Over 30 Holiday Bread Recipes for Gifts (2024)

FAQs

What can I add to my bread for flavor? ›

Seeds: Adding seeds like sunflower, pumpkin, or sesame seeds can add a nice crunch and flavor to bread. Nuts: Chopped nuts, such as almonds or walnuts, can be added to bread for a great texture. Dried fruits: Adding dried fruits such as raisins, cranberries, or apricots can make bread a sweet and fruity.

Dough first, then add seeds

The other option is to add the seeds once the dough is adequately mixed and gluten has formed and developed to your recipe requirements.

Herbs like rosemary, thyme, parsley and oregano don't just add flavor to the bread. They also create a great herbal scent to your kitchen.

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.

It depend upon if you want SWEET or SAVORY tasting bread. For sweet, cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and clove will add some complimentary spice, easy on the clove, it is very strong. For savory, you can't beat rosemary, marjoram, thyme, tarragon, dill.

Add Sugar

Adding sugar weakens the gluten structure, absorbs water, and eventually makes the bread lighter and softer. As a result, sugar improves the bread's taste, structure and texture. Yeast also eats up sugar to produce carbon dioxide, which raises the dough and makes bread fluffy.

Salt adds flavor to bread. If none or too little is used in a recipe, the bread will lack the right flavor and taste "bland." If you reduce the amount of salt, try adding some dried herbs to increase the flavor. Too much yeast in bread will give bread an off-taste.

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).

What do you sprinkle on bread before baking? ›

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.

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.

It's healthier.

The downfall is that homemade bread goes bad much quicker than the standard store bought bread, but that is only because it does not contain the additives and preservatives store bought bread has. Store bought loaves also do not have much nutrition as well.

Toast it: Toasting a slice of bread can bring out its natural flavors and give it a crispy texture. Brush it with butter: Brushing a slice of bread with melted butter can give it a richer flavor and a softer texture.

It's tough to say what is causing the bread to be bland. Letting it sit overnight, usually helps in that department, but also an addition of salt. As you add salt though, you will probably want to add yeast as well, not much mind you, but a little extra of each could be beneficial.

Salt adds flavor to bread. If none or too little is used in a recipe, the bread will lack the right flavor and taste "bland." If you reduce the amount of salt, try adding some dried herbs to increase the flavor.

Fats: Fats, such as butter or oil, are added to bread dough for flavor and to help keep the bread moist. They also help to create a tender crumb. Milk: Milk is added to bread dough for flavor and to create a tender crumb. It also helps to brown the crust during baking.