Looking for a well-known recipe with proven success? Give a twist to a pull-apart bread to get this delicious Cinnamon star bread not only for Xmas!

Christmas must the longest festive season we have. We haven’t even finished munching on the Halloween treats when most of the shops change their display to greenish hue dotted with the latest ornament fashion.

The remnants of juicy grease are hardly sucked off from our fingers when we see pets roaming on the streets of our city dressed as Santa, elves or deer.

Even without the hint of snow or touch of cold we know, Christmas is around the corner when recipes such as the cinnamon star bread starts popping up in our social feeds.

But these tiny signs can be easily overlooked until we first hear the familiar Xmas songs blasted at full volume while forced to go on Christmas shopping with our beloved ones. To the tune of infinite merriment our Xmas spirit that’s been dormant in the depth of our soul for almost a year, cracks open its hardened slumber shell and shows itself to the world.

Freeing up things, especially spirits is not always a wise idea considering that they were locked down once for a reason.

Luckily ,Christmas spirits aren’t really locked but sleeping due to the lack of Xmas after 6^th of January. Even Grinches go back to be normal people, maybe with a hint of distaste for celebrations during the rest of the year.

As it is with the great balance of life if something is in abundance, something else must emerge that will keep the balance in check. It’s a rule that if broken draws disastrous results for all the participants.

This is the reason no Christmas is complete without a Grinch that will ruin countless shopping trips and keep the family debt at sustainable levels until New Year and its sales arrive.

As Christmas spirits need to be nourished on merriment and selfless love so do the people, it is something to keep them going through the often grey everyday leading to the end of December.

It’s no small wonder that Xmas menus aren’t sporting fruit cocktails next to an ever-fresh salad bar. On the side of the Earth where Christmas -as we know of today- was invented, there weren’t plenty of options traditionally for green things at the table. People were lucky if they had anything at all, even though they always had the intention to have meat at least for Christmas Eve.

Until the great minds of humanity invented the fridge and optimized the food production chain, people were forced to prepare meals with what they had available at each season, mixed with what they could store from the harvest.

This is the reason that we have so many variations of basically the same thing. No one minds if it’s a pull-apart bread, monkey bread, or braided bread, we all go berserk for it when fresh from the oven.

Cinnamon star bread is just another bread with yeast with a little twist. But with a twist literally meant apart from the fact that this bread is actually filled with chocolate. The dough must be cut and twisted a bit here and there to form a snowflake or star shape.

It looks as hard making it as hard to explain it in pure text form but in practice, it is actually much easier. The dough is quite forgiving if the twisting is not done right the first time so fear not starting it. Practice makes it perfect.

Ingredients:

Bread:

5 cup / 600g Flour
1 cup / 250ml milk
10g Fresh yeast
1 tablespoon Honey or sweetener of choice
7 tablespoon / 100g Butter (unsalted, room temperature)
3 Eggs
1 tablespoon Vanilla extract

Chocolate Filling:

14 tablespoon / 200g Butter (room temperature)
3 tablespoon Honey or sweetener of choice
4 tablespoon Cocoa powder (unsweetened)

One extra egg, a drop of honey and a drop of vanilla extract for egg washing the top of the bread

Cinnamon Filling:

4 tablespoon / 50g Butter
1 tablespoon Honey other sweetener of choice
1½ tablespoon Cinnamon (ground)

One extra egg, a drop of honey and a drop of vanilla extract for egg washing the top of the bread

How to make cinnamon star bread:

Base:

Put fresh yeast into the lukewarm milk to dissolve.
Measure flour, butter, vanilla essence and honey to put it in a medium size mixing bowl.
Break eggs and put them into the bowl as well.
Pour yeasty milk on top of the flour mixture.
Knead it until it’s even and the dough is off the side of the mixing bowl.
Cover the bowl and leave it in a warm place for an hour to raise.
After an hour take the dough out of the bowl onto a floured surface.
Divide it into 4 equal pieces.
Make dough balls out of them.
Find a warm place aside to place them not too close to each other, and cover them with a kitchen towel for another half an hour to raise more.

Filling:

Choose one of the fillings then put all the ingredients that belongs to it in a bowl.
Whisk them together until butter gets a creamy, easy to spread texture.

Asssembly:

Start working with the first dough-ball. Place it on a well-floured surface and strew it in a circle shape that fits in the backing tray with a help of a rolling pin.
Place it on the baking tray.
Spread one third of the chocolate cream evenly on top.
Roll the second dough ball and place it on top of the first one.
Spread the third of the chocolate cream on top.
Repeat the same process with the other dough ball then put the last one on top without the chocolate topping.
Place a round cup in the middle of the dough to make sure not to cut the middle.
With a sharp knife or a cutter slice the bread into 16 even pieces.
Take two pieces and spin them outwards 3 times then pinch the ends together to make a pointy end.
Repeat it with the remaining pieces.
Cover it with a kitchen towel and leave it in a warm place for another half an hour before putting it into the preheated oven. Fear not if the turning and pinching fails at first try. It will still be delicious.
Preheat oven to 350°F / 180°C.
Break an egg and mix it with a drop of honey and vanilla extract.
Brush egg on top of the bread before putting it into the preheated oven.
Bake it in the oven for half an hour or until the top is golden brown.

Enjoy!

All desserts are equal but some are more equal then the others. The more equal ones are the ones that we use to dress up our heart with while waiting for the special times to come.