Kolcha Bread

So Kolcha bread is one of the 12 traditional dishes of Ukrainian Christmas Eve. I had never made it but I love sweet breads so decided to give it a try. I used a recipe from my Ukrainian Daughter's cookbook but modified it as the original recipe would make a LOT of Kolcha. It came out pretty well except my braids all melded together when it was cooking as evident in the photo. A friend has given me a tip on how to avoid this which I have included in the Preparation section.

Ingredients

1/2 tbsp yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm water
1 tsp sugar
1/2 cup sugar
2 cups warm water
1/3 cup melted butter
1/2 tsp salt
3 eggs beaten
8-8 1/2 cups flour

Preparation

Dissolve the yeast and the 1 tsp of sugar in the 1/2 cup of lukewarm water. Let stand for 10 minutes. In a separate bowl the 1/2 cup of sugar into the 2 cups of warm water. Add the melted butter, the salt and beaten eggs. Then add the yeast mixture. Mix in the flour and knead until smooth and elastic, a little bit stiffer than normal bread dough. Cover and let rise in a warm place until it is double in volume. Punch the dough down and let it rise again.
Divide the dough into 3 sections. I deviated a bit here from the instructions and out of each section I made two lengths of dough by rolling them out with my hands. 4 of the lengths were about 24 inches long and the other 2 were 30 inches. Take two of the 30 inch lengths and make a rope like twist or braid with them. Make a circle with the dough and put on a greased 9 inch pan. Do the same with the other two 30 inch lengths and place the circle on top of the first one. take the 24 inch lengths and entwine them in the opposite direction that you did the others. there should be a smaller empty circle space in the middle, Make a circle with the entwined lengths and place it in this empty space. Then let the dough rise to double its size. Now this is when my braids began to meld into each other. To avoid this my friend said put the braids in the fridge for awhile to set before forming them into a circle and putting them on the pan. Once it is risen brush with a beaten egg and cook for 1 hour at 350 degrees F.