Breakfast braided bread with cheese and ham filling

I like making the dough for this awesomely delicious bread quite often (at least once a week), then get creative with it. The braided breakfast bread is the thing we most often do with it, but not the only one. As you'll see, it's a very versatile bread which can be made in various shapes and with various sweet or savory fillings and toppings (like our tapenade bread rolls or mini Nutela and walnut pies). 
In this version, the bread can be put in the oven when you wake up so you can enjoy it warm 30 minutes later. It's a fluffy-crunchy blast with the melted cheese and ham filling. For us, an ideal breakfast.
First adapted from here. 


Last year: Avocado halves stuffed with salted cheese and tomatoes and Mexican nachos with mixed dips (salsa, guacamole, aioli and cheese fondue).




Ingredients:
For the dough: 

• 300 ml milk

• 2 tablespoons sugar

• 25 g fresh yeast

• 600 g all-purpose flour

• 50 g butter

• 1 egg

• 1 sprinkle of salt

For the filling (double it if you want to use all the dough and make two breads; we just used half and the other half the next day):

• 100 g turkey breast ham

• 70 g Gouda cheese 

Put the flour and salt in a large bowl. Mix the yeast with the slightly warm milk and the sugar and let it rest for 10-15 minutes. Beat the egg and pour it on top of the flour. 

Add the yeast milk and the melted butter and work it into an elastic, non-sticky dough (it will be don ein about 5 minutes). 

Cover bowl and let it rise at least 2 hours or overnight. We usually let it overnight so we can have the warm bread in the morning. Anyway, when you plan to make it, uncover bowl:

Take half the dough and roll it in a rectangle shape. Cut the left and right side of it into fringes, like this:

Top the middle side with turkey ham slices:

.. Then with cheese, then with some more ham:

Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Braid the bread by closing its ends and then sticking the fringes one on top of the other. Brush the bread gently with a little milk (optional):

Put in the preheated oven (careful when you transfer it to the baking sheet, it's very soft and fragile, support it with your arm) and bake for 30, maybe 35 minutes. Take out and it's done:

Slice up and dig in! :)