Three-Tiered Braided Christmas Bread
I'm a newbie breadophile and I've been baking nonstop for about three months. Most stuff I make is good, with the occasional clunked. This came out so good I wanted to share. We had a large family gathering on Christmas Eve so I wanted to make a special bread. I found this recipe on Food Network's site...
It's essentially three separately flavored bread loaves braided into one big un, the flavors being olive, sun dried tomoato and pesto. The only thing I changed in the recipe was instead of making the three pastes to flavor the bread I bought 8-ounce containers of pre-made from Whole Foods. At $4 a pop it was cheaper in the long run and saved some time on an already hectic morning or party prep. The picture below shows the pre-baked loaf before the final rise:
Here's the finished product:
It was a jaw dropper once it was on the table, people were blown away. It's relatively simple to make except my wife had to explain how to make a braid. The crust was great, the bread itself was super moist and tasty. I didn't take a picture of the crumb because I didn't want to dig into it before the guests arrived and when they did I was too busy playing host to snap a shot.
Overall a highly recommended project for a special occasion.
That bread looks fabulous, and the braid is much neater than mine. Did you start the braid in the middle, or from one end?
I lined up the three loaves side by side pointing away from me then pinched the three closest ends together. After that you bring the right-most loaf over the center, then the new right most over the new center. I'm probably not explaining it well, I really did need my wife there to help otherwise I would have botched it badly.