The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Three-Tiered Braided Christmas Bread

md_massimino's picture
md_massimino

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...

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/three-tiered-braided-christmas-bread-recipe/index.html

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.

PaddyL's picture
PaddyL

That bread looks fabulous, and the braid is much neater than mine.  Did you start the braid in the middle, or from one end?

md_massimino's picture
md_massimino

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.