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European Christmas Wreath

Fragrant spicy brioche buns baked into a wreath, drizzled with orange icing, with four smaller buns filled with homemade orange curd.

By bbcfood · From Open Recipes · 27 ingredients
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Why it works: Orange and lemon match in chemistry and in kitchens. They rank in the top 1% of all ingredient pairs, and 10,632 recipes mention both. Both carry 3-hexenal, which smells apple, fruity. The science ↓

The recipe

Serves 4-6
Cook30 min

Ingredients

Contains: egg, milk, wheat, tree nuts (auto-detected from the ingredients and method; we can miss things, so check labels)

Directions

Method written by CompKitchen from the ingredient list. Not the original author's method, not kitchen-tested.

  1. Mix the flour, caster sugar, yeast, salt, mixed spice and crushed cardamom seeds from the pods in a large bowl. Add the 6 eggs, orange flower water, grated zest of 1 orange and the soft butter, then knead until smooth.

  2. Knead in the sultanas and 100g chopped pistachios. Cover and leave in a warm place until doubled in size.

  3. For the filling, beat the 85g unsalted butter and 170g caster sugar until light. Beat in the 3 eggs one at a time, then add the grated marzipan, orange liqueur, pinch of salt and the grated zest of 2 oranges and the lemon.

  4. Roll the risen dough into a large rectangle and spread the filling over it, leaving a border. Roll it up from the long side, join the ends into a ring on a lined baking tray, and cut slashes around the top.

  5. Mix the egg with a pinch of salt and brush over the dough. Scatter with toasted flaked almonds and extra chopped pistachios.

  6. Bake at 190°C (375°F) for about 30 minutes until deep golden. The filling must reach 160°F (71°C) in the centre, so check it is set.

  7. Cool the wreath on a wire rack. Warm the fondant icing with a splash of water and the juice of the remaining orange until pourable, then drizzle over the wreath.

  8. Cut leaves and berries from the ready rolled red and green fondant icing, arrange on the wreath and add edible gold stars to finish.

By bbcfood. Recipe from Open Recipes.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much aroma chemistry they share, and how many recipes mention both.

  1. Orange + lemontop 1% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together10,632 recipes

    Shared aroma: 3-hexenal (apple, fruity).

  2. Cardamom + lemontop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together405 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-phellandrene (minty, terpene).

  3. Cardamom + orangetop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together228 recipes

    Shared aroma: eucalyptol (eucalyptus, herbal).

  4. Cardamom + pistachiotop 2% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapstrong
    Mentioned together157 recipes

    Shared aroma: nonanal (fat, citrus).

  5. Flour + cardamomtop 5% of all pairs
    Aroma overlapmoderate
    Mentioned together627 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

Flavor stand-ins for the pistachio

How well each one fits the dish's main ingredients (flour, sugar, cardamom, egg, butter, orange, lemon):

  1. Almondbetter flavor fit
  2. Pistachiothe original
  3. Walnutabout as good a flavor fit

Fit is the average pairing score against flour, sugar, cardamom, egg, butter, orange, lemon. Candidates are from the same food group and used in at least 100 recipes. This compares flavor only: it does not check the job the ingredient does in the dish (bulk, moisture, acidity, structure).