Nutella Star Bread

This beautiful Nutella Star Bread is the perfect Christmas breakfast or brunch that will surely impress everyone. It’s surprisingly easy to make and only takes roughly 1 hour to make. Soft, pillowy bread pairs with the roasted hazelnut and chocolate flavors of Nutella.

Special mornings call for a special breakfast or brunch. This Nutella Star Bread is just that and is perfect for your Christmas morning. However, I truly believe that holidays should be enjoyed and you shouldn’t have to spend the whole day cooking. As much as I love cooking, I enjoy having a break from it especially on holidays, so that I can enjoy time with family.

Whenever I make bread, I feel like I’m always on a time limit. Well, that’s because in some ways I am. My 17-month old is a climber. He likes to climb on top of chairs, on top of the couch, and really anywhere that he can give me a heart attack, haha! His most recent daring move was to climb to the top of the cushioned rocking chair and sit at the very top of the chair. Then he would swing his legs and rock the chair from the top. Me, as the mom, only saw one thing happening – him falling off of the chair. Fortunately he did not, but he keeps me on my toes!

Whenever I make bread, in this stage of my life, I try to come up with ways to get the bread to rise a little faster, while still providing the same soft, pillowy, high quality dough. Well, turns out just a hint of heat from the oven does the trick and the result is perfect. I was able to make this bread in roughly one hour while my son napped. Okay, enough about that. It’s time to get to the details!

The details

Mixing the dough

Since this recipe uses instant yeast, you can add the yeast directly in with all the ingredients. Instant yeast does not need an activation time like active yeast. I recommend adding in the yeast, warm milk, sugar, flour, salt, egg and softened butter. Mix the dough on medium-low speed for 5 minutes. If mixing by hand, you’ll need to mix the dough a bit longer, for roughly 10-12 minutes.

Transfer the dough to a greased bowl. Spray the top of the dough with nonstick cooking spray then cover with plastic wrap. I prefer covering dough with plastic wrap when the dough is rising, because it provides a solid barrier to prevent air from getting into the dough. This keeps the surface of the dough soft and prevents a crust from forming on the dough.

First rise

An easy trick to speed up the rise time is to preheat the oven to 100F. This allows the dough to rise in roughly half the time. Once the oven is preheated to 100F, turn the oven off, then place the covered dough in the warm oven and allow it to rise for 30 minutes. Alternatively, if you do have a touch more time to make this, you can let the dough rise at room temperature for 60 minutes.

Divide the dough and roll it out

After rising, punch the dough down, then divide the dough into 4 roughly equal pieces. Roll the 4 pieces of dough on a floured surface into a 10-inch circle.

Transfer one of the 10-inch circles to a piece of parchment paper. This will make it easier to transfer to the sheet pan once assembled.

Next, you’ll spread Nutella on three of the dough circles. Nutella at room temperature is a bit tough to spread on the soft dough, so I recommend warming the Nutella up for 30-45 seconds in the microwave. Spread the softened Nutella on the dough circle that you placed on the parchment paper. Place a dough circle on top of the Nutella, then spread Nutella on this piece of dough. Repeat with remaining dough circles. Do NOT spread Nutella on the top dough circle.

Shaping

Shaping the dough seems like it would be complicated, but it’s actually quite easy. Place a 3 inch circle cookie cutter in the center of the dough. Using a knife, cut the dough into 16 strips, cutting from the edge of the cookie cutter to the edge of the dough.

Take two pieces adjacent to each other and twist them away from each other, two times. Press the edges of the dough together to seal the two pieces together. Once finished, you should have 8 points, for the star. Slide parchment paper onto sheet pan.

second rise

For the second rise, I again recommend covering the dough with plastic wrap so the dough does not form a crust on it. Preheat your oven to 100F. Turn the oven off, then place the shaped star bread in the warm oven. Allow it to rise for 15 minutes, then remove from oven.

preheat oven and bake

Preheat the oven to 400F. While the oven preheats, brush the dough with a beaten egg. This will help the surface of the dough turn a nice shiny, golden brown color. Place the dough in the preheated oven and bake for 12-15 minutes, or until golden brown.

serving

Before serving, sprinkle powdered sugar over star bread. This step is optional, but it adds a beautiful appearance to the bread.

If you made this Nutella Star Bread, let me know what you thought in the ratings and comments below. I enjoy hearing your feedback. Make sure you find me on instagram and youtube for the full baking video for this as well as some fun behind the scenes.

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