Chai Spiced Star Bread

Chai Spiced Star Bread, sweet, buttery and spicy, is a treat at any time of year. But I think it’s especially good at Christmas as, although not complicated to make, it looks really impressive.

And those who don’t relish mince pies, Christmas cake and the like will be pleased to know there’s not a currant or sultana in sight in this tear and share bread.

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Warming spices such as cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg are a regular occurrence in Christmas sweet treats like cake, puddings and mince pies.

But I fancied something a little bit different this year so I’ve introduced some peppery Indian chai spices into my baking.

Chai Spiced Star Bread

I knew after the success of my Savoury Tear & Share Star Bread, with its layers of  sun-dried tomato, cheese, salami and roasted onions, that I wanted to make a sweet version.

Cinnamon, sweetened with sugar, would be the obvious candidate to sprinkle between the layers of enriched dough. But I fancied something a little less obvious.

With Christmas approaching, it would be easy to pick up that British staple labelled ‘mixed spice’. Usually including nutmeg, mace, ginger, cloves, allspice and lots of cinnamon it’s a nicely rounded, sweet mixture. But don’t we see it a little too often at this time of year?

That’s why I decided to turn to chai spices.

Chai Spices

First off, a bit of pedantic explanation about chai.

The word chai and its variations simply mean ‘tea’ in a number of languages. So if you ask for a ‘chai tea’, then you’ve asked for ‘tea tea’.

The drink that’s become popular in the West through the big coffee chains is masala chai or spiced tea, with masala meaning a mix of ground spices, as in channa masala and garam masala.

While the spices used in making that tea have some similarities with British mixed spice, I think the big difference is the inclusion of pepper and cardamom. These give a more complex, savoury-sweet flavour and are a welcome change from the usual Christmas spices.

It still isn’t that common to find chai masala in the shops, not without tea added anyway. But take a look online and you’ll find it.

However, it’s easy to make up your own chai spice mix which you can tailor to your particular taste. You may like yours more or less peppery, or want the sweeter spices to dominate.

If you fancy having a go at making your own, the recipe at the end of this post includes a suggested mix to start you off. It includes ginger, cardamom, nutmeg, cloves, black and white pepper and cinnamon.

The Dough

The dough for Chai Spiced Star Bread is based on my no-knead, overnight method.

This is perfect for beginners as you just mix the ingredients with a spoon, cover and leave ovenight.

For this sweet bread, I add the following to my usual flour, dried yeast and salt: sugar, vanilla extract and melted butter. I also use milk instead of water to bring everything together.

Yes, the dough will look very wet and ragged when you mix it up. But trust me, it’ll be fine in the morning.

Leaving the dough overnight not only gives you better flavour, but time does the work of developing the gluten. Gluten is a protein which allows bread to rise, so there’s no-need-to-knead with my method.

Creating the Star Shape

Although the star shape, and its lovely layers showing the spicy filling peeping out, look impressive they’re actually easy to create. Honest.

In the morning, the dough is divided into four balls (I recommend weighing to make sure they’re equal) and each rolled out into a circle. These are stacked up with a thin layer of beaten egg and a good sprinkle of the sweetened spice mixture between them.

I’m not very good at rolling out perfect circles so, after I’ve added the top layer, put a big plate over it and trim all around.

After marking out a central circle as a guide, the dough is then cut into sixteen equal sections. I find this is easier with scissors rather than a knife.

Next, you lift up two adjacent sections at a time and twist them in opposite directions, turning over twice or two and a half times. The dough will stretch and the filling start to peep out. But that’s supposed to happen, so just keep going.

The ends of each twisted pair are pinched together into a little point. Once you’ve gone the whole way round, leave your Chai Spiced Star Bread to prove for thirty to forty minutes.

Before popping in the oven, I brush the remaining beaten egg all over the dough to give it a shiny glaze once baked.

Just twelve to fifteen minutes later, you’ll have this impressive-looking, fantastic-smelling, beautiful-tasting Chai Spiced Star Bread.

SERVING & STORING CHAI SPICED STAR BREAD

I think, especially at Christmas, a sprinkle of icing sugar makes the star bread look even nicer.

Then, all that’s left to do is pull off a section, bite into the sweet, buttery, spicy dough and marvel at how easy it was to create this wonder.

I must confess, in our house we eat one of the eight sections (nine including the centre) apiece. But, if you want the star bread to go further then each of those outer sections tears easily in two.

This bread is definitely best served warm, a few minutes after coming out of the oven. But I still think it’s gorgeous at room temperature. It’s easily reheated anyway, just wrap loosely in foil and put in a moderate oven.

I’ve also frozen and reheated it with great success.

I really hope you’ll have a go at making this impressive but so easy Chai Spiced Star Bread. Your Christmas guests will love it.

Or you just might want to keep it all to yourself.

5 from 1 vote

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Chai Spiced Star Bread

Chai Spiced Star Bread, sweet, buttery and spicy, is a treat at any time of year. But I think it’s especially good at Christmas as, although not complicated to make, it looks really impressive.

Course Dessert, Snack, Bread

Cuisine British, Indian inspired

Keyword tear and share bread, sweet dough, baking

Prep Time 45 minutes

Cook Time 15 minutes

Overnight Proving 14 hours

Total Time 15 hours

Servings 1 bread (serves 8-16)

Author Moorlands Eater

Ingredients

For the dough

• 300 g bread flour plus extra for rolling out
• 2 tsp dry active yeast
• 2 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 200 ml milk
• 60 g butter melted

For the filling & glaze

• 100 g sugar e.g. soft brown sugar
• 1 tbsp chai spice mix see Recipe Notes
• 1 egg beaten

Instructions

Make the dough the night before you want to bake the bread:

1. In a large bowl, put the flour, yeast, sugar and salt. Stir to combine.

2. Add the vanilla extract to the milk.

3. Pour all of the milk, along with the melted butter, into the flour mixture.

4. Using a rubber or plastic spoon or spatula, mix all the ingredients together, beating well to combine.

   The mixture will look very rough and be very wet, but this is fine.

   

5. Cover the bowl well and leave overnight or 12-14 hours.

On the day of baking:

1. Scrape the risen dough onto a well floured surface, then bring together into a smooth ball by folding it a few times.

2. Divide the dough into four equal pieces and form those into balls. Cover and leave to rest for 15 minutes.

3. Stir the chai spice mix into the sugar and set aside.

4. Line a round baking tray, approx 30cm in diameter, with a piece of baking parchment or greaseproof paper. Set aside.

5. Take one of the balls (keeping the rest covered) and roll it out into a circle approximately 25-27cm in diameter. Place it on the prepared tray.

6. Brush the circle with a thin layer of beaten egg.

   Sprinkle over it one third of the sugar and spice mix.

7. Roll out the second ball of dough in the same way and place it over the first.

8. Again, brush with beaten egg and sprinkle with another third of the spiced sugar.

   

9. Roll out the third ball of dough, brush with egg and sprinkle over the remaining spiced sugar.

10. Roll out the fourth ball of dough and place it over the top.

    Lightly press down the edges of the dough to seal in the filling.

11. To create a perfect circle: place a large round plate or similar over the stack and cut around it, going through all the layers. Remove the trimmings.

12. Place a 5cm cutter or glass temporarily in the centre of the dough and, without going through the layers, lightly press down to mark out a circle.

13. Using a ruler or other straight edge, mark out the dough into 16 equal sections, starting out from the central circle.

    

14. Using a sharp knife or scissors, cut through all the layers.

15. Taking two adjacent sections at a time, twist the pieces in opposite directions, turning them around two and a half times.

    Pinch the ends of the two pieces together so they form a point.

    Repeat with the rest of the sections, two at a time.

    

16. Cover the dough with cling film or a damp tea towel and leave to prove for 30-40 minutes.

    Preheat the oven to 200C/180C fan/Gas 4.

    

17. Brush the rest of the beaten egg over the bread.

18. Put the bread on its tray in the oven. Bake until golden and cooked through (approx 12-15 minutes).

    

19. When baked, cool for a few minutes before tearing off pieces and eating warm.

    Can be frozen when cold. Reheat in foil in a medium oven.

Recipe Notes

To make your own Chai Spice mix, start with the following ground spices and adapt to your own taste:

• 1.5 tsp ginger
• 1.5 tsp cardamom
• 1.5 tsp cinnamon (or ground cassia bark, sometimes labelled 'sweet cinnamon')
• 0.5 tsp cloves
• 0.5 tsp nutmeg
• 0.25 tsp black pepper
• 0.25 tsp white pepper

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