Over 30 Holiday Bread Recipes for Gifts (2024)

FAQs

Is homemade bread a good gift? ›

Homemade bread is the perfect gift for any time of year. Gift wrapping bread using twine with seasonal herbs or flowers is beautiful and easy!

Most seeds are absorbent and can make a dough and bread too dry if you don't account for their thirstiness. 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).

Method 2 for topping bread dough: washes, glazes, and flour. When baking rolls, pan loaves, or buns, a typical approach is to use an egg or dairy wash to encourage increased browning and give the top crust a shine. Additionally, rolls can be topped after baking with melted butter for shine and added richness.

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.

It's easy to wrap sourdough or bread into a clean tea towel or linen bread bag. These can form part of the gift - perfect at Christmas time or even for end of school year teacher gifts. What is this? I often pick up packs of pretty tea towels and pop them away to use as an easy, last minute bread gift.

An important factor to this dough is the need to pre-soak the toasted seeds before adding them to the dough to prevent the seeds from absorbing all the water in the dough. I usually soak the seeds in about 5% extra water right when I start with autolyse.

Sesame seeds are a staple in many cuisines and can be a wonderful addition to your bread. Incorporating sesame seeds not only enhances the flavor of your bread but also introduces calcium, iron, and healthy fats. Pumpkin seeds, also known as pepitas, are a fantastic choice for adding a satisfying crunch to your 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.

Wetting the dough causes the surface to steam. Covering it traps the moisture. This partnership stops the bread from drying out on the surface in the hot air of the oven and forming a premature crust. Your bread rises more and produces a richer colour, becoming glossy on the surface.

Steam in the oven and subsequently on the surface of your loaves helps keep that skin pliable and stretchy during baking. If your dough dries and bakes too quickly on the exterior, it can harden off before it rises to its full potential (and you may not see a satisfying gringe, either).

What is the most delicious bread? ›

Cheddar – The tangy taste of cheddar goes well with the sweeter notes of white bread. Cheddar is also great for grilled sandwiches and paninis. Mozzarella – The grainy, nutty taste of wholemeal bread goes well with Mozzarella. Top it with tomatoes, basil and olive oil to create a great-tasting, healthy sandwich.

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.

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.

Give people bread. Make the bread yourself and give it away. You will be overwhelmed by people's appreciation and joy and receiving a loaf of bread, even if you feel like the loaf you made isn't that great. Bread is simple and complicated at the same time.

Not only are homemade food gifts a way of showing my love, gratitude, and care (in the form of butter and sugar), but in this year of creeping inflation and rising costs, it's an affordable way to celebrate the people in your world who make life sweeter.