Quick Christmas Tree Bread
- 23 cups milk
- 1/2 cup sugar granulated
- 1 each eggs yolk and white separated
- 3/4 cups fruit mix, diced, dried, or make your own, mixing raisins, currants, snipped dried apricots, apples, prunes
- 2 1/2 cups flour, all-purpose
- 1 tablespoon baking powder
- 1 1/2 teaspoon pumpkin pie spice ground or 3/4 ts cinnamon,, ground and 3/4 ts cloves, ground
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 8 tablespoons butter cold, unsalted, cut into small pieces
- 1 x sugar granulated, or homemade vanilla pearl
- Check to see that one rack is in bottom third of oven and heat oven to 425 degrees F. Measure milk in a 2-cup measure, add sugar and egg yolk, stir to mix well.
- Stir in dried fruit.
- Let stand until ready to use.
- Put flour, baking powder, spice, and salt into a large bowl, stir to mix well.
- Add butter and cut in with pastry blender or rub in with fingers, until mixture looks like fine granules.
- Stir milk mixture and pour over flour mixture.
- Stir with a fork until a soft dough forms.
- Turn out dough onto a lightly floured surface and give 10 kneads.
- (If very sticky, let stand 3 or 4 minutes or add a little more flour.)
- Cut off about one-fourth of the dough.
- Put remaining dough on an ungreased cookie sheet at least 16 inches long.
- Using both rolling pin and fingers, pat and roll dough into a flat triangle about 12 inches long and 9 inches wide across the bottom.
- With scissors, make about ten diagonal cuts down each long side of the triangle, cutting to within about 1 inch of the center.
- Shape a small piece of reserved dough into a trunk at bottom of tree and remaining dough into a "pot."
- Dough may now be covered with plastic wrap and refrigerated for a couple of hours or frozen for up to 2 weeks.
- Bake tree 10 minutes.
- Beat egg white with a fork until broken up.
- Brush over hot bread, sprinkle with sugar.
- Bake 5 to 8 minutes longer, until light brown.
- With two spatulas, carefully transfer tree to a wire rack.
- If possible, cool at least 2 hours before serving.
- Let guests break off small pieces.
milk, sugar, eggs yolk, fruit mix, flour, baking powder, pumpkin pie spice, salt, butter cold, sugar
Taken from recipeland.com/recipe/v/quick-christmas-tree-bread-2071 (may not work)