Holiday Bread Recipes

Strawberry cranberry jam with cinnamon, clove, and nutmeg. No boxed pectin. Water-bath can it for holiday gifts or keep a batch in the fridge.

Soft dough balls arranged as a Christmas tree, finished two ways: cinnamon-sugar with icing garland, or garlic herb with mozzarella centers and marinara.

Fresh-milled einkorn and spelt pumpkin muffins with a cream cheese center and toasted pepita top. Tender, spiced, and ready in about 90 minutes.

A dark, wet gingerbread loaf built on bloomed spices, fresh and ground ginger, and hot coffee. Better on day two.

Gingerbread cutouts that hold every edge. A little dark rye for depth, no baking soda, and you roll before you chill.

A rustic Irish soda bread with a crackling crust and tender crumb. Ready in under an hour with pantry staples.

Soft mandarin orange muffins with craisins and walnuts, baked in tall tulip cups. These café-style muffins are perfect for holiday gift-giving.

Soft enriched dough torn into pieces, coated in butter and cinnamon sugar, baked in a bundt pan under a brown sugar caramel. No shaping required.

Moist pumpkin spice quick bread with cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, and clove. Oil instead of butter keeps every slice tender for days.

These overnight sourdough pumpkin waffles are crispy on the outside, tender on the inside, and packed with warm autumn spices. The long fermentation breaks down the flour for easier digestion while developing complex, slightly tangy flavor that pairs beautifully with the pumpkin and maple.

Soft, fluffy dinner rolls topped with fresh rosemary and flaky Maldon salt. Foolproof, make-ahead friendly, and perfect for holiday gatherings.

Baba Wielkanocna is the Polish Easter cake — a tall, egg-rich enriched bread baked in a Bundt pan and finished with a bright lemon glaze.

Bremer Klaben, the North German Christmas bread: rum-soaked raisins, candied peel, and cardamom in a rich yeasted dough. No icing, no butter bath.

A rich enriched dough filled with cinnamon sugar and butter. Mix Friday night, shape Saturday morning, bake cold for perfect layers every time.

A home baker's take on Colomba Pasquale — the Italian Easter dove bread. Orange-scented enriched dough with candied peel and a crunchy almond glaze.

Soft yeasted cranberry orange loaf with fresh berries, zest, and juice in the dough. Includes a full sourdough version and an optional orange glaze.

A holiday cranberry walnut sourdough with an overnight cold proof. Tangy, chewy, and a good fit for Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Soft enriched Easter Bunny Bread shaped into a classic bunny face. Make one showpiece loaf or individual bunny rolls. Yeasted and sourdough versions included.

Henry's Paska — soft, buttery, lightly sweet Easter bread with citrus zest in every slice. Sourdough and yeasted versions both included.

This naturally leavened babka combines the subtle tang of sourdough with swirls of dark chocolate. Uses your active sourdough starter directly with no levain build required. Overnight cold retard for convenience and deeper flavor complexity.

Rich, buttery babka swirled with dark chocolate and a hint of cinnamon. This makes the perfect holiday gift bread, whether you bake it as two full…

Dark, spiced fruitcake with brandy-soaked dates, figs, and apricots, toasted nuts, and molasses. Start the soak in September, feed it until Christmas.

Soft enriched star bread with cardamom sugar between four rolled layers, cut and twisted into a sixteen-point star. Cranberry-orange variation included.

Pillowy spiced buns filled with currants and candied orange peel, topped with a traditional baked flour paste cross and finished with an apricot-orange glaze.

Jamaican black cake for Christmas: fruit soaked for weeks in dark rum and red wine, blended, baked low with burnt sugar browning, then fed with more rum.

Norwegian julekake: a soft cardamom-scented round with raisins and candied citrus. Simple, warm, and best toasted with butter. Freshly ground cardamom matters.

"Henry, is king cake really bread?" I get this question every Carnival season. The answer is yes, absolutely. King cake is an enriched-dough, same…

Convert a 100% hydration sourdough starter into a stiff Italian lievito madre in 3-4 weeks. Full refresh schedule, bagnetto, and panettone readiness tests.

A soft, orange-scented enriched bread crowned with dough bones and finished in butter and sugar. Baked across Mexico for Día de los Muertos, and a beautiful centerpiece for any late-October table.

A round braided challah with diced apple and honey for Rosh Hashanah. Learn the tight crown tuck and how to fold fruit into enriched dough without wrecking it.

A crusty, sculptured Easter bunny bread shaped from a single boule — no extra dough needed. Cold overnight proof makes shaping easy.

Spiced, fruit-studded hot cross buns made with 100% sourdough. A sweet levain controls the sour, tangzhong keeps them soft, and the flour paste cross goes on before baking.

Sourdough monkey bread built on a levain with an overnight cold retard. Cinnamon sugar, brown sugar caramel, and a tang that balances the sweetness.

Honey-sweet sourdough challah braided into a round loaf. Naturally leavened, cold-retarded overnight, finished with black and white sesame.

A soft, naturally leavened honey-apple challah shaped into a four-strand round crown, with detailed fermentation cues, braiding instructions and a warm honey finish.

The sourdough take on my pumpkin-shaped savory bread. Real pumpkin purée, whole milk, butter, and fresh rosemary, raised with an active levain instead of commercial yeast. Tie it with oiled twine and you get eight clean pumpkin segments, a golden egg-washed crust, and a soft, tender crumb with just a whisper of tang. Put a cinnamon-stick stem on top and it's the centerpiece of the table.

Glossy, honey-sweet challah you can bake in one afternoon—or slow-ferment overnight with sourdough. Enriched dough with honey and eggs, shaped into a beautiful braided circle.

Traditional Dresden-style stollen with rum-soaked fruit, almonds, marzipan, and a double butter-and-sugar finish. Bake by December 5 and age it for Christmas.

Tsoureki is the traditional Greek Easter braid — enriched with eggs and butter, scented with mahlab and mastic, braided golden and beautiful.

Soft, savory bread made with real pumpkin purée and rosemary, shaped with kitchen twine into pumpkin segments. A showstopper centerpiece for fall.

A soft, pillowy milk bread with a stunning pink-and-white swirl pattern, made with natural roasted beetroot for color and the tangzhong method for that stay-soft texture.

Wisconsin-style almond kringle with a simplified home lamination: butter block, 3 letter folds, overnight rest, almond paste filling, and almond icing.

Traditional panettone leavened only with lievito madre: three refreshes, two doughs, scarpatura, and the 12-hour hang. The summit of home baking, mapped.

The same orange-scented, butter-brushed loaf crowned with dough bones, raised with a stiff levain instead of commercial yeast. Mild, not sour, with a softer crumb that stays fresh longer. Build the levain the night before and bake the next afternoon.

A two-day yeasted panettone for first-timers: stiff biga, two doughs, candied orange and citron, and the 12-hour upside-down hang that keeps the crumb tall.