Holiday Bread Recipe

Serve golden brown braided bread to your holiday guests by following this simple holiday bread recipe. This sweetened holiday bread is filled with the holiday flavors of the cinnamon, walnuts, brown sugar, and candied citron, and garnished with sweet icing and colorful cherries.

To make holiday bread, you will need:

• ½ cups warm water
• 4 teaspoons (2 packages) active dry yeast
• 1 ½ cups warm milk
• ½ cups granulated sugar
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 2 eggs, beaten
• ½ cup vegetable shortening
• 7 ½ cups flour
• ½ cup butter, softened
• ground cinnamon
• brown sugar
• raisins
• chopped walnuts
• candied citron
• powdered sugar
• red and green candied cherries

1. Prepare ingredients. Add the warm water to a large bowl, pour the yeast into the water and stir until the yeast is dissolved. Let the yeast stand for 5 to 10 minutes until it begins to bubble. Beat the eggs and set aside. Apply a coating of butter or oil to a large glass bowl and set aside.
2. Warm the milk in a saucepan of microwave. Add milk, sugar, salt, shortening, and beaten eggs to the yeast and mix thoroughly. Slowly add the flour and mix to create stiff dough, Place the dough on a lightly floured board and kneed for 10 minutes until the dough is elastic. Form the dough into a large ball.
3. First rising. Place the ball of dough in the greased bowl and roll the dough over to grease the top layer. Cover the bowl with a clean dish towel and put the bowl in a warm place for the dough to rise.
4. Preparing the holiday bread dough. When the dough has doubled in size, divide the dough into three equal parts. Roll out each section of dough on a floured surface with a rolling pen or glass bottle until the dough is a 9 X 13 inch rectangle. Spread each rectangle with butter. Sprinkle brown sugar, cinnamon, raisins, walnuts, and candied citron over the butter. Roll up the dough lengthwise to create three long ropes of dough and pinch each end to secure.
5. Braid the holiday bread dough. Place ropes of dough on a baking sheet side by side. Join together the three ends of the dough by pinching the ends together. Braid the three strands of dough and pinch the ends to secure. Cover the baking sheet with a towel and place in a warm place to rise until the dough doubles in size (about 30 minutes). Bake in a preheated oven for 25 minutes at 400 degrees F until golden brown. Remove from the oven, cool, and place the bread on a serving platter.
6. Create the holiday bread icing. Combine ½ cup powdered sugar and 1 teaspoon milk and mix thoroughly. Note: Powdered sugar that has been sifted creates a smoother icing. If necessary add another teaspoon of milk to the icing.
7. Use a spoon to drizzle the icing down the middle of the braid. The nooks and crannies of the bread should have puddles of icing. Garnish with red and green cherry pieces.

Tips and Warnings

• Choose a place that is warm, has no direct sunlight or heat, or is not drafty for the rising dough to sit.

• Watch the baking bread carefully to achieve a golden brown which means light brown.