Recipe for Serbian Slava Bread (Slavski Kolach)

My Kljaić ancestors were Serbians living in Croatia.  Slava is a special tradition for Serbs across the world.  Essentially Slava is a celebration of the family's patron saint and is unique to the Serbian Orthodox church (I write about the holiday more in this previous post about Slava).  A key part of Slava is the making of a special bread to share with family and close friends who come to the home as guests.  The bread itself can be a sweet bread (which is what we opted for) that is decorated with a cross in the center of the bread and can often include the following: a Serbian eagle, grapes, wheat, and flowers. A braid is often put around the edge.

The Kljaić family's patron saint is Saint Luke. The day for the Klaich family to celebrate Slava is October 31st (today!).   In honor of the day, we made Slava bread.  Over the past few months I have practiced a bit based on the recipes I have found elsewhere online (recipe 1, recipe 2).  In the end, this is the final version of the recipe I ended up using: 

Ingredients:

• 8 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon salt
• ¾ cup (+ 1 tablespoon) sugar
•  ½ cup butter (1 stick)
• 3 egg yolks + (1 egg white)
•  2 cups lukewarm milk
• 1 pkg dry yeast (2 ¼ tsp.)
• 1 lemon (zest and juice)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

1. Mix yeast with a teaspoon of sugar and ½ cup of the lukewarm milk. Set aside (this activates the yeast).
2. In a medium mixing bowl, beat the 3 egg yolks (+1 white), vanilla, add the rest of the lukewarm milk (1 ½ Cup). Mix well, set aside.
3. In large bowl combine 8 cups of flour, butter, sugar, salt, lemon (rind + juice).
4. Combine yeast mixture with the egg and milk, Add to the flour.
5. Knead for 5-10 minutes. 
6. Put in greased bowl to rise.  Let rise about 1 hour (Need it to double in size). [Put aside some bread to be used in braid and decoration.]
7. Knead briefly again.  Put in a well-greased 9-inch round, 3-inch deep pan.
8. Decorate the edge of the loaf with a braid around the edge and a cross in the center.  Let it rise until doubled (about 1 hour).
9. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Brush bread lightly with egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 TBS. of milk). Bake about 1 hour to 75 minutes (it usually takes at least 75 minutes for me).

Below is a picture of the final product.  Good luck with your Slava celebrations!