Christmas Bread

Christmas Morning would not be complete without the Yummy Dickinson Christmas Bread! Honestly I cannot remember a Christmas morning without it! So today I pulled out the recipe, gathered the supplies, called in Scott my husband to help, and started making our Christmas tradition. Today I used my bread mixer, but most times I knead the bread by hand in honor of my mother and her amazing biceps!  

Below is the recipe I wrote down as my mom walked me through the process 40 plus years ago. The picture below is the day I wanted to make sure that the recipe and tradition lived on as my daughter Lyndsey and I baked the bread together a few years ago.

Dickinson Christmas Bread

Add 3 T. (or 1 pkg.) yeast to 1 cup lukewarm water. Stir and let sit to make a sponge.

• Scald 1 cup milk on medium heat. Remove milk from heat and add 1 stick butter, 1 tsp. salt, 1/2 sugar. Let milk mixture cool to room temperature.

• Mix yeast, milk mixture and 1 egg together.

• Mix in approximately 5 1/2 cups flour (1 cup at a time) until the dough pulls from the edges. (You want the dough to be slightly sticky).

• Knead the dough. Let rise covered in a buttered, covered bowl in a warm area for about an hour.

• Punch the dough down.

• Melt 1 stick of butter in a small bowl. Mix sugar and cinnamon in another and set aside.

• Coat the inside of two bunt pans with butter and then generously sprinkle brown sugar in the bottom. Place red and green pineapple and cherry candies in the bottom forming holly.

• Roll the dough into small 1” balls. Roll each ball in the melted butter and then the sugar-cinnamon mixture. Place in the pans. Making one row of tightly fitted balls. (If dough remains after filling two pans, simply use the remaining dough to make rolls).

• Cover the filled bunt pans and let rise for 30 minutes.

• Cook for 30 minutes at 350 degrees.

• Remove from oven, dump carefully on a plate and let cool.

• Drizzle powder sugar glaze over the bread, and you are ready for Christmas Morning.

Theresa's Fruitcake

Every Christmas my mom, Theresa, would bake and bake and bake! We had so many delicious treats to eat; divinity, fudge, honey candy, sugar cookies, Christmas bread, and of course Fruit Cake!

One of my favorite baking memories I have of my mom is when she accidentally put Chili Powder in the Fruitcake instead of Cinnamon. Honestly it tasted pretty bad. My Dad, Ed, who was a remarkable, kind, and compassionate man, kept telling my mom, "This fruitcake is delicious, give me another piece!" My mom would take off to get him another piece and he would smile at me and give me a wink! I thought that wink meant, "That fruitcake is terrible!" However I now know that wink meant "I love your little mama." He did love her! In fact one of the last things he told me before he died was buy your mama a dress once in a while and please don't let her get married again. I can't share her.

So here is my mom's fruitcake recipe as a tribute to a man that loved her so much that he ate her failed batch of fruitcake with love in his eyes. I miss you Daddy.

Theresa's Fruitcake

Add 1 1/2 cups raisins in a saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and take off the stove. Set the pan aside as you mix the remaining ingredients.

Cream together 2 sticks butter, 6 eggs, 11/4 cup sugar,  ½ cup brown sugar and 2 T. Cinnamon.

Gradually add 2 cups flour, 1 T. baking powder,  ½ t. salt, 1 T. vanilla and 1 tsp. brandy flavoring, and 1 tsp. almond extract.

Mix in 1 16 oz container of candied fruit (chopped) and 1 8 oz container candied pineapple (chopped). Drain the plumped raisins and add 1 cup pecan halves

Grease a bread pan (or angel food cake pan)

.  Bake at 300 for 90 minutes.  Take out of the oven and cover tightly in foil, place back in the oven for 30 more minutes.  Turn off the oven,
 and let the cake stay in the oven until the cake has completely cooled. *Don't open the oven!