Christmas is not complete without wreath, either its edible or decoration you can find wreath everywhere during this festive season. Its been quite a yearly tradition for me to bake as wreath and am trying to keep this since three years. However we dont forget to decorate our entrance door with a wreath as well. Coming to this brioche wreath, its quite a dangerously addictve bread swirls which is definitely easy to shape and bake. Apart from preparing pastry cream and brioche dough, this wreath is quite an easiest bread to give a try without any hesitation. Usually we wait for an hour to dig these sort of breads once they comes out of the oven but my kids went completely crazy when they smelled the aroma of this bread. Best part of this wreath is just to pull a bread and enjoy it immediately.

Christmas eve kick starts tonite, obviously i want to share some Xmas friendly baked goodies for this week's Bake-a-Thon event am running for this whole month. Though am bit late in posting some delightful Xmas bakes, its better late than never na. Am kicking starting this week with an ultimate brioche bread shaped as Santa claus, yea you heard it rite. I baked a beautiful brioche bread as Santa claus. I have bookmarked this bread long back and this bread was in my to do list for more than three years, finally i baked this bread for this year's Xmas. Since i want this shaped bread more rich and delicious, i couldnt stop myself baking with a super rich bread dough aka brioche dough. Brioche dough calls for eggs, butter and milk along with usual ingredients. The addition of eggs and butter makes this dough more rich than the usual bread dough.

Vanocka/Vánočka is a Czech Republic and Slovakia Christmas bread which is often baked during Christmas time. This bread calls for a rich bread dough prepared with eggs, butter and this bread dough sounds almost like Brioche. Usually this bread have raisins and almonds though sometime you can add some lemon rind or orange rinds just to give some flavor. Braided like Challa, this bread calls for three progressively braids stacked on top of each other. This is sometimes interpreted as a rough sculpture of Baby Jesus wrapped in cloth laying in a manger (manger is a structure used to hold food to feed animals). Manger is also a Christian symbol. Earlier people felt like saying that this bread is very difficult to prepare at home and so many superstitions and special customs are followed while baking this bread. When making Vánočka some says that the person who bakes this bread should jump up and down while the dough rises, another custom says that to avoid touching silver or metal to the Vánočka.

Panettone is a sweet Italian bread loaf which have its origin from Milan, which is usually prepared during Christmas and New year in Italy. This bread is very much known in most other countries of the world and this bread is one of the symbols of Milan city. Recent times, this bread have their important place in many christmas table. This bread is prepared usually in a cylindical base mould and panettone weigh usually 1 kg. Traditionally, this bread dough calls for a long process, the proofing process take several days which gives an incredible fluffy character to this bread. And this bread contains candied orange, citron, lemon zest and loads of raisins which are added directly to the bread dough instead of soaking.My today's version is one of the easiest and simple version of panettone which turns extremely prefect as much as like the traditional panettone.

I love Christmas festival, its a festival of gifts here, who will say no to share gifts with others , obviously this festival makes everyone happy. Earlier in India, since i did my schooling in a Catholic school, its quite a tradition to keep the christmas tree, decorations etc at school. So Christmas festival is quite close to my heart. Back home during 80', every 24th december, we used to wait for Santa claus as we get our favourite Dairy milk chocolate as christmas gift on 25th december, earlier i thought Santa do exists, but later we found that  Dad was the one who get chocolates for us saying that Santa disposed the chocolates in our balcony. I cherish those nostalgic moments and never failed to tell the famous Santa's story to my kids once they came to know about the inexistence of Santa.

Christmas is nearing very fast and the festive mood is already everywhere here. Last year i missed all these festive moods and this year i dont want to miss anything for any reason. In two weeks, we will be in christmas holidays and we have already started our programme for this christmas holidays eventhough the weather is terrific here, after all its winter here. Its getting dark already at 4pm and this dull climate makes us super lazy. Suddenly today i felt like baking a spicy bread and started preparing the dough earlier in the morning to finish my bread before the daylight goes on. Thank god, everything went well and i clicked few before its becomes dark. Today's recipe is definitely a favourite for savory lovers, this wreath is  this week's challenge of Fond Bites-Bake Along a weekly event by Subhashini, she suggested this edible flower for this week.Every week we get to know about the week's challenge on sunday and the members of this group should bake and share either in their blog or with the group members before the next sunday.

Julekake is a cardamon scented christmas bread stuffed with raisins and candied citron. This bread is very easy to make with eggs but when its comes to eggless version seriously you need to break your head to replace them. My eggless version goes for raisins and candied orange, since its not christmas season here i couldnt able to spot out candied citrons in supermarkets, but trust me candied citron will definitely take this bread to an another level. But the addition of the candied orange is not bad too, they brings that mild orange flavour while having this bread.

Do you want to know how i replaced eggs in this bread, just with cream cheese. Yes my Julekake is made with cream cheese,trust me cream cheese are good subsitute of eggs and they gives a wonderful smooth dough too. This Julekake is our this month's Baking Eggless,a monthly event owned by Gayathri. For this month's Baking Eggless challenge, we are baking this Norwegian christmas bread suggested by Priya Srinivasan, thanks Priya this bread was a fantastic challenge i enjoyed thoroughly making.Sending Bake Fest#29 event by Vardhini,hosted by me.

