Festive Sourdough Braided Brioche Wreath [with raspberries and orange glaze]

This festive sourdough braided brioche wreath is perfect for your next festive gathering. Nothing says Christmas like a sourdough braided brioche wreath! And while this looks super impressive, it is really easy to make and bake.

I feel like this special sourdough brioche wreath almost has a panettone like quality to it with the fragrant orange zest and jammy raspberries. The great news is that it's much easier to make than a traditional sourdough panettone!

If you are looking for other festive sourdough recipes you might like this collection of sourdough Christmas recipes.

Why You'll Love This Recipe!

Tried & Tested Dough - I have used the same brioche dough in my sourdough chocolate star bread to create this wreath, so you can be sure that it's a winner. It's easy to handle and not too sticky when shaping. You'll find a savory version in this garlic and herb sourdough twist.

Gorgeous Color - this sourdough wreath is fit for a celebration with its vibrant colors. The orange zest and fresh raspberries combine to create something truly special.

Vary The Flavors - you can easily vary the flavors on this wreath. Swap out the raspberries for cranberries and add a maple glaze, or maybe blueberries with lemon zest are more your style. The versatility of this recipe makes it truly special.

Ingredients

Making this sourdough brioche braided wreath doesn't require many speciality ingredients.

• All Purpose Flour - you can use bread flour if you prefer.
  
• Sourdough starter - it's up to you whether you use active sourdough starter or you use some sourdough discard with a little commercial yeast (details for this are in the recipe card at the bottom of the post). Being enriched, the dough is very slow to rise so it's good to have a quicker version if you need it, especially if you're baking for a special ocassion.
  
• Whole Milk and an egg
  
• Butter - as usual I've used salted butter, but you can of course use unsalted if you prefer. Make sure your butter is softened at room temperature so it combines more easily with the dough.
  
• Granulated Sugar + Powdered Sugar - you'll need granulated sugar for the dough and powdered sugar to create the orange glaze for the top.
  
• Orange - I've used the zest of the orange for the filling and the juice to create the orange glaze which is applied after baking. You can swap the orange out for lemon if you prefer.
  
• Fresh Raspberries - I've used fresh raspberries but you can use frozen if you prefer. Fresh cranberries and or blueberries also work well in this dough.
  
• Flaked Almonds - These add a festive touch and some crunch to your wreath. You can use crushed pistachios instead.

How To Make A Festive Braided Sourdough Brioche Wreath

While this sourdough braided sourdough brioche wreath has a lot of steps, it's not particularly difficult. When testing this recipe, I used a variety of fillings, but a lot of them made the dough hard to twist and shape, so I settled on the simple filling below. Something that surprised me in developing this recipe was the mixing of the raspberries and the orange zest and the gorgeous colors they created together (as do blueberries and lemon zest).

I've made the dough for this recipe in a stand mixer, but you can knead it by hand if you prefer. Because it's a brioche dough, adding the butter can be tricky when kneading by hand, but it's certainly possible. You will find lots of tips for making a sourdough brioche dough here.

Add the sugar and milk together and mix until the sugar has dissolved into the milk. Make sure that the milk is room temp.

Add the sourdough starter (or discard plus yeast), flour and eggs to the bowl and mix into a rough dough. Allow it to sit for 15 minutes. Don't worry if the mix appears dry, it will soften up once you add the butter.

Now add the room temperature butter and salt and knead it into the dough until the dough is smooth and elastic.

Once the dough is smooth and pulling away from the sides of the bowl, set it aside to rise. You want the dough to rise around 50% at this stage.

Once the dough has risen, tip it out on a clean surface and shape it into a rectangle with the long edge facing you (just like when you make cinnamon rolls).

Take the soft butter and spread it over the rectangle, leaving a strip around an inch wide at the top with no butter.

Next, zest the orange over the butter and squish the raspberries over the top. The orange zest and the raspberry juice will mix together a little. Now sprinkle the granulated sugar over the whole lot.

Roll the dough up as tight as you can using the unbuttered edge to seal it. You should have a long roll of dough. Place the dough seam side down in a straight line on the counter.

Use a sharp knife or metal dough scraper to divide the dough roll in half length ways so you have two long pieces of dough. Don't drag the knife through the dough, cut it straight down so that you can see the layers of dough inside.

Now twist the two pieces around each other to form a long braided rope.

Form the rope into a round wreath and gently push the ends together (don't worry too much if it's not neat as you can cover this with a ribbon after baking).

Leave the sourdough wreath to proof for a few hours - you want this brioche dough to be super soft and puffy before you bake.

When you are ready to bake your wreath, preheat the oven to 180C (350F) and bake the wreath for around 30 minutes or until it is golden brown. This burns easily so keep an eye on it.

While the sourdough wreath is baking, mix the orange juice and powdered sugar together to form a runny orange glaze. Set aside.

Once baked, remove from the oven and allow to cool. When you're read to serve, drizzle in the orange glaze and decorate with fresh raspberries and flaked almonds.

Notes on Shaping

If you don't want to make this dough into a twisted sourdough wreath, you can create other shapes with it. Here are some other ways to use the dough:

• Double the dough recipe. Once you've added the filling, roll up in to a loaf shape and bake in a loaf pan. Drizzle with glaze and add fresh raspberries and almonds after baking.
  
• Make individual mini wreaths. These look super cute in little bags or boxes to give as baked Christmas gifts.
  
• Create small portions of dough (around 70g) and shape them as small rolls.

Flavor Variations

I have used oranges and raspberries to flavor and decorate this sourdough wreath because they felt quite Christmassy. But there are lots of other flavor combinations you could try! Here are a few that work really well!

• Lemon & Blueberry - swap out the orange zest and juice for lemon and the raspberries for blueberries (fresh or frozen).
  
• Cranberry Orange & Maple - swap out the raspberries for cranberries. Use the orange zest in the sourdough brioche wreath filling, but use maple syrup instead of orange juice in the glaze.
  
• Apple & Cinnamon - swap out the raspberries for a diced green apple and add a sprinkle of cinnamon. Use a little whole milk and vanilla extract to create the glaze with the powdered sugar.

How To Serve + Store

This recipe is best served and eaten the day of baking. Leftovers can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for around 3 days. I do recommend warming it slightly before eating once it's been stored for a few days.

This sourdough brioche wreath can be frozen and thawed, but I would not add the glaze, fresh raspberries and flaked almonds on top until after it has thawed.

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