Santa Claus Bread

If you asked me how many types of bread have I baked up to date. I don't think I will be able to answer that. :P It is really beyond me to remember that huge number (and still counting) which also includes the unrecorded / un-blogged ones. Like I said it before, I love baking and cooking more then writing. Having this blog was to mainly keep a record of those recipes that are worth sharing. And today, this Santa Claus bread is perhaps another one in the record. People that knows me, knows that I have been such passion for bread baking. Well mainly the soft asian breads. They are much easier in my opinion and my kids prefer them too. And since Christmas is so near, I decided to bake another fun one; Santa Claus!

There is more fun in baking then eating for me! Besides, the little ones are always amused by the fun shapes that I conjured out. But I have to say taste is still the top priority over looks. I cannot stand those that only looks good but tastes horrible. :P

This recipe uses super ripe bananas and straight dough method. Almost leaves you with no excuse not to try it. :P The recipe allows me to make a Santa Claus and two small loaf of cinnamon chocolate rolls.

Recipe for Santa Claus Bread  & Chocolate Cinnamon rolls (Banana bread dough) 

380 g bread flour

175g banana Super ripe

35g caster sugar

4 g salt

5 g yeast

150 ml milk

25 g unsalted butter room temp

2 large dried raisins (eyes)

1/8 tsp of red food colouring (to colour his stocking cap and cheeks)

• In a large mixing bowl, add in all the ingredients except for the butter and start kneading. 

• Dough will be rather sticky initially. Continue kneading and resist from adding more flour as it will not turn out soft if you do. (I have so many readers asking me why the bread turned out hard but left out the detail that they had actually added more flour into the dough recipe. :P So bottom line is, if you cannot stick to the recipe, I cannot help answer your queries). Continue kneading till the dough pulls away from the side of the bowl.

• Now add in the unsalted butter at room temp and continue to knead the dough again. And when the dough once again pull away from the sides, it is ready to proof. (Note that my dough actually lift out by the hook.)

• Grease the same kneading bowl and then place the dough in it to proof till double in size. Once proofed, stick a finger into the dough, if it doesn't bounce back up, means it is ready.

• Divide the dough into the following : 180 g , 150 g, 100 g, 80g, 4x 50g. As for the remaining dough, I divided them into 2 equal portions and made them into cinnamon rolls (recipe later).
• Take the 180 g dough portion and roll it into a big tear drop shape. as shown below:

• The specs are the banana's seed, so don't freak. Next you take the 150 g dough portion and roll it into a semi circle shape, as shown below. 

• Then you start snipping the semi circle using a kitchen scissors into strips but not all the way, leaving the center still intact.

DO NOT worry if you didn't cut it all pretty. It doesn't matter, really. Once you start placing the dough portions together, you cannot tell how badly you have cut the dough, just make sure you don't cut all the way to the end. Carefully place this semi circle over the tear drop dough. Start twisting the strips of the semi circle so it looks like locks.

•  Repeat till all the strips are twisted as shown above. Again, no worries if it is not the prettiest looking locks, it will still bake out nicely later. Then use the 80g and again roll into a semi circle but small one this time and snip the strips again. This smaller portion is for his moustache. Again carefully place slightly above the beard.
• Take the 100 g dough portion and roll into a thin log that is just the length of this stocking hat top which Santa is wearing.
• Roll the 50 g portions into 2 ovals and 2 circles. Ovals for his cheeks and rounds for his nose and the white ball on the tip of his stocking hat. (note that you can adjust the size of these portions to your liking, bigger nose, smaller cheeks, it's really up to your creativity, no restriction there)

• Lastly add in the two raisins as eyes and leave the dough to proof for a good 30 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 170C.
• Once proofed, bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes till the bread it slight gold brown. Once baked, remove from the oven and let cool on the rack. At this point, you can choose to colour the stocking hat and his cheeks to make it more cheerful.

This banana bread is actually good on it's own or with some salted butter. My kids just devoured it...no problem on the cuteness haha. For the chocolate cinnamon rolls on how to shape them and the filling, please refer to my previous post here.

Will be loading the video on how I made this Santa Claus bread on my FB HoneyBeesweets Kitchen soon, so stay tune. 

And if you do attempt this, do share it with me! I would love to see your Santa Claus bread as well. ;)

Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas!