The Best Holiday Loaves and How to Shape Them!
Over the holidays, I got creative with my breadmaking, like many other sourdough gals on the internet.
These breads are delicious and I made most of them for my self-hosted friendsgiving party where I only had one guest bring an appetizer. I wanted it to be my first trial run at being a host, after all, in my 20 years of life so far, somehow I have never hosted my own dinner party. I understand that’s not expected from someone my age, but the feeling of accomplishment I got was immense. I feel like I became closer to my friends and my kitchen by preparing and serving a meal for 6.
At my Friendsgiving dinner party, I served mashed potatoes and gravy, cranberry sauce, rolls, turkey, star bread, turkey loaves of bread, a green bean casserole, deviled eggs, pickled quail eggs, a brigadeiro bread roll, and everyone's absolute favorite, CREME BRULEE. All made from scratch. I also opted for some store-bought stuffing and canned corn as a side.
It took three days at least! I started on Sunday afternoon (mainly with the loaves of bread, and ended on Wednesday at 6:30, right before the guests arrived.
When everyone arrived, dinner went very well, I got a lot of compliments on the food prepared and felt extremely grateful for my little version of Friendsgiving.
I will be writing a blog on tips to throw the best dinner parties/gatherings, so stay tuned for that.
Here are my well-loved Thanksgiving breads and ideas to try throughout the holiday!
Star Bread.
This bread was the hottest and most appetizing thing on our table. It’s very easy and you can make it sourdough or a discard recipe, to make it work for your schedule. You simply cut your dough into three pieces of equal weight and form them into tight balls. One at a time you will roll out the balls with a rolling pin and make a perfect circle or the closest you can, adding it to a baking sheet with parchment paper afterward. After your first circle, you will add in your filling. Then repeat by layering the dough filling and another layer of dough. I only did this three times leaving the top.
Once your dough-filled “cake” is done, put a cup in the middle or a cookie cutter of a desired shape, and use your bench knife or scraper to cut lines leading into the middle. You’ll want to have twenty long pieces. Simply twist them into each other twice to create the desired pattern.
Use an egg wash and bake as directed. Sprinkle the top of your bread with powdered sugar.
Turkey variation 1.
This is your classic basted turkey but with a sour twist. This sourdough bread can be made super easily. To learn how to make sourdough from scratch anytime without a recipe, check out my downloadable e-book, where you'll learn the full process of how to make a simple loaf from scratch without a recipe. This is how I make all my loaves and this has trained me to not necessarily always need a scale or measuring utensils, and mainly go by feel. To shape this turkey, make your dough into a round dome, take your bench knife, and starting at the bottom, make two cuts around the contour of the dough to resemble the turkey legs. They should look like two water drops surrounding an oval shape. For the arms, go to the top and cut parallel lines into the sides of the turkey, but leave an inch or more of space between cuts. I know this sounds confusing but let me show you below.
After shaping you can use butcher’s twine to tie the top arms together or tie the bottom legs together. Don’t forget to score!
Turkey variation 2
This is my favorite turkey variation because you can get as creative as you want with it. It’s similar to making a pumpkin shape. First, you will wrap the butcher’s twine around the base of the dough, making a semi-circle. Now take two to four equal pieces of twine and wrap them around the base string creating a v shape, Arrange them to look like turkey feathers and tie them in the back or simply tuck in the back. Now using a piece of tin foil or any material, you can block out sections of the turkey. On my bread, I left the head completely clear and used spices like paprika, cumin, curry, cayenne, turmeric, and more to create a beautiful design. Score after coloring in the winds with spices to create a cool effect. I used two dried cranberries for the eyes and a roasted almond for the beak!
Brigadeiro Filled Brioche Bread (Or Jam Filled Bread).
This is the simplest bread to shape because it is the easiest and still looks and tastes delicious. For this bread, you will roll your dough into a square, making it as flat and even as you can. Then you will get your preferred bread filling. I used my brigadeiro bread filling because of its chocolaty deliciousness. I will link the recipe to my brigadeiro spread but I also recommend using sweet fruit jams. If you don’t usually make thick jams, and prefer them a bit runnier, try adding a little more pectin to your next batch to thicken it up.
Spread your jam all over the bread before rolling it up, the more jam you use the more will leak out of your bread so I recommend doing a light spread. Cut your roll into two pieces and roll it into itself once again, place them side by side on your loaf pan, or bake in a dutch oven. If you use a discard dough recipe, use a loaf pan. If it is genuine sourdough bread, use a bread oven or dutch oven.
Before baking your bread, make a sweet egg wash by mixing an egg, 1 tablespoon of milk, and 1 tablespoon of caster sugar to glaze the top of your bread.
These were just a couple of the most loved breads at my table this holiday season, but there are so many amazing examples out there of more intricate shapes. I have more fun sourdough breads to come for the holidays, especially Christmas! Stay tuned to find out how I shape a dove-shaped bread for Christmas!
I hope you enjoyed it, if you like my blog, please help support me by sharing with a sourdough friend!
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