This sweet bread is not only breathtakingly beautiful, but its taste is also heavenly. It isn’t as difficult to prepare it as it seems.

Ingredients:

For the dough:

• 660 g (~5 1/4 cups) flour
• 2 egg yolks
• 2 tbsp. sugar
• 50 ml (~3 1/2 tbsp) oil
• 100 g (~1/2 cup) melted butter
• 1,5 tsp salt
• 40 g (~1 1/2 oz) fresh yeast (4 tsp dry yeast)
• 300 ml (~1 1/4 cups) lukewarm milk

For spreading the dough:

• 70 g (~1/3 cup) melted butter
• 1 tbsp. sugar
• seeds of a vanilla bean

For the topping:

• 1 egg, whisked
• flaxseeds (or sesame seeds, or sunflower seeds)

Dissolve yeast with a little sugar in lukewarm milk.

In a bowl mix up the flour, egg yolks, sugar, oil, melted butter, salt, yeast and the milk, and knead the dough (using a hand mixer with kneaders or a kneading machine) until it is soft, smooth and elastic.

Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 40 minutes.

Take a piece of parchment paper and cover the back of a bigger baking pan.

Melt the butter with the sugar and the vanilla seeds.

After 40 minutes knead the dough again, and divide it into two equal parts.

Take one of the two parts and cut into 5 pieces and round them.

Roll the first piece into a circle (diameter 22-23 cm), put on the parchment paper and spread it with the melted butter.

Roll the second piece of dough into a circle, put on the first one and spread it with butter.

Repeat this process in case of the 3rd and 4th pieces.

Roll the 5th dough ball into a bigger circle in order to also cover the side of the four layers.

Cut the middle of the dough into 8 parts, but don’t cut the edges.

Turn out the slices.

Take the other half of the dough, cut off 1/4 and round it.

Divide the remaining dough into 5 equal parts and round them.

Roll the first ball into a circle (diameter 15-16 cm) and put in the middle of the first five layers.

Spread it with butter.

Dough ball no.3, 4, 5: roll them  out, put them in layers and spread them with butter (except layer 5).

Slice the dough into 8 parts.

Turn them out. These slices must be placed between the petals of the first layer.

Take the last dough ball and roll it out to cover the middle of the flower.

Spread the whole top with egg and sprinkle flaxseeds in the middle.

Let it rise for 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 356°F.

Bake it for 30-35 minutes.