Christmas Tree Sweet Bread
This Christmas tree shaped cake recipe came after combining 2 other wonderful recipes - Savory Puff Pastry Christmas Tree and Snowflake Bread. I used the dough from the bread and changed the shape and filling. It was very good. Its only big "disadvantage" is that it gets eaten too fast and everyone wants to have a sweet "branch". I was so sure I was going to make the classic sweetbread for Christmas this year. Now, I've changed my mind and I will definitely repeat this one, so good and fast it was.
I noticed that many people use store-bought chocolate paste for this cake. I prefer homemaking melted dark chocolate with a little milk or mixing cinnamon and butter together, as in the Snowflake Bread recipe above. Another good option would be to spread the cake with jam. You can make it according to your preferences and tastes, what matters is that it's good either way and it does make an impression.
First, dissolve the yeast in a few tablespoons of warm milk.
Pour the yeast mixture into a bowl with 500g of flour and leave for 10-15 minutes.
After this time, add to the bowl 260ml of milk, the melted butter, 1 egg, the sugar, salt and vanilla.
Mix all the ingredients, with a spoon or spatula, until completely incorporated.
Then turn it out onto the table dusted with flour.
And knead well (about 3-5 minutes). Sprinkle with a little more flour so that it won't stick to your hands and table.
When it's uniform and smooth, return dough to the bowl and let rise for 1 hour (covered with a towel).
For the chocolate mixture, place the dark chocolate cut into pieces in a bowl. Add 50ml of milk and melt in a bain-marie or in the microwave.
Mix well until smooth, then allow to cool.
You can successfully replace dark chocolate with white chocolate, or simply with your favorite jam.
Now remove the dough from the bowl and cut into 2 equal pieces.
Flatten each piece with your hands, use flour, then roll out with the rolling pin into a rectangle as large as the oven sheet.
Place the first sheet onto a large piece of baking paper (about the size of the oven sheet).
Scoop about 3 tablespoons of chocolate and place in the middle.
Using a brush, carefully draw the outline of a Christmas tree, then evenly distribute the chocolate inside it.
Sprinkle over with chopped walnuts or grated coconut.
Cover with the other sheet of dough and press carefully on the edges of the outline of the tree, to see where you will use the knife.
Now cut out the tree, put the remaining dough aside for now.
Place a strip of baking paper in the middle of the tree, about 2 cm wide. Cut the branches of the tree (about 1 cm wide) using the paper strip as a guide - so that the tree branches are as even as possible.
Twist 3-4 times the long ones and 2-3 times the short ones, in any direction you want.
Grease with egg wash on top. Carefully move the fir tree onto the sheet by handling the baking paper and let rise for 20-30 minutes.
During this time, you can turn on the oven and set to 180C.
From the remaining dough, you can make a crown roll, as you can see below.
You can make a Snowflake Bread, or a simple roll, the way you like it, with any filling you prefer.
I made a roll and pinched it with the scissors from place to place.
Grease with egg wash and leave to rise for about an hour.
Bake the tree for about 30 minutes at 180C.
Bake the roll for about 40 minutes, that's because it's thicker.
Optionally, you can dust the tree with powdered sugar before serving.
And a delicious section ... good, soft, fluffy, fragrant, fast!
Enjoy!
