Description
Golden Santa Bread is a festive homemade bread shaped into a jolly Santa Claus face, featuring a soft, slightly sweet dough enriched with butter and eggs. The dough is carefully shaped into Santa’s hat, beard, mustache, and facial features, then decorated with egg wash and red food coloring for a cheerful holiday presentation.
Ingredients
Scale
Dough
- 3 1/2 cups bread flour (spooned and leveled)
- 1 1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup butter (cubed)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 tablespoons yeast
- 2 eggs
Decorations
- 2 raisins (for eyes)
- 2 egg yolks (separated into 2 bowls)
- Red food coloring
Instructions
- Mix Dry Ingredients: In a large bowl or stand mixer, combine 2 cups of the bread flour and the salt to create the base for the dough.
- Warm Liquid Ingredients: Heat the milk, water, and butter mixture to 120°-130°F until the butter is partially melted, stirring until fully melted. Ensure the mixture is warm but not hot before proceeding.
- Activate Yeast: Add sugar and yeast to the warm liquid. If uncertain about yeast viability, wait 5 minutes to see if it foams, indicating it’s active.
- Combine Ingredients: Add the yeast mixture to the dry ingredients and beat just until moistened. Then beat in 2 eggs until the mixture is smooth.
- Add Remaining Flour: Gradually stir in the remaining flour to form a dough that comes together in a ball but may still be slightly sticky. Add flour until the dough is manageable by hand.
- Knead Dough: Turn the dough onto a floured surface and knead for 6-8 minutes until smooth and elastic. Alternatively, use a dough hook attachment for this duration.
- First Rise: Place the dough in a greased bowl, turning once to coat the surface. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, approximately 1.5 to 2 hours.
- Divide Dough: Punch down the risen dough and turn it onto a lightly floured surface. Divide into two portions, with one slightly larger than the other.
- Form Santa’s Head and Hat: Shape the larger portion into an elongated triangle with rounded corners and transfer it to a greased cookie sheet.
- Create Beard: Divide the smaller portion in half. Shape and flatten one half into a beard shape. Use scissors or a pizza cutter to cut thin strips to within 1 inch of the top to create curls, then twist and position over Santa’s face.
- Shape Facial Features: Use the remaining dough to form the mustache (flattened with ends cut into strips), nose (small ball), hat pom-pom (small ball), and hat brim (rolled narrow piece tucked under the hat).
- Add Eyes: Cut two small slits for eyes on the triangle dough and insert raisins as eyes.
- Apply Egg Wash and Color: Beat the 2 egg yolks separately. Brush plain yolk over the dough areas that will remain natural. Add red food coloring to the other yolk and carefully brush the hat, nose, and cheeks. Apply the plain yolk first to avoid color bleeding.
- Second Rise: Loosely cover the bread with foil sprayed with nonstick spray, avoiding touching the dough. Let rise for 30 minutes.
- Bake: Preheat the oven to 350°F. Bake covered for 15 minutes, then uncover and bake an additional 5-10 minutes or until golden brown.
- Cool and Serve: Remove from oven and cool on a wire rack before serving. Enjoy the festive creation and admire the attention it receives.
Notes
- Make sure the milk and water mixture is warm but not hot to prevent killing the yeast.
- Scissors are essential for cutting the dough strips for the beard and mustache for better shaping.
- Apply the plain egg yolk wash before the red to avoid bleeding colors on the bread.
- Covering the dough loosely with foil prevents the bread from burning or drying out during the second rise.
- Let the dough rise in a warm environment to encourage proper fermentation and doubling in size.
- This bread is best served fresh but can be stored in an airtight container for 2 days.
- Use bread flour for better gluten development and a chewier texture.
