Bread Machine Christmas Star Bread With Pear Cranberry Butter

Baked Christmas Star bread on a bed of greenery.

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5 from 1 vote

Bread Machine Christmas Star Bread With Pear Cranberry Butter

It doesn't have to be for Christmas - it is good any time of the year.

Prep Time35

Cook Time20

Resting Time1 30

Total Time2 25

Course: Bread, Snack

Cuisine: American

Servings: servings

Calories: 238kcal

Author: Carolyn Hetke

Ingredients

Wet Ingredients

1 cup warm milk
¼ cup melted butter
1 egg

Dry Ingredients

3 ½ cups all purpose flour
¼ cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt

Yeast

2 ¼ teaspoon dry yeast

Filling

9 Tbsps Pear Cranberry Butter See Note 1 below for substitutions.
2 Tbsps sugar
½ tablespoon cinnamon

Instructions

Mix wet ingredients till well blended in a small bowl.
Mix dry ingredients in a separate bowl.
Add ingredients to your Bread machine in the order recommended by the Manufacturer. Mine is wet, then dry and yeast sprinkled on top.
Set machine to Quick Cycle. (Whichever cycle will give you about an 8 minute knead and a 1 hour rise. Be ready to remove dough to a separate bowl if you have to intervene in a bread cycle of your machine.)
Prepare 2 baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.
Remove dough and divide in to 2 equal portions. (This will make 2 Star Breads. You can bake both right away or keep the dough 24 hours in the fridge.)
Then divide each half in to 4 equal portions.
Roll each portion into about an 8" circle on a lightly floured board. Don't be too concerned if your circles are not 100% the same. You can true them up a bit as you spread the filling and the twisting later will hide some flaws.
To make the first star bread: working on your parchment covered baking tray, coat 3 circles with Pear Cranberry Butter to within ½" of the outer edge. Coat and assemble the layers right on your baking sheet because it is difficult to move the dough later, especially after you have cut the spokes. (You can use any jam or jelly you like instead of the Pear Butter.) Mix the cinnamon and sugar and sprinkle a generous teaspoon evenly over eac Cranberry Pear layer.
Center a glass about 1 ½" in diameter in the middle of the circles. With a sharp knife make 3 equidistance slices out from the glass to the outer edge. Be sure to slice through all layers of the dough but not through the parchment paper. Slice each third in half and then each sixth in half till you have 12 equal 'spokes'.
Take 2 adjacent 'spokes' and gently give 3 twists toward each other. Gently pinch the ends together. Use wet fingers if needed to help adhere. You will end up with 6 star points.
Repeat from Step 9 with remaining 4 dough circles.
Cover and let rise about 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 350° F.
Bake stars 20 minutes. Remove from the oven when done and allow to cool.
When completely cool, dust with icing sugar and serve.

Notes

Note 1 a) You can substitute any jam or jelly you like for the Cranberry Pear Butter. Red jam or jelly will give you a Christmas tone. Omit the cinnamon and sugar if using jam.

1 b) Sweeten ¾ cup of cream cheese with ¼ cup icing sugar and spread mixture, at room temperature, evenly over the 3 circles. Chop 6 Tbsps dried cranberries and sprinkle them evenly over the cream cheese circles. Omit cinnamon and sugar.

1 c) Dulce de Leche - spread 3 circles with ¼ cup each of Dulce de Leche to within ½ " of outer edge. Omit cinnamon and sugar.

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