The Perfect Christmas Star Bread

Star Bread is a visually stunning, decadent tasting sweet bread, that will be the talk of the table. Whether it’s for the holidays or a special occasion this eye-pleasing, mouth-watering bread is the way to go. Bread is the ultimate comfort food for me, it’s so luscious and satisfying, especially when it’s homemade with love. Whether it’s this recipe or Grandma’s Perfect Bread, Naan, or Garlic Bread, they will all hit the spot!

Christmas Star Bread

I’m not entirely sure why this is called Star Bread, but I’m guessing it has to do with not only the shape but the fact that it will quite literally be the star of the meal. This isn’t just bread, it’s art. And it’s art you can eat! Everyone will not only rave about how beautiful and intricate your star bread looks but the fact that it is simply delicious. Make it for breakfast or brunch. In fact, make it an entire meal with this Homemade Breakfast Sausage, this Eggs Benedict with Hollandaise Sauce or these amazing Orange Cranberry Muffins! Now before you say to yourself, that looks too hard. Let me tell you it’s super easy. Truly! Anyone who can use a pizza cutter or even a knife can make this bread. If you are worried about your cutting skills you can even use a template, or a big bowl turned upside down to cut around to get it perfect. The mesmerizing swirls and beautiful shape of this star bread all add to its elegance. The sweet filling isn’t just for show, it is just as rich and tasty as it is beautiful.

Ingredients You Need to Make Star Bread

This is your basic enriched dough with milk and butter added for increased structure and flavor. Most of these ingredients you might already have on hand. See the recipe card below for all of the ingredient measurements.

Milk: Use whole or 2% milk if you can, it helps the dough become extra soft when baked.Butter: This adds incredible flavor.Instant Yeast: This can be made with active yeast too.Sugar: The sugar is what feeds the yeast.Salt: This actually retards the yeast from getting too active and adds important flavor to the bread.Flour: I used all purpose flour. Unbleached flour also works!

Apple Filling

Apple butter: Make your own for incredible flavor, or you can purchase at your store.Egg wash: Helps create that deep golden color and stick it all together.Egg: I like to use large eggs at room temperature.Milk: This helps to mix everything all together! Powdered sugar: This is optional and used to dust the top if the baked bread. It looks stunning!

Creating This Amazing Pull Apart Bread

Because of the extra richness, the star bread will rise slightly slower than usual. So don’t worry if it isn’t rising as fast as you think it should. Follow these step-by-step instructions and then you will see just how simple this is!

Forming the Star

Yeast: For this recipe I used instant yeast, which means you don’t have to mix it with the warm milk first if you don’t want to. Active yeast means you need to activate it. Which means you will definitely want to mix it with the warm milk first to feed it and to get it going.Warm Milk: Make sure your milk is below 110 degrees F before you add the yeast or you’ll kill it. But also make sure it’s above 80 degrees F or it won’t activate it, it will be too cool. If you have a thermometer then use that for best results.Shortcut: If you don’t trust your bread making skills you can use frozen bread dough. Use two loaves of frozen bread dough. Once it’s thawed then cut each loaf in half to create your 4 circles.Don’t sweat it: Even if your circles aren’t perfect, most of the time mine are not, don’t worry about it. It always seems to come out just as beautiful and tastes just as amazing.Twist: I found that you only need to twist the sections twice.

Cinnamon and SugarYour favorite Jam (raspberry, strawberry, apricot…)NutellaOrange using butter, orange juice, orange zest and sugarCinnamon, nuts and raisinsMake a glaze with powdered sugar, milk and vanilla to drizzle over the top instead of the powdered sugar.Make it savory with pesto, tomato sauce, herbs, pepperoni, sausage, or cheese , etc.

Room temperature: Once your bread has cooled then go ahead an place it in an airtight container. Keep at room temperature for up to 4 days. Freeze for up to 3 months.Freeze: If you want to freeze this bread then you totally can! Once it’s cooled then wrape it in plastic wrap and then tinoil. Then, label it with the date. It can stay in your freezer for up to 3 months! Once you are ready to eat, let it come to room temperature and then enjoy!

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All nutritional information is based on third party calculations and is only an estimate. Each recipe and nutritional value will vary depending on the brands you use, measuring methods and portion sizes per household.