Christmas Wreath Bread
My beautiful Christmas bread is a soft & slightly sweet egg bread filled with golden raisins. Make it without the frosting and sprinkles and you can toast it. Use pastel sprinkles and it's Easter bread. Have all your ingredients at room temperature. - Jenny Jones
Prep Time: 30 minutes
Cook Time: 30 minutes
Total Time: 2 hours
Makes: One loaf
Ingredients:
- 2 1/4 cups bread flour (or all-purpose flour)
- 2 teaspoons instant yeast (one packet/7 grams)
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 3/4 cup milk, warmed to 120-130° F (I use 1% or 2% low fat milk)
- 1/3 cup vegetable oil
- 1 egg (can add an extra egg yolk for a richer bread)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 heaping cup raisins (I use gold and red raisins)
- additional 1/4 to 1/2 cup flour
- Egg wash: 1 egg yolk + 1 teaspoon water
- 1 cup powdered sugar + about 2 tablespoons milk
- Sprinkles of your choice
Glaze:
Instructions:
- Combine the flour, yeast, sugar and salt in a large mixing bowl.
- Add warm milk, oil, egg & vanilla.
- With electric mixer, beat on high for two minutes.
- Reduce speed, add raisins and about 1/4 to 1/2 cup more flour until the dough forms a mass.
- Knead on a floured surface for 100 turns (about 2 minutes).
- Cover dough with plastic and let it rest 10 minutes.
- Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
- Divide dough into three and roll each piece into a 20-inch long rope. Braid the ropes as you would braid hair and shape the braid into a circle, pinching & tucking the ends together.
- Place on the baking sheet, cover with a towel and let rise in a warm spot until doubled in size – 45 minutes to 1 hour.
- After 30 minutes, preheat oven to 350° F.
- When loaf has doubled in size, gently brush with egg wash.
- Bake for about 30 minutes. After 15 minutes, cover with a foil tent to prevent over-browning. Internal temperature should be at least 190° F when baked.
- Let cool for 10 minutes and add glaze, followed immediately with sprinkles.
Note: To see it shaped into a regular loaf click here.
I have a question for Jenny or any contributor?
My Grandma came over from Romania, and I grew up with many similar foods. But with these breads, I’ve never like RAISINS! Try as I might – I just detest them. Any ideas for substitutes?
Many of the Romanian bread recipes call for lemon zest in the dough, so it’s still in me to have lemons on hand when making sweeter doughs.
ALSO READERS – if you don’t have bread flour or cake flour – there are recipes on the internet to make them at home. Like removing a tablespoon of flour per cup and replacing it with vital wheat gluten. I do not stock lots of specialty flours, but have ingredients to make them
Amen!
It is ok to make and freeze the wreath and decorate later? Great recipe…
You stated bake 350, for 30 min then 15 min cover with foil. Are we temp 190 so we are then reducing the temperature down to 190 degrees ??? A bit confused. Thanks
190 refers to the INTERNAL temperature only, which can be tested with an instant read thermometer. The bread bakes at 350 the whole time.
Thank goodness you responded to her..lol
I made this bread Christmas morning and took it to our family holiday dinner and everyone loved it. It was delicious. Thank you so much for the recipe and this website.
I would say definitely use bread flour if you can. I forgot and used all purpose flour and added candied fruit. The result was that it rose at a much slower pace, taking more time. The end result, however was wonderful! Thanks so much for the recipe. Z Bogiem!
Love your recipes, I’ve tried quite a few with no problems, got a question,since your parents made a lot of polish dishes do you have any idea for this recipe, I dont know the name of it but, it has potato dumplings,mushrooms,onions,bacon and made 3 tablespoons of bacon fat,if you know of this recipe maybe you can send it to me or publish the recipe on this your web page,thanks
Born and raised in Poland, cooking for decades. Nothing coming to my midn from this description 🙁 Actually, I would say dumplings and bacon rarely appear in Polish recipes, only with the modified, not traditional. Dumplings are Chinese “pierogi”, bacon is bacon, America 🙂 Polish recipes use skwarki and smalec. As long as there were not pierogi and skwarki instead it was probably some modified stuff.
Oh, I realized now – Actually I know what it is! – they are simply kopytka (jenny calls them here potato gnocchi) with mushrooms “sauce”. And in original recipe “skwarki” are used, technically it is bacon but not in American version. Just look for kopytka recipes and you should find the versions with mushroom sauce/dressing.
Look for “kopytka z sosem grzybowym” or “kopytka z grzybami” and put into google translator 🙂
I believe you may be thinking on the lines of a bacon carbonara maybe? That is an egg and cream sauce. It’s yummy!
so many good things my x is polish came here after ww2 she live in hell tell she and her mother came a lot of good things with them food that is.
My parents came to Canada from Poland after ww2 and my dad cooked all the Polish food that I love.
This sounds similar to a Babka recipe I made recently. Do you have a good Babka recipe for us?
Good Day Jenny
I want to know if there is a video of your show stopping Christmas Wreath Bread. I enjoy watching your videos, and would like to watch you make this bread but can not find one for this bread. Please let me know soon, Christmas is coming.
Thanks very much
Sorry, there is no video.
Jenny,
In your baking recipes when you use 1% milk can I substitute 2% which is what I drink?