Challah, the popular Jewish bread is loaded with eggs and egg yolks, but if i say we can make beautiful challahs as vegan version, its unbelievable rite. Even i was bit skeptical when i saw this Vegan Challah from The Sweet Life, an another incredible bread challenged by Priya R of Cook Like Priya for this month's Home Baker's Challenge, a monthly baking event where we bake varieties of bakes every month.Since december is a month of Christmas celebration, Priya chosed many delicious christmas bakes from all around the world and am happy that finally i can make my favourite challah as vegan version. Seriously until i finished baking this challah am not sure about the texture and the taste,but trust me this vegan challah is just tremendous.

Crust and the texture of this bread came out extremely prefect as much as like the egg loaded challah. This Veganised challah goes for chickpea flour which may sounds weird but seriously the addition of chickpea flour makes this bread interesting and this flour gives the texture and that mild yellowish colour to the texture of this vegan bread. I enjoyed thoroughly baking this Christmas veganished Jewish bread at home and once again thanks to Priya for challenging us this incredible bread.Today is the last thursday of the month and its time to post for Vegan Thursdays, an vegan event running twice a month and this beautiful challah goes to this event too.

A kugelhopf which is also spelt as Gugelhupf, Kugelhupf or Kugelhoph is a yeasted sweeten brioche like cake well known in the Alsace region of France, Germany,Switzerland and Austria. Also many variation of this cake is found in some coutnries of Eastern Europe.Kugelhopf consists of a soft yeast dough which contains raisins, almonds and Kirschwasser cherry brandy. Some also contain candied fruits and nuts. Some regional varieties (Czech, Hungarian and Slovenian) are also filled, often with a layer of sweetened ground poppy seeds.

It is baked in a special circular pan with a central tube, originally made of enamelled pottery. Similar pans are used for making Bundt cakes, a cake baking pan shape in the US derived from the Kugelhopf.Since Kugelhopf is a yeasted cake, it will have a dense bread like texture and is made from an enriched dough like brioche. Its considered similar to a coffee cake that can be eaten for or with breakfast or also a part of an afternoon snack with coffee. Coming to this savoury version, this Kugelhopf suits too good for breakfast, as a snack or along with a simple soup.Usually savoury Kugelhopf goes for a kind of bacon/ham,onions, walnuts and herbs but this savoury kugelhopf goes for just veggies,if you like ham or bacon you can add them as u desire. This is our 7th challenge of this month's We Knead To Bake, a monthly event by Aparna of My Diverse Kitchen.

Did i told you that am going to London's blogger's meet, three hours back it wasnt sure, but finally reserved my tickets. Thanks to Eurostar for proposing not that much expensive fares during friday evening and monday morning journey. After a long hesitation and so many long discussions,finally am going to London for a weekend trip, hubby will take care of my kids so obviously am gonna travel alone to meet many foodie bloggers like me. Am sure that am gonna have loads of fun with them all, its definitely going to be something i never ever forget in my lifetime.

Coming to the six braided challah bread, our this month's Defi Boulange, a fabulous bread baking event by Nadia and Manue challenged us a 6 strand braided challah bread. Challah bread is a jewish bread which have a wonderful rich texture with a beautiful crust eventhough butter or milk is not used in this bread. This bread is served with meats during Jewish festivals. I have already prepared Challah Bread with 4 braids,its wasnt that much difficult for me to make this 6strands braided challah. Thanks to youtube and Nadia for sharing the 6 braids challah bread link,this braided bread took just few seconds to get ready and i seriously enjoyed making it.I was very proud to serve this beautifully baked challah bread, needless to say how this bread gets vanished within few minutes with nutella spread for my kid's snack.


4cups All purpose flour
2tsp Instant yeast
1/4cup Sugar
1tsp Salt
2nos Large eggs
1/4cup Oil
1/2cup Water
Black poppyseeds
Sesame seeds

Egg wash:
1no Egg yolk
1tbsp Water

In a lare bowl, combine the eggs,oil and water, stir well.

Mix in the flour,yeast,sugar,salt and knead everything together to form a stiff dough,knead well for few more minutes until the dough turns soft and smooth dough.

Transfer the dough to a greased large bowl and cover it with plastic wrap,let it sit in a warm place until its doubled in size for about 2hours.

Gently press down the dough,reflate it and cover it again, let it sit again for about an another hour.

Take the dough in a lightly floured surface, divide into three large balls and again divide each balls into two more medium balls again.

Now you have six balls, roll them as medium sized ropes.Line them side by side, pinch the pieces together at one end and start braiding.



Watch this video to know how to make 6 strand braided Challah

Transfer it to the baking sheet lined over a baking tray, let it sit again in a warm place for half an hour.

Meanwhile mix the egg yolk and water for egg wash.

Preheat the oven to 350F.

Brush generously the rised braided bread with the egg wash,springle the black poppy seeds and sesame seeds generously.

Bake the bread for 30-35minutes or until the crust turns golden brown.

Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely before slicing.