Great Grandma Hruska's Houska Bread

ingredients

1 pkg dry yeast
1/4 cup lukewarm water
1 cup milk, scalded
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup sugar
2 egg yolks, beaten (save egg whites)
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp lemon rind
4 to 4 1/2 cup flour
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup almonds (optional)

directions

Dissolve yeast in water, set aside. Add butter, sugar and salt to scaled milk. Cool to lukewarm. Whip egg yolk with vanilla. Add small amount of warm milk mixture to egg yolk to temper. Pour remaining yolk into milk. Add yeast mixture. Mix 1 cup of flour with nutmeg and lemon rind. Add to milk mixture. Add raisins and almonds. Add remaining flour (+or-) to get nice bread dough consistency. Careful not to over flour as this will make for heavy bread. Cover dough and let rise in warm location until double in size. Punch down dough and knead 3 minutes. Separate dough into 3 equal pieces. Roll each piece into long roll. Braid, cover and let rise until double in size. Bake at 350° for 40 minutes until done. Brush with egg white when it comes out of the oven. Let cool.

Source: Aunt Elizabeth