In this post:

Recipe of Christmas Wreath Bread with Lingonberry Jam
List of Ingredients
Instruction
Variations

I think it was a small German cookbook — flimsy, stapled binding and that utterly absurd A4 landscape format. I kept having to dive into the dictionary to fight my way through “Butter und Zucker gründlich verrühren” — oh, those blessed times when Google Translate hadn’t yet invaded the kitchen. But the illustrations in that book! Their warm palette literally radiated warmth and celebration. I especially lost my heart to a Christmas jam roll.

The editor of the cookbook was clearly drunk out of his or her mind:), because the recipe for that roll called for something like 500 g of flour to 700 g of milk. I had absolutely no experience back then to recognise a doomed ratio when I saw one, so the roll never stood a chance at that time.

The book itself vanished somewhere in a move — no real loss, given the editing. But the idea of ​​shaping the dough into a braided wreath stuck in my mind.

It turns out the the roots of this form are easy to trace in Central European “Kranz/Hefekranz” traditions—yeast wreaths that appear in printed cookbooks by the early 1900s.

In Austro–South German cooking, yeast baking and decorative shaping are documented in classics such as Die süddeutsche Küche (1907), where “festiveness” is often created by the braid and the form itself. You can browse the book by following the link.

Image Source: Wienbibliothek im Rathaus

The wreath’s Christmas symbolism was strengthened in the 19th century by the Advent wreath: according to Das Rauhe Haus, Johann Hinrich Wichern set up the first Adventskranz in Hamburg in 1839.

At the same time, neighboring countries had their own Christmas festive breads (for instance, the Czech braided vánočka), and English-language recipes often group these related ideas under the “wreath” image.

But let’s get back to today. As I mentioned, I was impressed by the idea of ​​shaping the dough. And finding the right proportions for Christmas Wreath Bread with Lingonberry Jam was a matter of a few experiments. This is the result.

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Christmas Wreath Bread with Lingonberry Jam

recipe for two breads

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Ingredients

Ingredients for Dough

850 g all purpose flour
180 g white sugar
1 tsp salt
10 g or 2 tbsp cardamom (don’t even start kneading the dough if you run out of cardamom in the house! :))
450 g milk
120 g oil
1 egg
9 g or 1 tbsp dried yeast

Ingredients for Filling

100 g lingonberry jam

Ingredients for Lubrication

1 yolk
a little water

Ingredient for Decoration

140 g powdered sugar
30 g egg white

fresh lingonberries for serving

Method

Making Dough

1. Mix dry ingredients such flour, sugar, salt, cardamom and yeast in bread maker for up to 2-3 minutes. If you do not use bread maker mix them in a large bowl with a whisk.

2. Then in another bowl mix well preheat up to 40 °C milk, oil and egg.

3. Add the oil mixture to the dry ingredients. Run the bread machine on the kneading and proofing mode (no baking!). Or, if kneading by hand, knead the dough until smooth and elastic and let it rest in a warm place for about an hour. The dough should double in size.

4. Preheat oven to 220 °C.

Forming the Wreath

5. Dust the table with flour and place the dough on it.

6. Divide the dough with a spatula into two equal parts.

Roll each part into a ball.

7. Cover one ball with a towel.

8. Roll out the second one into a rectangle 0.5 cm thick and approximately 60 x 60 cm in size.

9. Spread the filling over the dough, leaving a 1 cm border.

10. Roll it tightly along the long side. So the length of the roll is equal the long side of the rectangle.

Carefully pinch the edges of the roll.

11. Using a spatula, cut the roll into two equal halves, moving along the roll.

12. Twist both parts of the roll together, making sure that the cut is on top.

13. Close the resulting braid into a ring, hide the ends of the dough.

14. Transfer the wreath bread to a baking sheet lined with baking paper.

15. Beat the yolk with a little water and brush the top wreath bread with this mixture.

16. Place in the oven for 30 minutes. If the top of the wreath bread starts to burn, cover it with foil. I usually bake the first 15 minutes without foil, then cover the wreath bread with foil for the last 15 minutes.

17. Repeat steps 8-16 for the second ball.

Making Icing

1. Beat the egg whites with a mixer on low speed until soft peaks form.

2. Add the powdered sugar a little at a time.

3. Beat the mixture until stiff peaks form.

Decoration

Decorate baked Christmas Wreath Bread with Lingonberry Jam with Icing and fresh lingonberries.

Variations

We’re all pressed for time on Christmas Eve, so one option I suggest is replacing the icing with regular powdered sugar. The Christmas Wreath Bread with Lingonberry Jam won’t lose anything with this change!

As for choosing berries as a filling for this wreath bread, everything is simple: I adore lingonberries and could eat them 24 hours a day. Heck! That’s exactly what I do: in the morning with yogurt, during the day there’s always something to top with lingonberry sauce, and, in baking, lingonberries are my number one berry.

Of course, you can replace the bitterness of lingonberries with the sweetness of strawberry jam. Or raspberry. Whatever!

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It seem that this is my last recipe for the year 2025. So I wish all my blog visitors a peaceful and calm Christmas and a happy new year! May your home always be warm and fragrant!