How to Fancify Your Christmas Breads
Are we the only people that think something major is missing when there’s no bread (gasp!) on the table at Christmas? (Looking at you with a side-eye, Gwyneth Paltrow. They don’t call it breaking bread together for nothing—and your diet can wait, lady.)
While we always love a humble loaf—honestly, anything with a thick pat of butter will do, no matter what it looks like—there’s something about the twinkling Christmas season that calls for a MAXIMALLY BEAUTIFUL BREAD, all caps.
Our favorite way to achieve that edible impact (fairly) easily? Braid your bread dough into a wreath that will festoon your Christmas tablescape, and that you can pass around the table and tear from together. This Christmas bread recipe is an amalgam of Ukrainian Christmas breads and something akin to Eli Zabar’s Christmas Challah. Adorned with a blousy bow, it makes for an indulgent Christmas morning— moist, sugar-sweet, and so absolutely addictive that you may need to make one for everyone at your table. We’d say “use the leftovers for bread pudding” but there won’t be any leftovers. We guarantee it.
INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon instant yeast
½ cup warm water
¼ cup + 1 teaspoon granulated sugar
3 cups flour
1 teaspoon sea salt
2 tablespoons honey
⅓ cups canola oil
2 Eggs, room temperature
1 egg, beaten
Place the yeast, one teaspoon of sugar, and warm water in a small bowl and give a little stir. Let it sit for 5 to 10 minutes, or until it’s as bubbly and foamy as your favorite frothy cocktail.
While yeast is proofing, mix the flour, remaining sugar, and salt in a large bowl.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the honey, oil, and eggs. (If you’re able to source eggs and honey locally, we highly recommend it: it just tastes better that way, in our humble opinion).
Once yeast has proofed, add it to the flour along with the wet ingredients. Mix it all with a large wooden spoon until the dough becomes too thick to stir (aaah). Place the dough on a well-floured surface and knead it until smooth and no longer sticky, 5 minutes or so. Add more flour as needed so it’s not toooOoOOoo sticky. And enjoy this: if you’re like us at Aspen Grange HQ, you’ve got a need to knead!
Transfer the ball of dough to an oiled bowl and cover with a damp tea towel. Let the dough rise in a warm place for about two hours, or until doubled in size. (This would be a v. good time to catch up on a Hallmark Christmas movie).
Preheat your oven to 375-degrees.
Line a baking sheet with parchment. (Gawd we love parchment!)
Flip the dough out of the bowl onto your work surface, and cut it into three equal pieces.
Roll each piece of dough into a log about 1 - 1½" thick. If it’s overly sticky, add a dusting of flour to each log’s surface to make them easier to handle.
This is the (really) fun part. Unite the “logs” at one end with a very hard, twisty pinch, and place them under something heavy—like the bowl—to hold them in place on your work surface. Braid the three strands together as carefully as if you’re going for the ‘Best Braids in Second Grade Award.’
Shape the braid into a wreath, pinching it together firmly, and set it atop the parchment-lined baking sheet.
Brush the dough with beaten egg yolk so this Christmas bread will gleam, baby, gleam. If you want to sprinkle on some sesame seeds or somesuch, this is the time to do it.
Bake the Christmas bread wreath in the preheated oven for 25-30 minutes, or until it’s golden brown on top.
Remove and let it cool (this is, hopefully, the hardest thing you’ll have to do all day). Then deck the halls—er, wreath—with your prettiest bow, and sit back and wait for everyone to say “it’s too pretty to eat!” before immediately devouring it. Merry, merry!
Aspen Grange, home of American-made Christmas decorations and American-made baking supplies, is building the most Christmassy place on the internet.