A 7-Strand Braided Bread is a show-stopping loaf with intricate weaving and a soft, fluffy texture. Perfect for special occasions or as a stunning centerpiece, this bread is as beautiful as it is delicious.

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Braided Bread looks so fancy, doesn’t it? And made into a bread wreath just takes it up a notch. This braided bread wreath would make beautiful bread for any special occasion, think Christmas, Thanksgiving, Easter and so on. And while it’s pretty to look at, it is also a good, solid loaf of bread. Better make sure you’ve got butter; you’ll need it!

A round, braided loaf of golden-brown bread on a wooden cutting board with a serrated knife beside it.

And if the wreath is too much for you you can just make it one long loaf. Just don’t roll your strands as long as called for in the recipe. You will want make sure it will fit on your baking sheets.

This 7-strand Braided Bread was the Technical Bake for Bread Week on the GBBO 2024. The other bakes for Bread Week were a Filled Bun for the Signature Bake and a Bread Cornucopia with 2 kinds of buns. When I saw the Braided Bread I decided that was our bake for the week.

A braided circular loaf of bread on a wooden cutting board with a serrated knife resting on top.

This year, our bakers chose the Bake-Along bake by Facebook poll, but I decided to throw them for a loop by choosing the bread wreath. I love to choose the technical bakes because, typically, they’re bakes we’ve never made before and teach us some baking skills along the way.

What you need for this Braided Bread Wreath

This is, at its core, a plain loaf of bread. There isn’t anything special about it except the braiding. But it is a solid, tasty bread recipe.

I used the technical bake recipe on the GBBO website, but as usual, I used American-style cups instead of weights. Read below for my notes on this recipe.

bread flour, I used all-purpose flour, and it worked fine
salt
instant or rapid rise yeast, if you don’t have it bloom the yeast in some of the warm water and a little of the flour, stir to combine and let it sit until it bubbles, then add it to the dry ingredients along with the water as per the recipe below
warm water
olive oil
egg

Notes On This Recipe From The GBBO

A few notes on this recipe, I made it twice this week. It does take some skill. Do you need to be a master baker? No, but you do need to have experience in baking bread.

The original recipe on the GBBO site calls for 19 2/3 inch long strands. The first loaf I made used that length and I don’t think they’re long enough. For this recipe I measured the strands out to about 22 inches and it was almost perfect.

And if you watched the episode then you SAW Paul Hollywood braid half the loaf, then flip it completely over, and continue you braiding. On the website it says just braid this as one long braid, so I think you can do it EITHER way.

About the flour

The OG recipe calls for 500 grams of flour. According to KAF Baking that should be 4 cups at 125 grams each. I don’t know how they measure their flour to make it come out to so little per cup. I have never been able to attain that weight.

The best I can get is about 3 3/4 cups of flour after lightening the flour by lifting a spoon through it. And I am not the only one who struggles with that weight. I call for 3 3/4 cups and then adding a little extra by the Tablespoonful if your dough is too soft.

A hand holds a slice of braided bread with a soft, fluffy interior. A serrated knife rests on a wooden cutting board beside the bread.

Other Bread Recipes From The GBBO

We have made a LOT of bread during bread week these last few years. We made a cottage loaf first which was quit a feat for many of us. Then came grissini, pretzels, danish rye bread, focaccia, and a cob loaf. I’m sure there’s more, but I can’t remember them all!

A hand holds a slice of braided bread with butter spread on it. A loaf and knife are in the background on a wooden surface.

7-Strand Braided Bread Wreath

5 from 1 vote

Course: Bread

Cuisine: British Inspired

Prep Time: 15

Cook Time: 25

Proving Time: 1 30

Total Time: 2 10

Servings: servings

Calories: 227kcal

Author: Laura

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Equipment

KitchenAid Mixer but you can knead by hand
Baking sheet

Ingredients

3 3/4 cups bread flour or all-purpose, plus a little extra if your dough is too soft
2 1/4 tsp rapid rise or instant yeast see the post for what to do with regular yeast
1/2 tsp salt
11 1/2 fl. oz warm water this is roughly 1 1/2 cups with 1 TBSP taken out
1 1/2 TBSP olive oil

Instructions

mix the flour, yeast, and salt together in the bowl of a stand mixer
add 3/4 of the warm water
run the mixer with the kneading hook until the dough just starts to come together
then pour in the remaining water and the olive oil
let the mixer knead the dough on low for about 5 minutes until the dough is soft and pliable, if while you're mixing you see the dough is very soft you can add another 1-4 TBSP of flour to the dough
once the dough is soft and silky smooth add a little oil to the bowl and turn the dough to coat it
cover and let the dough double in size
line a large baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside
once it's double gently knead the air out of the dough
weigh the dough and divide it into 7 equal pieces, if you don't have a scale divide as best you can, cover the dough piece to keep them from drying out
take one piece of dough and roll it into one long strand, about 22 inches in length, cover the strand with plastic wrap or foil
repeat with the remaining pieces of dough
lay the 7 strands of dough on a clean counter or table
about halfway down the strands divide the dough and lay three strands to the left of you, and the remaining four to the right, with a big space between them,
working from the midldle of the strands take the farthest right strand and cross it over the three pieces and lay it the middle angled to the left
then take the dough on the far left and cross over the three strands of dough (including the one you just put there from the right) into the middle of the dough angled to the right
repeat with all the strands until you get to the end, you will have half of the braid done
pinch the ends of the dough together
the gather the braid in one hand, the strands in the other and flip the WHOLE THING over, putting the braid away from you, and the strands towards you
make sure the strands are not tangled
beginning again on the right take the far right of the strands and bring it to the middle angled towards the left
take the far left strand and bring it over the three strands on the left (including the one you just put there from the right)
repeat with strands until you come to the end, pinch the dough together
trim off each end straight
bring the two ends together and fix the dough to the corresponding strands as best you can, it won't be perfect, adjust the wreath so it's as even as possible
cover the pan and let the wreath almost doubled in size
preheat the oven to 425°
beat the egg with a spalsh of water until mostly smooth
when ready to bake remove the cover from the wreath
use a pastry brush to paint the wreath with egg the wash
bake at 425° for 25 minutes or until the the bread sounds hollow when thumped on the bottom
cool, slice, enjoy!

Notes

About braiding this bread. If you watched the episode then you SAW Paul Hollywood braid half the loaf, then flip it completely over, and continue you braiding.

On the website it says just braid this as one long braid, no flipping it over.

So I think you can do it EITHER way.