Fruit mincemeat star bread

This easy fruit mincemeat star bread makes the perfect Christmas morning tear-and-share breakfast. It's like a giant Chelsea bun, but packed with the flavours of Christmas. Prepare it the night before, and pop it in the oven on Christmas morning to bake. Then just let everyone tear off a warm chewy slice to munch on while opening the Christmas presents.

Much as I love a traditional mince pie at Christmas, this fruity star bread recipe is becoming just as popular!

Jump to:

• The ideal Christmas breakfast
• What you will need
• What to do
• Freezing and storage
• Save for later
• Related recipes
• 📋The recipe

The ideal Christmas breakfast

The last thing you want to do on Christmas morning is cook up a big breakfast for the family, especially since you're probably going to be cooking up a storm later with Christmas lunch looming. This fruit mincemeat star bread bake is the easy way to make sure everyone gets a yummy Christmas breakfast, with minimal fuss!

It's made with layers of dough, interspersed with fruit mincemeat and Christmas spices such as cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, ginger, and caraway. It's a bit like a cross between a mince pie and a giant Chelsea bun. And the beauty of it is that you can prepare it the day before and leave it in the fridge overnight, before popping it in the oven for 20 minutes on Christmas morning for a freshly baked Christmas treat.

At first glance, it looks quite time-consuming and difficult to make, but in actual fact, this fruit mincemeat star bread is very easy to make.

• the dough takes 10 minutes to mix, then you leave it to rise for 2 hours while you get on with your other Christmas preparations.
• once the dough has risen, roll it out into 4 circles and spread it with the filling.
• then it's just a matter of slicing the edges and twisting them together to form the star shape.
• leave it in the fridge overnight and bake for 20 minutes on Christmas morning, before drizzling it with a tangy glaze, for a delicious tear-and-share breakfast.

If you follow my easy instructions below, you can roll and form this fruit mincemeat star bread in less than half an hour.

And of course, you don't only have to make this at Christmas - you can make this at any time of the year by swapping out the fruit mincemeat for plain old raisins or sultanas!

What you will need

**You can get the complete list of ingredients and full instructions for making this fruit mincemeat star bread on the printable recipe card at the end of this post**

If you want to make this fruit mincemeat star bread, I recommend that you read through the instructions below to get an idea of how the bread is assembled before you skip to the recipe.

The star bread will be baked on a large baking tray. If you don't have one large enough, you can use the bottom tray from your oven.

There are three different lots of ingredients - for the dough, the filling and the glaze.

The dough

This is a yeast dough and you will have to knead it. If you have a stand mixer, this will take all the hard work out of it. However, it will only take 10 minutes to knead the dough by hand.

Flour - you can either use bread flour (preferred because of the high gluten content) or plain all-purpose flour.

Sugar - this is a sweet dough so you will need white granulated sugar. I've allowed 3 tablespoons of sugar - if you prefer a sweeter dough, add an extra tablespoon of sugar.

Milk and Butter - you can use either full-fat or semi-skimmed milk. The butter should be at room temperature. In addition, the milk and butter will be warmed slightly in the microwave.

Egg - this enriches the dough and makes the final result softer.

Yeast - this is instant yeast granules, not fresh yeast.

Salt - optional, but I think that a half-teaspoon of salt improves the flavour.

The filling

The filling is made by alternating layers of a sugar and spice mixture, with a layer of fruit mincemeat in between layers of rolled dough.

Fruit mincemeat - this is the fruit mincemeat that you would normally buy for making mince pies.

Brown sugar - the molasses in the brown sugar provides a delicious caramel flavour.

Butter - at room temperature for easy mixing.

Ground cinnamon and mixed spice - mixed spice does contain cinnamon, but not enough, so I've included additional cinnamon.

The glaze

The deliciously tangy glaze is drizzled over the top of the baked star bread.

The glaze is formed by mixing icing sugar (or powdered sugar/confectioner's sugar) with cream cheese and then thinning down with lemon juice.

What to do

It's always good to have an idea of what you are making. This is the dough once it's been rolled, filled and shaped.

Make the dough

The first step is to make the dough and leave it to rise.

• Place the flour, yeast, sugar and salt into a mixing bowl.
• Warm the milk and butter for 30 seconds in the microwave and pour it over the flour mixture. Then add the egg.
• If you are using a stand mixture, process on a low setting for 2 minutes to combine the ingredients, then increase the speed to medium and process until the dough leaves the sides of the bowl and comes together in a ball (about 5 minutes).
• If you are kneading by hand, mix the ingredients together, then knead for about 10 minutes until you have a smooth ball of dough.
• The dough should leave a slight indentation and then slowly spring back when you press it gently with your finger (image 2 above).

How to knead dough by hand

Kneading dough by hand is easy once you have mastered the technique.

What we are trying to do by kneading the dough is to stretch the flour to develop the strands of gluten that give the baked dough its texture. A stand mixer does this automatically for you - here's how to knead dough if you don't have a stand mixer.