Linda,
I’ve used 2%. The loaf is delicious!
Hi Jenny, would 2 teaspoons of yeast equal to 1 packet of yeast? I just want to make sure I get this right before trying this yummy recipe. Thank you!
One packet is about 2 1/4 teaspoons but 2 teaspoons should do it.
Ann,
A packet of yeast is about 7g. Two teaspoons is about 9g (yes, I actually measured it) so if you have dried yeast loose then two teaspoons will be fine.
Thank you David and Jenny!
Our packets are 8g. I’ve used the whole packet. Turned out well for me.
I have just made it , it is great , I love your recipes Jenny thank you very much I will try your recipes always , they r fabulous wish I could share It here
You can share your photo using the link provided. Just go to “Your Photos” at the top.
I just got around to making this a few weeks after the holidays, but still–this is awesome! It’s got the perfect level of sweetness.
How do I store? I want to make a few days before Christmas. Can I freeze? And do I add red hots and glaze after defrosted?
This is a hard question because I am not a fan of day-old bread. Fresh bread is the best bread. If you make it a few days before, freezing would be the better choice. Then you would have to warm it up to add the glaze and sprinkles, etc. but I have no idea how that will turn out compared to having it fresh. Personally, I would recommend making sugar cookies or biscotti or pecan balls, all of which keep really well and are stress-free when made in advance.
Girl I came upon your site and I made your…. PUMPKIN PIE…..IT WAS TO DIE FOR….and my German SHEPARD Tobias wanted the crust……Thank You for the recipe……Your the Ticket…..Merry Christmas…..
hi, jenny i love u& your name . any easy reicpes for crispy bread bagels deep dish pizza pretzels thanks billy
Please look through my recipes and may find something close to what you’re looking for.
Hi Jenny, just to let u k, I’ m a big fan since you had ur talk show, u should do it again! anyways, I will make this bread today because i have grandkids that I will visit soon, n two days, I’ll let u k if they like, I’m sure they will. Ah Hello from Panama. 😀
This bread is really best eaten fresh. After two days, it will not be as good as it would be fresh. It’s not really a great bread for storing and giving because the glaze will also become dull after the first day. I would recommend that cookies make a better gift if made ahead. My sugar cookies travel well and last a very long time.
Hi Jenny, I just made this bread this morning and my whole family loved it!Thank you for this recipe, God bless you!
Your recipes do not print when I use google chrome — blank pages appear. I have to switch to Internet Explorer to print them. I am using Windows 7 – I don’t know if that’s the reason or not.
For some reason, in Google Chrome, the “print menu window” appears to load faster than the actual recipe page you’re trying to print. The workaround we’ve used is to close the print window and then either wait for the recipe page to load or refresh it, and then print via the Chrome browser menu – File > Print. We hope this helps – JennyCanCook Admin
Hi Jenny iIlove your videos,I am trying out the bread recipie right now make in 5 mins.I want to try the christmas bread next whooo hoo you rock!
Hi Jenny–Can this recipe be made in a bread machine?
I don’t think so. It has to be braided by hand.
I’ve made two to give away. Yes, they work well with a bread machine set on “dough” and dairy free with coconut milk, then take it out, braid it and let it rise again. Today, I’m trying it with all purpose gluten free flour and xylitol in place of sugar. Will still use the candied fruit, so not totally sugar-free. We’ll see how it turns out. It seems very dry so far, so had to add more liquid.
can I use the leftover egg white for the egg wash instead of another yolk?
It won’t be as rich & glossy as with the yolk. I use my leftover egg whites for scrambled eggs and for making my chocolate-dipped coconut macaroons.
Jenny
Do you have a recipe video for your chocolate dipped macroons
Thanks
Lana
No, there is no video for the macaroons.
Do you think there could be a substitute for raisins? I’m thinking of possibly dried cranberries or perhaps just baking it without raisins. By the way, I found your site about a month ago and have made so many of your recipes…pan pizza and cinnamon rolls and pea soup are mmmm. My husband loves it all. Thank you Jenny.
This bread is good plain but you could substitute dried cranberries, currants, dried cherries, or some Polish sweet breads use candied citrus peel.
Hi jenny its me again. I was wondering if I could use all purpose flour. thanks:-)
Yes you can and I have adjusted the recipe to indicate that.
Thanks I’m making it right now:-) .
Jenny, never assume you’re only talking to women. You mention braid the dough like you braid hair. Ya, well my long hair days are long gone and I never braided, so how does one braid the three “ropes”? This recipe begs for a video. Think of the Christmas outfits you could wear and then surprise us at the end like you do in a humerus kind of way. Merry Christmas.
I have a short video on youtube on how to braid bread: (http://youtu.be/gV2p7Pks1Jk) Sorry, I still think like a girl. 🙂
Thanks so much, I think I can follow that. Should look great!
Hi Jenny–would this bread be made essentially the same way your cinnamon raisin bread is made, save the frosting? I was thinking I could follow along with that video to make this bread.
It is a similar technique except you would not roll the dough into a rectangle and cut into strips. That was necessary to put in the cinnamon filling. With this bread, you only cut the dough into three and roll each piece into a rope by hand. (it’s actually easier than the cinnamon-raisin “tunnels” bread) Good luck. Let me know how it turns out.