Christmas Bread

Christmas Bread

A Midwest Christmas Tradition

The four layers of the braided dough stand for the four seasons. Nuts and raisins stand for the type of year-mostly nuts represent a good year for farmers and mostly raisins represent a fair year. The youngest boy takes the crust of last year's bread to feed the birds representing God's creatures. A crust from the new bread is saved till next year representing there will always be bread in this home.

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Ingredients:

1/2 cup warm water

1 package active dry yeast

1 1/3 cups milk

1/3 cup granulated sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 egg

5 1/3 to 5 3/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup chopped black walnuts or walnuts

3/4 cup raisins

1 tablespoon vegetable oil

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Powdered Sugar Icing

Mix 1 cup confectioners sugar

1 Tablespoon milk

1/4 teaspoon vanilla

Stir in more milk 1 teaspoon at a time for a drizzling quality

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Directions:

In a large bowl, mix warm water and yeast; let stand 5 minutes to soften yeast.

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In a medium saucepan, heat and stir milk, sugar and salt just until warm (120 to 130 degrees). Add to yeast mixture; stir in egg. Using wooden spoon, stir in 2 cups of flour, the nuts and raisins. Stir in as much of the remaining flour as you can with the spoon.

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Turn the dough out on a floured surface. Knead in enough of remaining flour to make a moderately stiff dough that is smooth and elastic(6 to 8 minutes total) Shape dough into a ball. Place in a lightly greased bowl. Cover and let raise in a warm place until doubled in size (1 to 1 1/4 hours).

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Punch dough down. Turn out onto lightly floured surface. Cover and let rest 10 minutes. Meanwhile grease a large baking sheet. Roll dough into a 12 x 10 inch rectangle. Cut dough crosswise into 12 one-inch wide strips. On the prepared baking sheet, twist and weave 5 of the strips together pinching the ends and tucking them under the strips. Twist and weave four more of the strips together and place on top of the first layer. Braid the remaining 3 strips and make two more layers. Twist 2 together to place on the second layer. Twist the last strip and place it on top of the third layer. Push in four wooden or metal skewers from top to secure layers.

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Cover and let rise in a warm place until nearly double in size (30 to 45 minutes) Bake in 325 oven 40 to 45 minutes or until bread sounds hollow when lightly tapped. Remove skewers after bread set. Cool bread on wire rack. Drizzle with icing.

This is a recipe taken from the magazine Midwest Living.