Zopf / Züpfe
Zopf, also called Züpfe, is an enriched Swiss yeast loaf with butter and milk, shaped as a two-strand braid and brushed with egg before baking.
Modern adaptation
Swiss butterzopf
A Swiss braided yeast loaf enriched with milk and butter and brushed with egg yolk.
A Swiss braid
Butterzopf is a braided Swiss yeast bread. This Swissmilk recipe rises twice before shaping, then receives a yolk-and-milk glaze before baking.
Sources for this section
A Bernese bread across Switzerland
The Swiss culinary-heritage inventory identifies Zopf, tresse and treccia as names for a braided milk bread with Bernese roots that spread across Switzerland. It records both bakery production and continuing home baking. The form is usually elongated and made from two or three strands, while butter and egg content varies.
The inventory reports a Bernese mention of Züpfe in 1470, citing a 1964 Folklore suisse article. That is a reported historical reference to the bread’s name, not a surviving recipe matching this Swissmilk formula. Its accounts of why the loaf was braided remain conjectural; a shape alone does not establish an ancient ritual origin.
Sources for this section
Sunday and New Year
Switzerland Tourism describes Bernese Züpfe as a Sunday brunch bread and a traditional part of New Year’s Day. It associates the dough with farm cooking, milk and butter, while noting disagreement over their proportions. The egg-yolk finish gives the loaf its golden colour.
Those customs explain the bread’s place at a table without prescribing a single formula. The measured batch here remains Swissmilk’s two-strand butterzopf, with two rises before shaping. Regional or household differences do not change its quantities or bake schedule.
Sources for this section
History
Butterzopf is documented in Swiss home baking; the first attestation is not established.
Ingredients
Yield 1 loaf · Scaling: source batch only
Zopf flour
500 g
Salt
7.4 mL1½ tsp as recorded
Sugar
4.9 mL1 tsp as recorded
Butter
50 g
Soft, cut into piecesFresh yeast
10 g
CrumbledMilk
300 mL
Lukewarm, plus 1 tbsp for glazeEgg yolk
1 whole
For glazeMethod
Risks and precautions · Standard risk
Contains wheat, milk and egg.
Do not taste raw dough; raw flour and egg can contain harmful germs. Wash hands and surfaces after handling them.
Use oven protection when handling hot trays.
- Mix flour, salt and sugar in a bowl and make a well. Add butter. Dissolve the yeast in a little of the lukewarm milk, then pour it and the remaining milk into the well.
- Knead into a smooth, elastic dough. Cover and leave at room temperature until doubled.
- Knead the dough down and cover again; let it rise until doubled a second time. The source allows about 3 hours for the rising stages.
- Knead down, shape two strands and braid them. Place on a parchment-lined tray and leave to rise 5–10 minutes.
- Heat the oven to 200°C. Beat the yolk with 1 tablespoon milk and brush the loaf. Bake in the lower half of the oven for 50–60 minutes, then cool on a rack.
Conditions
Yield1 loaf
Places
Switzerland
Documented preparation · Country evidenceSwissmilk documents this Swiss preparation; no precise birthplace is established.
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Sources
SwissmilkInspiration · Method · Geography
Hefeteig – ButterzopfOne-loaf flour, milk, butter and yeast method, two rises, braid and bake.
Cited in: A Swiss braid; Sunday and New Year
Patrimoine Culinaire SuisseContext · History
Zopf / Tresse / TrecciaBernese association, national spread and home baking; reported 1470 mention citing Folklore suisse1964, not this formula.
Cited in: A Bernese bread across Switzerland
Switzerland TourismContext
Zopf: die SonntagsfreudeBernese Sunday brunch and New Year custom; variable milk/butter proportions and yolk finish.
Cited in: Sunday and New Year
Wikimedia Commons / Monika BaechlerImage reference
Tresse au Beurre.jpgFile-level CC0 evidence and PixabayID1215013, image dated2016; caption butterzopf sold in CentralSwitzerland. Visualinspection pending, not counted as approved reference.