Over 30 Holiday Bread Recipes for Gifts (2024)

FAQs

Is homemade bread a good gift? ›

Any bread recipe that you are already comfortable baking would make a wonderful gift! Here are some recipe suggestions from my blog if you'd like more ideas: Cranberry Walnut Sourdough Bread. Sourdough Soft Pretzels (salted or coated with cinnamon sugar)

Elevate a standard loaf with herbs, cheese and fresh veg or bake up a sweet breakfast loaf to share. Our resident bread expert Barney Desmazery's top tip is to add extras after proving. 'Any nuts, seeds, small or chopped dried fruits, olives, fresh thyme or rosemary can be added without changing the dough.

Topping bread dough with seeds and grains is a simple and effective way to increase the nutrition, flavor, and texture in a baked loaf of bread. Most of us have experimented with mixing seeds, nuts, dried fruit, and even other grains into bread dough.

You can soak seeds overnight, strain them, and add them to a bread dough during mixing (easiest) or during an early round of stretching and folding the dough (better gluten development).

Tie bread with long piece of twine, like you'd do with a ribbon on a christmas gift. Put a candied orange and rosemary, or other florals into the middle of the twine where it is tied. Add accompaniments to basket, and use linens to nestle everything. Decorate with seasonal items like ornaments, flowers, and greens.

Bread is also a common housewarming gift. It represents sustenance, nourishment, and hope for a plentiful and prosperous life in the new home. It is often given in the form of a loaf or a basket of bread and is usually accompanied by a wish for good health and happiness.

Fat. If you're looking to ramp up the taste of your favorite bread recipe, we recommend adding a bit of fat. A fat like butter, olive oil or coconut oil in small quantities will help your bread achieve a higher rise and it will also boost its flavor by tenfold.

Make it more flavorful and sticky with sugar, or soften it up with some dry milk powder. Here's how to arm your pantry with bread boosters. Sweeteners such as malt and honey are used to add flavor to bread dough. Malt, which is available in powder and liquid form, can be added to almost any bread.

You can also add herbs and seasonings such as garlic, rosemary, dill, chopped onion, jalapeño, shredded cheese, chopped nuts, dried cranberries, etc. My no yeast bread is the quick bread alternative here—you can add flavors to that loaf, too! Baker's Tip: Avoid adding too much flour to the dough as you work with it.

Soaking seeds and grains (especially grains) before you bake with them is important for many reasons: 1. It makes them soft so they are more pleasant in the mouth and easier to chew completely so they won't break your teeth, take out your fillings, and are easier to digest.

How to get poppy seeds to stick to bread? ›

In those cases, the best way to get the seeds to stick is simple: Just add water. For the seediest crust, just add water. To add a seeded crust to a loaf (or rolls), first thoroughly wet a clean, non-lint kitchen towel, then wring out some of the water, leaving it quite wet to the touch.

Even in antiquity the production of bread was associated with procreation. The process of loading, baking, and unloading the oven parallels copulation, pregnancy, and childbirth. In Hebrew and Chaldean the word zera has several meanings referring to the seed of the plant, to sperm, and to human progeny.

A common, but still appreciated, gift is packaged bread. You can bake multiple loaves at once in the oven in mini disposable aluminum loaf pans, then package them in colored cellophane wrap or any kind of decorative food wrap. Tie it up with some pretty ribbon and, voila, you have a tasty gift anyone would love.

Verdict: A freezer bag is a decent short-term, room-temperature bread storage solution. Storing your bread on the countertop in a plastic bag (or well-sealed plastic wrap) will help keep it from going stale, but be warned: the crust will suffer and grow mold due to trapped moisture.

That said, most homemade breads are likely healthier than store-bought breads, which are often high in sugar and preservatives. One benefit of making your own bread is that you can control the ingredients. For example, you can use whole wheat flour instead of white flour, or add healthy toppings like nuts and seeds.