When it's holiday season, there're always so many great food around the house. One of my favorite is my mom's homemade bread wreath--it looks so beautiful and smells so good when baking. We always make several bread wreaths and give some to our friends as gifts, they all LOVE it.

It's soft inside and has a crust outside, it's a perfect holiday gift based on a simple heirloom recipe.

Step 1: Ingredients

You will need:

--250g bread flour

--30g cake flour

--30g granulated sugar

--1 whole egg (around 50g, 30g for baking, 20g for brushing)

--1 egg yolk

--125g milk

--3~4g yeast

--45g softened butter

--3g salt

Step 2: Knead the Dough

Mix everything except butter and salt. Knead until it became a dough (don't need to be smooth).

Put small pieces of softened butter into the mixer and keep kneading. ADD SALT LAST to avoid fail fermentation.

Keep kneading until the "window" appears-- you can stretch the dough until you can see through your fingers without breaking it.

Step 3: Fermentation

Put the dough at a warm and moist place to ferment. After about 40min to 1 hour, it will rise and double the size.

Knead the dough again and knead out the air, separate the dough into 3 pieces with same weight.

Step 4: Make the Wreath

Knead the pieces into long strip, and then plait the dough just like plait a braid. Connect the two ends and now it's a wreath!

Put the wreath on a baking pan (I used a pizza pan) with parchment paper on top of the pan, and then put the pan at a warm place to ferment it the second time. This time you will need to ferment it for about 30min.

Step 5: Bake the Wreath

Preheat the oven to 350°F （180°C）, and then brush the wreath with the remaining egg mixture (see Ingredients).

Put it into the oven and bake for about 20-25min or until it's golden brown.

Step 6: Decor and Finished!

I sprinkled some dried cranberry and raisin on top of the bread (note: don't bake them together as the dried fruits are on top of it, so the heat will burn them). Decor with a holiday bowknot and now it's ready!

It's a perfect holiday gift as well as a perfect holiday recipe, and this year it's my turn to make this bread :)

If you like it, please vote for me in the heirloom recipe contest and homemade gift contest, thanks a lot!