Santa Lucia Crown

½ cup warm water
½ cup of warm milk
¼ c butter, soften

½ cup of sugar
1 teaspoon of salt
1/8 teaspoon of tumeric powder or saffron
4 ¼ to 4 ¾ cups all-purpose flour
2 ½ Tablespoon Of dry yeast

3 eggs
Powdered Sugar frosting
Red and green cherry halves, optional

Combine first four ingredients. Set aside

Combine sugar, salt, tumeric, and 1 ½ cups of flour. Add wet ingredients. Blend well.

Add 2 eggs and the remaining flour to make a soft dough.

Knead on a lightly floured surface until smooth and elastic, about 6 to 8 minutes.

Place dough in a greased bowl. Allow to rise until doubled.

Punch dough down. Divide a 1/3 of the dough off and set aside.

Take remaining dough and divide in thirds. Roll each clump of dough into 25” ropes. Braid together. Pinch ends together to seal. Place on a greased Cookie sheet. Repeat with smaller dough ball.

Allow both braids to raise until double. Brush with egg. Bake in a 375 degree oven.
Small Braid: 15 minutes.
Large Braid: 25 minutes

Let cool. Place smaller braid on top of the larger braid. Drizzle frosting on top and dot with cherry halves.

For frosting, combine:
1 cup powdered sugar,
4 to 5 teaspoons of water or milk
½ teaspoon of vanilla