Merry Christmas to All (and a Happy New Santa Bread)!
Hey guys!
I know that we officially closed out the 12 Days of Christmas series a few days ago but I still wanted to take one last opportunity to throw out a great big Happy Holidays to all of you and your families whatever it is that you’re celebrating. Please rest up, cook lots, eat more, give a bunch, and above all, have fun.
Thanks for tuning in with me for the Christmas goodies series. I hope you got a chance to try some of them out, or at least get to bake up some of your own. And as an added bonus, I thought that I would throw out one extra recipe for ya. I initially was going to just discard this post as an unnecessary extra on the “cutting room floor”, but then I thought, “Hey, it’s Christmas, I can’t cut Santa!” and decided to just make it a bonus recipe instead.
Would you be surprised to know that this entire beautiful thing is made of a delicious, slightly sweet golden egg bread? Not only that, it really isn’t as hard to make as it looks. It’s a great way to show off to all the family when you bring it out to the table and who doesn’t love to do that?
Well, that’s a wrap for me. I’m off to chill and listen to Christmas carols.
Have an AWESOME holiday you guys 🙂
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Golden Santa Bread
Recipe Courtesy of Taste of Home
Ingredients
- 4 to 4-1/2 cups bread flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 2 packages (1/4 ounce each) active dry yeast
- 1-1/2 teaspoons salt
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/4 cup water
- 1/4 cup butter, cubed
- 2 eggs
- 2 raisins
- 2 egg yolks
- 2 to 3 drops red food coloring
Directions
In a large bowl, combine 2 cups flour, sugar, yeast and salt. In a small saucepan, heat milk, water and butter to 120°-130°. Add to dry ingredients; beat just until moistened. Beat in eggs until smooth. Stir in enough remaining flour to form a stiff dough.
Turn onto a floured surface; knead until smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. Place in a greased bowl, turning once to grease top. Cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled, about 1 hour.
Preheat oven to 350°. 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.
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. Position on Santa’s face; twist and curl strips if desired.
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.
With a scissors, cut two slits for eyes; insert raisins into slits. Let rise lightly covered with plastic wrap in a warm place for a further 30-40 minutes.
In separate small bowls, beat egg each yolk. Add red food coloring to one yolk; carefully brush over hat, nose and cheeks. Brush plain yolk over remaining dough.
Cover loosely with foil. Bake 15 minutes. Uncover; bake 10-12 minutes longer or until golden brown. Cool on a wire rack.
(I’m also linking this post up with the 100th Fiesta Friday party, co-hosted this week by Judi, Molly, Steffi, and Suzanne. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays ladies ;-))
Wow Jess, that bread is incredible, a work of art. A very Merry Christmas to you and your family, have a wonderful day!!!
Thank you so much Suzanne. I hope you and your family have a GREAT Christmas tomorrow 🙂
This is wonderful!!!…Merry Christmas and thanks for stopping by:)…You have some great recipes:)
Thank you so much for the compliment. Merry Christmas to you as well 🙂
I love to make this kind of bread – I’ve made bunnies and bears but not Santa’s head. Thanks for sharing with Fiesta Friday #100 and Happy Holidays.
Thank you very much ma’am, have a wonderful Christmas and holiday 🙂
Thank you Jess for calling me maam (ma’am) – I don’t hear that very often and I do appreciate it. Thumbs up for your politeness and your bread 🙂 Happy holidays to you Jess. You made my day too!!!
This bread is unbelievably beautiful, Jess! That’s an amazing job you did! Wow! Happy holidays and happy FF#100!
Thank you Jhuls, it looks a lot more complicated than it actually was to make. I was too happy with the result not to share lol happy holidays to you <3 🙂
What a gorgeous bread! THank you so much, Jess, for bringing this along to Fiesta Friday 100! It’s absolutely made my day 🙂
Have a wonderful festive period,
Ginger x
And that wonderful compliment just made MY day. Thank you Ginger, wishing you a great holiday and a great fiesta Friday 😉
Thank you, Jess! Enjoy!
Hey Jess! This bread is so cute and festive! The beard looks absolutely amazing and almost like real 😀 great job!!!!
Merry Christmas! and Happy holidays!
Thank you very much, and Happy Holidays to you as well 🙂
This Santa Bread looks amazing! So festive and creative, love it! Merry Christmas xxx
Thank you Sarah, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you too!
Jess, this little guy is just adorable! I think I would be afraid to cut into him!
I was too…almost. But I REALLY love my bread, so I ate it anyway lol thanks Julie, happy holidays 🙂
A very Merry Christmas to you Jess!! That Santa bread looks insanely good!!
Thanks Naina, a very merry one to you as well and a happy New year 😀
Jess, how fun is this! A work of art, really! Thanks for bringing it by Fiesta Friday and Happy New YEar!
That’s really very kind of you to say. Thank you and Happy New Year to you as well 🙂
that is awesome! I can only imagine the smiles you got when you presented the Santa bread at your dinner table. Wow and thanks for sharing. Happy New Year Jess:)
Thank you Lily, and a happy New year to you as well 🙂
It’s cute! It’s so cute!!! Agh–the combination of little raisin eyes and a big round red nose–I’m in awe!
Your bread is great! It would look brilliant on any table at Christmas, so cute and of course, edible 🙂 Yum! Happy New Year!
What a wonderful bread–perfect for the holidays! Happy New Year to you! 🙂