Golden Santa Bread Recipes

GOLDEN SANTA BREAD

Steps:

• In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine 2 cups of the bread flour and the salt.
• In a glass measuring cup, heat the milk, water and butter to 120°-130° in the microwave (or in a pot on the stove.) (Heat the mixture until the butter is partially melted, then stir it to melt it the rest of the way. Don't add the liquid to the yeast mixture until your finger dipped in it feels comfortably warm, but not hot.)
• Add the sugar and yeast to the liquid. If you are confident that your yeast is not dead, then move on to the next step. Otherwise wait 5 minutes to see if it starts to foam.
• Add liquid to dry ingredients; beat just until moistened. Beat in 2 eggs until smooth.
• Stir in enough of the remaining flour to form a dough. The dough should come together in a ball, but it's okay if it sticks a little. Add flour until you can handle the dough without it a big mess on your hands.
• Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. (Or beat with the dough hook for 6-8 minutes.)
• Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, at least an hour and a half, mine took 2.
• Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface; divide into two portions, one slightly larger than the other.
• Shape the larger portion into an elongated triangle with rounded corners for Santa's head and hat. Transfer to a large greased cookie sheet.
• Divide the smaller portion in half. Shape and flatten one half into a beard. Using scissors or a pizza cutter, cut into strips to within 1 in. of top. Cut the strips pretty thin so that they are easy to twist. Position on Santa's face; twist and curl strips.
• Use the remaining dough for the mustache, nose, hat pom-pom and brim. Shape a portion of dough into a mustache; flatten and cut the ends into small strips with scissors. Place above beard.
• Place a small ball above mustache for nose. Fold tip of hat over and add another ball for pom-pom.
• Roll out a narrow piece of dough to create a hat brim; position under hat and tuck the edges underneath the base dough.
• With a scissors, cut two slits for eyes; insert raisins into slits.
• In separate small bowls, beat egg each yolk. Brush plain yolk over portions of dough that will not be red. Add red food coloring to one yolk; carefully brush over hat, nose and cheeks. (You have to do the regular yolk first otherwise the color will run.)
• Cover loosely with foil that has been coated with nonstick spray. Try to avoid letting the foil touch the bread, you don't want to tear your bread.
• Let dough rise another half hour. Bake at 350° for 15 minutes. Uncover; bake 5-10 minutes longer or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack. Take pictures. Bask in the admiration of whoever sees it.

SANTA BREAD

Steps:

• Heat the milk in a small saucepan until it just begins to simmer, then remove from the heat and let cool to 115 degrees F. Stir in the yeast and let stand until the mixture is foamy, about 10 minutes.
• Pour the yeast mixture into the bowl of stand mixer fitted with a dough hook. Add the sugar, butter and 2 of the eggs and stir until smooth. Add the flour and salt and mix on medium-low speed until the dough comes together. Increase the speed to medium high and knead until the dough is smooth and elastic, about 8 minutes. Transfer the dough to a lightly greased large bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let stand until the dough doubles in size, about 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and line a rimless baking sheet with parchment.
• Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Pinch off 1 golf ball-size piece of dough and roll it into a ball for the pompom of Santa's hat. Pinch off 1 ping pong ball-size piece of dough and roll it into a ball for Santa's nose. Cut off a 1-inch-wide, 9-inch-long, 1/4-inch-thick strip and roll it into a smooth log for the brim of Santa's hat. Cut another piece of dough into a roughly 2-inch-wide, 5-inch-long, 1/4-inch-thick strip of dough. Snip evenly from the bottom (but not all the way up) and spread the strips out slightly to form a mustache.
• Roll out the remaining dough into an elongated diamond with the top triangle of the diamond double the length of the bottom triangle. Position the diamond on the prepared baking sheet with the top of the longer triangle hanging over the edge. Working on the shorter triangle, use scissors or a knife to cut 1/2-inch-wide strips of dough up toward the middle, stopping at the imaginary line where the top and bottom triangles meet. Pick up each strip of the beard and twist it, if you like, lying the twists down next to each other naturally so they look like a beard.
• Fold over the overhanging corner of dough so that it fits back within the edge of the baking sheet and position it slightly to the right to form the tip of Santa's hat. Position the dough log across the top triangle where the tip of Santa's hat ends and tuck the ends under the sides of the triangle; this is the brim of Santa's hat. Position the golf ball-size ball of dough over the tip and against the brim and press lightly to adhere for the pompom of Santa's hat. Arrange the mustache at the top of the beard, then position the ping pong ball-size ball of dough above the mustache to make Santa's nose.
• Beat the remaining egg with the cream in a bowl to make an egg wash. Using a pastry brush, brush the entire surface of the dough, including the pompom and brim of the hat but not the body of the hat, with the plain egg wash, making sure to get into all the crevices of the shapes. Add the food coloring to the egg wash, stir to combine, then carefully brush the body of the hat with the red egg wash, being careful not to let it stain the pompom or brim.
• Bake until the bread is golden brown and cooked through, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and immediately set the chocolate chips proportionally on either side and slightly above Santa's nose to form his eyes. Let the bread cool for 10 minutes on the baking sheet, and then transfer to a wire rack. Using cut pieces of parchment paper or foil to shield Santa's nose, face and the body of his hat, dust the beard, brim and pompom with confectioners' sugar. Remove the paper and serve the bread while still warm with butter.