Santa Bread

Papa Bear took Miss E and me out for lunch at La Provence in LO after Christmas shopping last weekend. As usual there was a long wait and since it was cold outside it was shoulder to shoulder along the french pastry counter inside the restaurant/bakery. While Miss E and I were looking at all the beautiful treats in the glass case Papa Bear noticed a festive Santa Bread on a shelf on the back wall. He asked about it up at the counter and found out that the Santa's are a brioche bread and that they take orders through Christmas Eve morning. He really wanted to order one and thought it would be a fun gift to give our friends on Christmas Eve. We agreed so he went back up and placed his order for the small Santa Bread, which we thought was pretty big.  

We picked it up early on Christmas Eve and delivered it that evening. Everyone loved it. They asked if we had made it and we said no but it made me start to wonder if I actually could make one. It was on my mind the rest of the evening.

On Christmas morning I woke up early and was still thinking about the Santa Bread and decided I had to try making one. My sister was hosting Christmas dinner and I thought if it turned out it would be fun to take it along to share. Since I was already making my traditional Cardamom bread to take I thought instead of making 3 braids I would make one and use the rest of the dough for the Santa. 

When my family woke up and came downstairs they were very surprised to see my version of the Santa Bread. They loved it and so did everyone at my sisters house. They had not seen the one we bought but we explained how the Santa Bread all came about. We even used the same box to carry it in which was convenient.  My Santa might need some little tweaks next time but overall I loved how he turned out and I would definitely make another one. 

Have a wonderful day!