Santa Bread

Okay, so i saw some "Santa Bread" on Taste of Home and really wanted to try my hand at creating my own version. Let me tell ya one thing. It's not as easy as it might seem, on the first go around.

Here's a fact you may or may not know. I can be extremely impatient when cooking or creating a new craft. Well, maybe not necessarily impatient, but I like instant gratification which sometimes results in me appearing impatient. Making this Santa Bread could be considered one of those times.

I decided to use the frozen bread dough, although if you have time and patience then use your favorite bread recipe.

Brigford frozen dough comes 3 loaves to a tray, so I thawed it and began to make Santa man. I used one loaf for the Santa.

Using one loaf, cut 1/3 of the bread off of the end. (This we will save for the beard, nose and hat ball.)

On a lightly floured surface, roll out the dough to make a candy corn kind of shape. A rounded triangle.

(This will take you back to playdoh days....)
Using the reserved dough, pinch and roll 2 small balls to form the hat ball and the nose. Use a small amount of dough to form the Fold the top of the "triangle" over to one side, to form the hat. Using another small piece of dough, make the hat trim. The rest of the dough, roll out and using scissors, pizza cutter or knife, cut into strips within 1" of the top of the dough to form the beard.

Carefully fold the top of the "triangle" over to one side to form the hat. Trim with one piece of dough and add the ball for the hat and the nose.

Carefully position the beard on the bottom of the "face" curling or twisting as desired. (I also used a small piece of dough to form a mustache.)

Using one beaten egg yolk, brush over the beard. Add red food coloring to the beaten egg yolk and carefully brush the tinted red yolk over the hat, nose and cheeks. (Using the egg wash really makes him shiny and golden, just as bread should be.)

Bake according to the package directions for rolls, pizza dough, etc. My Santa baked at 375 degrees for about 25 minutes. You can add raisins for the eyes....and since I couldn't find the little box of raisins right away, I used chocolate chips.

Next time I think I'll make the beard strips a little smaller so it will "fluff" a little differently and make his nose a little smaller so he doesn't look like a bearded Jimmy Durante. Just sayin'.

Merry Christmas!

"His eyes-how they twinkled! his dimples how merry!
His cheeks were like roses, his nose like a cherry!"