Christmas bread by natalia penchas

Chef, pastry chef, baker, instructor, cooking teacher, developer of easy and homemade recipes, food styler and food photographer.

Received from Gato Dumas, along with chefs like Juan Braceli, Natalia began as a bachera, cook, head chef and executive chef for more than 15 years.

He gave cooking classes in 2005 in Saint Louis, United States. There I also worked as an executive chef and specialized in international cuisine. And I participated in a television program that allowed me to reach homes with my easy and homemade recipes. At that time I started with photography and I never stopped.

One day it went viral:

During the pandemic he lost his job, he did the same thing he does today, but for a multinational company: recipes to promote products with photos and videos. Instagram and social media seemed to be made only for the lucky few who did well. Natalia looked at many accounts and thought: “If they can put a video online and they don’t know how to cook, I, who know how to cook, am going to break it.” But my great teacher José asked me: “Why do you want to publish recipes on Instagram?” The big question.

From there and with the publication of the Japanese cheesecake it quickly arrived to one million followers. Although it already had about 80,000.

The recipe was novel and came from a trip to Japan where he was inspired and decided to make it. It was a big surprise for the pastry chef because she had filmed it with a cell phone that was not one of the best or most modern. In order to upload this recipe, 15 tests were done, and it counts «I don’t upload a recipe until it’s perfect»Today in the search for the perfect Sweet Bread, and as he usually says in his videos, you are going to fall in love with this Christmas Bread:

@nataliapenchas

sweet bread
Christmas bread

A traditional recipe that we all love, you can add polished fruits, chocolate or simply nothing.

A celebration that unites the family and allows us to close and open a new cycle.

For 2 sweet breads of 500 grams
Preference:
*️2 tablespoons of flour
*️1 tbsp sugar
*️80 ml of barely warm milk
*️10 g of dry yeast (or 30 of fresh yeast)
Time:
*️500 g of 000 flour
*️2 eggs
*️200 ml of milk, barely warm
*️80 g of sugar
* ️80 g of pomade butter (soft)
*️1 tbsp orange blossom essence
*️Zest of 1 orange
*️1 tbsp honey

Preference:
In a small bowl, add the milk, yeast, flour and sugar. Mix well for 2 minutes. Cover and leave in a warm place for 20 minutes, it should be foamy to use.
In another bowl, place the flour, sugar, orange zest, Preferment, barely warm milk, eggs and essence, honey and you will combine everything in the bowl. You go to the counter and you are going to knead for 5 min. Then you are going to incorporate the
Butter and although it takes time to incorporate into the dough, you have to knead it for 15 minutes. You put it in an oiled bowl and cover it until it doubles in volume.

Stuffed:
*️250 g of polished fruits
*️100 g of cranberry raisins (hydrate two hours before in cognac or water and strain)
*️150 g of dried fruits, I used walnuts
Extra:
* ️Butter for brushing
* ️miel for brushing
*️Nuts and fruits to decorate.

Place the dough on the counter and degas it and stretch it with a rectangular stick. Place all the fruits and roll them up tightly and cut into slices.
Stack as I show in the video. Knead a little, cut in two and place in two sweet bread molds.

Cover with a bag and let its volume double.
Preheat oven to 160 C
Bake for 30 min. Halfway through cooking, brush with butter.
When it comes out of the hot oven, brush with honey.
And once it cools, decorate.