buy one every Sunday morning, and it is one of very few Swiss foods eaten identically from Geneva to St Gallen.

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Swiss Sunday Butter Braid

Gate: SwitzerlandBern and German-speaking Switzerland
Prep: 30 min
Cook: 40 min
Total time: 3 hr 40 min incl. 2 hr 30 min rest
Serves: 10
Status: Medium
Nutrition / serving · estimated: Calories 290 kcal; Protein 8 g; Carbs 41 g; Fat 10 g; Fiber 2 g; Sugar 4 g; Sodium 400 mg

Why this recipe works.

The traditional two-strand Swiss braid explained step by step, with a three-strand fallback if it defeats you.
Double egg-yolk glaze, before and after the final proof, which is what produces the deep lacquer crust.
Dough hydration and butter level tuned for a soft, tearing crumb rather than a chewy bread texture.
Proof signals by touch and appearance instead of fixed times, since kitchen temperature changes everything.

Ingredients.

8 items

Servings

Equipment

Stand mixer with dough hook, or a bowl and hands
Baking sheet and parchment
Pastry brush
Instant-read thermometer

Instructions.

Wake the yeast
Warm 250 ml of milk until it feels barely warm on the inside of your wrist, no hotter than 35 C. Crumble in the fresh yeast with the sugar and stir until dissolved, then leave for 10 minutes until the surface is foamy and smells of bread.
Tip If nothing foams, the yeast is dead or the milk was too hot. Start this step again rather than pressing on.
Make the dough
Put the flour and salt in a large bowl, pour in the yeast milk and mix to a shaggy mass. Add the softened butter a few pieces at a time, working each addition in before the next — the dough will look greasy and reluctant for a few minutes and then suddenly come together.
Knead
Knead for 10 to 12 minutes by machine or 15 by hand, until the dough is smooth, elastic, slightly tacky and pulls cleanly away from the bowl. Test it by stretching a small piece between your fingers: it should thin out enough to see light through before tearing.
First proof
Shape the dough into a ball, return it to a lightly oiled bowl, cover, and leave somewhere warm for 90 minutes to 2 hours until roughly doubled and a finger pressed 2 cm into it leaves a dent that fills back in only slowly.
Roll the ropes
Turn the dough out, knock it back gently and divide it into two equal pieces by weight. Roll each into a rope about 45 cm long, noticeably thicker through the middle and tapering to thin ends. Let them rest 5 minutes if they resist stretching.
Braid it
Lay one rope across the other to form a cross. Working outwards from the centre, always lift the pair of ends lying underneath and bring them over the pair lying on top, turning the loaf a quarter turn each time so you alternate sides. Continue to the ends and tuck them neatly beneath the loaf.
Tip If the two-strand braid defeats you, divide the dough into three and plait it the ordinary way. It bakes just as well.
Glaze and second proof
Lift the braid onto a lined baking sheet. Beat the egg yolk with the cream and brush a thin, even coat over every surface, getting into the seams. Cover loosely and prove for 40 to 50 minutes until visibly puffed and slow to spring back when pressed.
Bake
Heat the oven to 200 C. Brush the braid with a second coat of glaze, then bake for 15 minutes, drop the temperature to 180 C and bake for another 20 to 25 minutes until the crust is a deep glossy brown and the base sounds hollow. The centre should read 90 C on a thermometer.
Tip Tent with foil if the ridges darken before the loaf is baked through.
Cool before cutting
Slide the loaf onto a wire rack and leave it at least 30 minutes. Cutting into it hot compresses the crumb into a damp band, and the difference between a warm Zopf and a hot one is the difference between soft and gummy.

Tips from our kitchen.

Warm the milk to no more than lukewarm — around 35 C, comfortably below blood heat on your wrist. Hot milk kills yeast and the dough will barely move.
Knead until the dough passes the windowpane test: a small piece stretched between your fingers should go thin enough to see light through before it tears.
Roll the ropes thicker in the middle and tapered at both ends. Even-thickness ropes give a braid that bulges at the ends and sags in the middle.
Glaze twice — once when the braid is shaped and once right before baking. A single coat gives a matte, patchy crust.
If the top is browning too fast in the last ten minutes, tent it loosely with foil. An enriched dough colours long before the centre is baked through.
Let it cool at least 30 minutes before cutting. Slicing a hot enriched loaf compresses the crumb into a damp, gummy band.

Substitutions.

Zopfmehl → Plain white bread flour, or three parts bread flour to one part all-purpose: Zopfmehl is a moderate-protein Swiss blend that gives a soft crumb. Straight strong bread flour makes a slightly chewier loaf; cutting it with all-purpose brings it very close to the original.
Fresh yeast → 7 g instant dried yeast, or 9 g active dry yeast: Instant yeast can go straight into the flour. Active dry needs to be woken in the warm milk with a pinch of sugar for ten minutes until it foams.
Whole milk → Oat or soy milk, with vegan block butter: A dairy-free Zopf works surprisingly well, though the crumb is a little less tender. Use a plant milk with some fat in it, not a watery skimmed version, and glaze with plant milk and a little maple syrup instead of egg.

