Christmas and Carbs
Aaaah Christmas time! Nothing feels quite like the holidays than an overload of carbs, cookies, and candies!
Last Christmas I received this cookbook as a gift that I had my eye on all last winter. As a bread lover, I have been using Zoe Francois’ bread recipes for years. She and Jeff Hertzberg have simplified the art of bread making in their revolutionary Artisan Bread in Five cookbooks. Their recipes take away the guess work and bring back the beauty of handcrafted breads.
While flipping through the Holiday and Celebration Bread in Five Minutes a Day cookbook, I stumbled upon the Holiday Star Bread recipe. The shape of this bread looked soooo beautiful! So this week I decided to try my hand at making it.
The process of making the dough is beyond simple. You dump all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl or regular bowl and stir them all up with a dutch whisk or use the mixer. Once the ingredients are all combined, you place plastic wrap on top, poke a few holes to allow the gas to escape and let it rise in a warm spot. It’s that easy. The dough will be a very wet and sticky type of dough.
Once the dough has risen for a few hours, weigh out 2lbs of dough, then quarter them into 8oz chunks shaping them into a ball.
Once the dough has been formed into four rounds, they are then rolled out into 10” flat rounds. Raspberry jelly is then spread on the base round (you can also use cinnamon and sugar) and then you repeat the process until the final round is placed on top.
The dough is cut into 16 equal size pieces to create the star effect. Take two sections at a time and twist the dough outwards three times, pinching the ends of the two sections together once twisted. You can watch her technique in Zoe’s saved Instagram Stories. Just scroll until you find the Holiday Star Bread.
I used a tad bit too much of jelly, which made twisting the pieces a tad slippery. But alas, I prevailed!
I will definitely be making this Holiday Star Bread again! It turned out so pretty and was really fun to make! The flavor and light texture of the dough mixed with the sweetness of the jelly reminded me pastries from Europe. So yummy and a prefect way to enjoy the holidays!
