If you’re looking for a dish that will impress your friends, family, and coworkers, look no further! Star Bread – a star-shaped enriched bread packed with filling – is both pretty and delicious, and it’s intricate, artistic design has captured the eyes of foodies all over TikTok. Who knew bread could look so good?
This bread which can serve as an appetizer or a dessert has two components: enriched bread dough and a filling of your choice. The dough in this recipe closely follows Claire Saffitz’s recipe for enriched bread dough, which incorporates fats like butter and milk to create a bread that is tender and rich in flavor. When it comes to the filling, feel free to customize it to your liking! You can take the sweet route with options like cinnamon sugar or fruit jam, or if you’re in the mood for something savory, you can run with options like pesto or cheese – the possibilities are endless! In this recipe, I chose to fill the bread with Nutella and chocolate chips for a sweet finish.
The final product is a warm, satisfying snack that features a bit of crunch on the exterior of the bread, and a tender interior laced with sweet, gooey moments from the Nutella and chocolate chips. Achieving its mesmerizing design is easier than you might expect.
Chocolate-Nutella Star Bread
Ingredients
Instructions
In a medium pot, mix 1 cup of whole milk and ½ cup flour. Whisk until the ingredients are combined and the mixture is smooth. Place the mixture on the stove over medium heat and continue to whisk until the mixture has thickened (2 to 3 minutes).
Scrape the mixture into the bowl of a stand mixer. Cover the bowl and place it in the fridge for 30 to 45 minutes until the mixture reaches room temperature (the mixture should not be very cold).
Once the mixture has reached room temperature, take it out of the fridge and add in 4 cups flour, 4 eggs, 2 tablespoons neutral oil, 1 teaspoon vanilla extract, 1 cup sugar, 2 tablespoons salt, and 2 teaspoons active dry yeast.
Using a stand mixer fixed with a dough hook, mix the ingredients on low until the ingredients start to come together in a loose coarse dough (about 3 minutes). Scrape down the sides of the bowl and continue mixing the dough on medium-low speed until the dough becomes smooth and elastic (10 to 15 minutes). Make sure to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed.
Add in 4 tablespoons of butter, and mix on low until the butter is fully incorporated in the dough; you should not need any bits or chunks of butter (about 5-7 minutes). Repeat with the remaining 4 tablespoons of butter.
Once all the butter is incorporated, continue to mix the dough on medium-low for another 15-20 minutes. To check if the dough has reached the desired elasticity stop the mixer and lift up the dough hook. The dough should be pulled up with the hook and remain attached to the bottom of the bowl without breaking. Additionally, conduct a “windowpane test†by ripping off about a tablespoon of the dough and stretching it out. If it can stretch out to the point where light passes through the dough without the dough ripping, the dough is ready. I recommend checking on the dough every 5 minutes.
Once the dough is ready, take the dough out of the bowl and on a floured surface, shape it into a ball. Place the ball of dough back into the bowl. Cover the bowl, place it in the fridge, and leave it to rise for 4 to 24 hours.
After the dough has been left to rise, take it out of the bowl and portion it into four pieces. Take one piece and on a generously floured surface, roll the dough out into a circle about 10 inches in diameter.
Once the dough is rolled out, spread a thin layer of nutella across the entire circle and sprinkle in a handful of the mini semisweet chocolate chips. Repeat these steps, stacking each circle on top of the previous one and omitting the Nutella and chocolate chips from the fourth dough circle. You should be left with a stack consisting of four dough layers, and three Nutella-chocolate-chip layers. Using a pizza cutter, trim the edges of the stack as needed to even out the circle.
Using a small cookie cutter, indent a small circle in the center of the stack without cutting through the stack. Then using a knife, make 16 cuts extending from the edge of the small indented circle to the outer edge of the dough stack. The stack should now have 16 “strands†of dough and look like the following image.
Working two strands at a time, twist the strands two or three times and then pinch the tops of the two strands together. Repeat this with all strands and you should be left with 8 bonded pairs of strands, and the dough should look like the following image.
At this point, preheat the oven to 350° Fahrenheit. Loosely cover the dough and let it rest for 30 minutes as the oven preheats.
Once the dough has rested, whisk 1 egg and use a brush to coat the dough with the egg wash. Then place the dough in the oven and allow it to bake at 350° Fahrenheit for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown on top.
Allow the bread to cool and then enjoy!