Variations.

Three-strand Zopf: Braided the way most bakers already know, from three ropes. Slightly flatter and more even than the Swiss two-strand version, and much easier the first time.
Butterzopf with spelt: A quarter of the flour replaced with white spelt, which gives a nuttier flavour and a slightly denser, shorter crumb.
Sweet Zopf: Raisins soaked in warm water and kneaded in at the end, with a tablespoon more sugar in the dough. Closer to a festive loaf and common at Christmas.

Storage & reheating.

Zopf is best on the day it is baked and noticeably drier by day two, which is why Swiss households buy or bake it on the morning they intend to eat it. Keep it in a paper bag or wrapped in a cloth at room temperature for up to 2 days; a plastic bag traps moisture and softens the crust to leather. Never refrigerate it, as it stales far faster in the cold. It freezes very well for 2 months, whole or sliced, and slightly stale Zopf makes outstanding French toast or bread pudding.

Serve with

Salted butter, apricot or plum jam, honey, and strong coffee — or torn alongside a cheese plate for supper.

The story behind Zopf.

Zopf means braid, and the loaf is the Sunday bread of German-speaking Switzerland — bought fresh at the bakery on Saturday evening or Sunday morning, torn or sliced at a late breakfast, eaten with butter, honey and jam and a large pot of coffee. In the French-speaking cantons it is called tresse, which means the same thing, and it turns up in the same place at the same time of the week. It is also the standard bread of Christmas and New Year mornings, and around Bern it is baked for funerals as well.

There are older stories attached to the braid shape — the most repeated being that it stands in for a widow's plaited hair, once cut off and buried with her husband — but this is folklore that circulates without hard evidence behind it, and it is worth treating as a story people tell rather than a documented origin. What is documented is the loaf's spread through Bern and the surrounding cantons from the seventeenth century onwards, and its firm modern association with Sunday.

Swiss bakers use a specific flour sold as Zopfmehl, a blend of wheat flours with a moderate protein level that produces a soft, tender crumb rather than a chewy one. You can get very close with plain white bread flour, or by cutting strong flour with a little all-purpose. What matters more is the fat: this is a butter-rich dough, and skimping shows up immediately as a drier, plainer loaf with a duller crust. The other thing that matters is the glaze, which is egg yolk thinned with a spoonful of cream or milk and applied twice — once before the final proof and once just before it goes into the oven. That double coat is why a proper Zopf comes out looking lacquered rather than merely golden.

Questions, answered.

How do I braid a Zopf with two strands?

Roll two ropes that are thick in the middle and tapered at the ends, and lay one across the other to form a cross. Then, working outwards, always bring the pair of ends lying underneath up and over the pair lying on top, turning the loaf a quarter turn each time so you alternate sides. Keep going until the ends run out, then tuck them under the loaf. If it goes wrong, unroll the ropes and start again — the dough is forgiving.

What is Zopfmehl and what can I use instead?

Zopfmehl is a Swiss flour blend sold specifically for this loaf, with a moderate protein content that gives a soft, tender crumb rather than a chewy one. Outside Switzerland, use plain white bread flour, or mix three parts bread flour with one part all-purpose to get closer to the original texture. Very strong high-protein bread flour on its own makes a slightly tougher Zopf.

Why is my Zopf dry or dense?

Usually under-proofing, too much flour, or over-baking. Enriched doughs rise more slowly than lean ones, so give the first proof the time it needs rather than the time the recipe states. Add flour sparingly during kneading — the dough should stay slightly tacky. And take the loaf out as soon as the internal temperature reaches 90 C, since ten extra minutes dries an enriched crumb badly.

Can I make the dough the night before?

Yes, and the flavour improves for it. Make the dough, knead it, and refrigerate it overnight for the first proof, then let it come back to room temperature for about an hour before shaping. The cold dough is also considerably easier to roll into neat ropes, which makes the braid tidier.

Why did my braid lose its shape in the oven?

Either the ropes were rolled too thin and even, or the loaf over-proofed before baking. Roll the ropes thicker at the centre so the braid has a high middle to begin with, and bake when the shaped loaf is puffy but still springs back slowly when pressed. A fully over-proofed braid spreads sideways and the ridges flatten out.

When do Swiss people eat Zopf?

Sunday breakfast above all, which is when bakeries sell most of it, plus Christmas and New Year mornings. It is served with butter, jam and honey and coffee, torn or thickly sliced. In some regions around Bern it is also baked for funerals. It is one of the few foods eaten in the same way across both the German- and French-speaking parts of the country.

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