Christmas Dinner Wreath Bread

It's almost that time of the year when you're deciding what to make for Christmas. This Christmas dinner roll wreath has the softest, lightest buns and is made with three types of cheese and a garlic butter glaze. Serve with a tomato dipping sauce and it will be one of those dishes you won't forget!

This bread gets its a super light texture from using duck eggs in it instead of chicken eggs. Don't worry you'll still get a wonderfully light cheese and garlic bread even if you use chicken eggs as I realise that duck eggs are difficult to procure.

I've recently started to come around to using garlic powder. While I go through heads of fresh garlic, adding a teaspoon of garlic powder to a small pot of melted butter makes the fastest garlic butter around, plus it doesn't burn like chopped, fresh garlic. Try it once and I promise you might get hooked into this instant garlic butter hack.

I loved this bread so much that I ate a quarter of it in one sitting for dinner so I now have to make another one for Christmas. If you love cheese and garlic then please make this.

If there's one thing I can make it is tangzhong bread. But when I'm given compliments on other things, I react in a peculiar way. As if I go out of my way to disprove a compliment.

A few weeks ago my cousin from Singapore was visiting Sydney. After my father's stroke we give lifts to my family but not all of us could fit into one car. So my cousin went in the car with me. We were going to a restaurant in the city and we were about 3 minutes away so we'd be right on time. He remarked, "You're a good driver. You're confident and you look like you know where you're going."

I will also let you know that a) google maps was telling me where to go and b) he also thinks my father is a good driver and he drives like Mister Magoo.

And as soon as he said that, the whole caper fell apart. Google maps told me to go down a street where there were tram works going on and well you know how many one way streets there are in the city right? We ended up being 15 minutes late instead of smack bang on time and I was sure he regretted giving that compliment haha!

So tell me Dear Reader, do you react strangely to compliments? What is something you're good at? Have you ever tried making garlic butter like this?

Three Cheese & Garlic Butter Christmas Wreath Bread {With Dipping Sauce!}

An Original Recipe by Lorraine Elliott

Preparation time: 20 minutes plus 1.5 hours proofing time

Cooking time: 40 minutes

• 3 cups flour
• 125ml/1/2 cup milk
• 50g/1.7ozs. butter
• 2 duck eggs or 3 chicken eggs
• 1/4 cup potato flour/starch
• 2.5 teaspoons instant dried yeast
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 125ml/1/2 cup milk
• 1.5 teaspoons salt
• 3 cups of mixed cheese, grated (I used parmesan, mozzarella and gruyere)
• 3 teaspoons garlic powder
• Egg wash
• Garlic butter glaze (50g/1.7ozs melted butter and 1 teaspoon garlic powder mixed)
• Your favourite tomato pasta sauce to serve

Step 1 - Make the tangzhong roux by taking out 30g/1oz of the flour from the larger 3 cup quantity and whisking in a small saucepan with the first 1/2 cup of milk. Whisk until smooth and then heat until it reaches 65C/149F. Stir in the butter and mix until smooth and whisk in the eggs.

Step 2 - In the bowl of a mixer add the remaining flour, potato flour, yeast and sugar. Add in the tangzhong mix and mix adding the last 1/2 cup of milk and mix everything with a spatula. Knead with the dough hook for 10-13 minutes or until you get the window pane effect where the dough stretches without breaking and you can see through it.

Step 3 - Cover with a lid and allow to rise for 1 hour or until double or triple in size.

Step 4 - Knead in the salt, cheeses and garlic powder. Grease and line a 30cm/12inch tin (you can also do this freeform) and place a ramekin in the centre.

Step 5 - Roll into balls and place around the ramekin. You can do different sized ones but place them with about 1cm/1/2 an inch between them as they will rise. Cover and allow to rise again for 20 minutes or so.

Step 6 - Preheat oven to 180C/350F. Brush with eggwash and bake for 30 minutes. Brush with garlic butter glaze. Decorate with rosemary and redcurrants and serve with hot tomato sauce to dip.