• Tip the dough onto a floured surface.
• Using the heel of your hand (ie the bottom of your palm just above the wrist), press the dough downwards and away from you.
• Then pull the dough back up onto itself.
• Give the dough a slight turn and repeat the pressing and stretching movement.
• Keep on turning, pressing and stretching until the dough is smooth and elastic.
• You will need to keep this up for between 7 to 10 minutes depending on how fast you knead.

And that's all there is to it!

Leave to rise

• The dough will be ready when you press it gently with your finger and it leaves a slight indentation (image 2 above).
• Place the dough into the mixing bowl, cover with a clean cloth and leave in a warm place to rise for 2 hours. The dough should more than double in size.
• Tip - to create a warm environment for the dough to rise - remove the racks from your oven, turn on the oven to 200C/400F for 30 seconds (no longer), then switch off the oven and place the bowl of dough in the oven with the door closed.

Mix the filling and roll the dough

Place the brown sugar and butter into a mixing bowl and cream together with a wooden spoon until well combined. Mix in the spices and set aside.

The star bread is made by rolling 4 circles of dough, spreading them with filling and layering them one on top of the other.

• Divide the risen dough into 4 even pieces and roll each one into a ball.
• Roll a ball of dough into a thin circle, approximately the size of a dinner plate (image 2 above). This image is meant to show the size of the rolled dough. Don't trim the dough yet - this will be done once all the layers are assembled.

Add the filling

The following images illustrate how to layer and fill the star bread.

• Transfer the circle of rolled dough to a sheet of baking paper (image 1 above). You may find it easier to move the dough if you use the rolling pin to help you.
• Spread half of the sugar/butter/spice mixture onto the first dough circle (image 2 above). Don't go all the way towards the edges - the edges will be trimmed to neaten the dough once all the circles have been covered.
• Roll a second circle of dough and lay it on top of the first circle (image 3 above).
• Spread the fruit mincemeat over the dough (image 4 above). Do be careful not to put too much filling on this layer, otherwise, the filling may bubble out and overflow when the star bread is in the oven.

• Roll the third circle and place it over the mincemeat layer (image 1 above).
• Spread this layer with the remaining sugar/butter mixture (image 2 above).
• Now roll the final ball of dough and place it on top of the other layers (image 3 above).
• You will have 4 layers of dough - one covered with sugar and spices, the second covered with fruit mincemeat and the third covered with more sugar and spices. The top layer of dough just covers everything and does not have anything spread on it.
• Carefully transfer the baking parchment and the layers of dough onto a baking sheet. The next step is to trim the dough and form the star, and it will be easier to do this if the dough is already on the baking sheet.
• Put a dinner plate upside down on the layers of dough and carefully trim the edges away to neaten.

Form the star shape

This may get a little messy, so keep a damp cloth nearby to wipe your hands.

• Place a small dish or drinking glass in the centre of the dough (image 1 above). This will act as a guide when cutting the strips.
• Make 4 cuts on the dough, to divide it into quarters. Don't cut all the way to the centre of the dough - make the cuts from the edge of the glass (image 2 above).
• Now cut each quarter into 4 equal pieces. You will end up with 16 slices through the dough.
• Take 2 strips of dough and give them two complete twists towards each other (image 3 above). You will probably find that you need to stretch the dough slightly to twist it fully.
• Give the strips another quarter turn to bring the edges together and pinch them together to form a point (image 4 above).

• Continue working in pairs, twisting and joining together, until you have an 8-pointed star shape.
• Cover the dough with a clean towel and leave it to rise for an hour.
• Brush the dough with beaten egg. This will help the dough to brown nicely in the oven.
• If you want to bake this fresh (ie on Christmas morning), cover the star with plastic wrap and place it in the refrigerator overnight. Otherwise, you can bake immediately.

How to bake fruit mincemeat star bread

• Bake the star bread at 180C/360F for 20 to 25 minutes until golden browned.
• Remove from the oven and allow to cool then cover with glaze and serve.

To make the glaze

• Place the icing sugar and cream cheese in a mixing bowl and mix together until the icing sugar has been fully incorporated.
• Add lemon juice a teaspoon at a time until you get a soft dropping consistency. Be careful you don't make the glaze too runny - it should be thick enough to hold onto the knife and drip off slowly.

• Transfer the glaze to a piping bag (if you don't have one, use a plastic freezer bag and snip off the corner) and drizzle the glaze all over the cooled star bread.

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Freezing and storage

You can freeze the formed, unbaked star bread (before covering it with egg wash). Place the baking tray into the freezer and allow the star bread to freeze, then wrap it in a layer of baking parchment and two layers of plastic wrap and leave it in the freezer for up to six months.

To bake, remove the plastic wrap and place the star bread on a baking tray. Let it defrost on the counter then brush with beaten egg and bake as per the recipe instructions.

This star bread is best eaten fresh on the day, however, you can store it in an air-tight tin in the kitchen for 2 days, or in a plastic container in the refrigerator for up to 5 days. After that, the bread will tend to go stale.

Because of the glaze, it will be difficult to reheat.

Save for later

If you would like to make this fruit mincemeat star bread why not pin the recipe to one of your Pinterest boards so you can find it easily when you need it? Just click on the image below.

Alternatively, you can save the recipe by clicking on the floating heart icon on the right-hand side of the screen.

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📋The recipe

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