Christmas Star Bread - Fresh Milled Flour
Just look at this Stunning Christmas Star Bread Made With Fresh Milled Flour! This recipe is a soft and delicious cinnamon swirl Brioche bread recipe! I will walk you through the recipe and how to make this beautiful shape! So, don't worry, it is not as hard as you may think it is!
Ingredients
- 2&1/4 cup Fresh milled flour 280g (I mill 1&1/2 cup of hard wheat berries to get this)
- 1/4 cup hot milk
- 1/4 cup water
- 6 TBSP softened butter 90g, but not melted
- 3 eggs room temperature
- 3 TBSP sugar 38g
- 1 tsp Vanilla Extract
- 1/2 tsp Cardamom *optional
- 1 tsp salt 4g
- 2 tsp instant yeast 8g
Ingredients For Filling
- 1 Egg (for egg wash)
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 TBSP cinnamon
Instructions
- Mill the flour
- Heat milk until scalded (just before boiling), then add water to that to cool.
- Pour milk mixture into mixing bowl, and add sugar, vanilla, eggs, softened butter(cubed), salt, & Cardamom (if using), mix until combined.
- Add flour to wet ingredients and mix until all combined
- Let this mixture sit for at least 10 minutes up to 1 hour. Covered
- Then add instant yeast, and mix until combined.
- Once the dough begins to form a small ball, then turn the mixing speed up to level 2 to begin the kneading process.
- Knead until dough passes the window pane test, you can find the window pane test video on this post.
- Once dough is kneaded, cover and let rest for 1-2 hours or until doubled.
- After the first rise, divide dough into 4 equal portions. Shape each piece into a ball, and cover. Let these sit for 15 minutes to relax. (It is helpful to use olive oil on your work surface and hands to help keep this dough from sticking.
- While these are resting, make egg wash & filling
- Next, roll or press one ball into a 10 inch circle on a parchment paper lined pizza pan.
- Brush the first 10 inch disk with egg wash, then sprinkle with 1/3 of the filling mixture. Make sure to leave about 1/4 inch bare around the edge without filling.
- Roll or press out the next ball into the same size disk, and repeat with the egg wash and filling
- Repeat one more time with the third ball.
- For the last ball, roll or press out into the same size disk, but don't put any filling on top.
- Lay that last disk on the top of the pile, and make sure they all line up.
- Place a biscuit cutter (or 3 inch glass) on the top of the dough, but don't press down all the way, just make an indent for a guide.
- Now, use a bench scraper or sharp knife to cut the dough. Cut the circle into 16 equal size strips, making sure to not cut into the center circle guide. Make sure to cut all the way through all the layer
- Pick up two strips next to each other, and twist them 2 times away from each other. Then half way again and press the ends together.
- Repeat the twists and pinching the ends together with all 8 pairs.
- Remove the biscuit cutter, and cover the whole star to rise for 30- 45 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 400*F
- After the star bread dough has risen, brush the top with remaining egg wash.
- Bake for 15-18 minutes. Until the internal temperature reaches 200*F
- Remove star bread from the oven, and allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving.
- You can dust the loaf with powdered sugar if you desire.