Star Bread Sandwiches
Happy Monday! I hope your Fourth of July was festive and that you and your loved ones were able to spend plenty of quality time together. If you’re like me or my kids, we’re currently recovering from one too many late nights and trying our best to get back on a consistent schedule. Fingers crossed that the naps and early bedtimes fall back into place ASAP.
Even though the Fourth is over, we’re still celebrating all things Red, White, and Blue over here because 1. It’s still July so I think it gives us a pass and 2. We live in Utah, so we get to celebrate the Fourth of July TWICE.
Don’t worry… I’m only kidding… kind of. ;) I know we don’t actually celebrate twice… but sometimes it feels like that. If you’re confused, July 24th is a state holiday here in Utah. So in a couple of weeks, we get to celebrate Pioneer Day!
The official purpose of the holiday is commemorate the entry of Brigham Young and the first group of Mormon pioneers into Utah's Salt Lake Valley in 1847. However, having grown up outside of Utah, it wasn’t a holiday I grew up celebrating, so it’s kind of always felt like a second Independence Day. And I’m totally okay with that! Another round of fireworks, barbecues, and more celebrations? Yes please! Bring it on!
Sooo in honor of Pioneer Day coming up: I wanted to share one of my favorite traditions that works for lots of different summer holidays: Pioneer Day, Labor Day, Memorial Day, or Independence Day! Or honestly it can just be a fun way to switch things up during the summer. Introducing: Star Bread! (Also sometimes referred to as “Blue Bread”… we’re working on the name :))
Star Bread is as straightforward as it sounds! Every Fourth of July, we make homemade bread and dye half of the dough blue. Simply make your homemade bread following any of your favorite recipes and then add a few drops of blue food coloring as it’s kneading. Allow the dough to mix well until it reaches a shade of blue that you’re happy with. At that point, continue to cook the bread according to the recipe you’re using.
Once your loaves have cooled completely, slice them and lay each slice flat. Next, use a star cookie cutter to cut out the center of a slice of both the white and blue bread. Switch the stars between the two so that you have one slice of white bread with a blue star, and one slice of blue bread with a white star. Continue the same pattern for the rest of the loaves until every piece has a different colored star in the center.
Once the bread is all festive and ready to go, we love to use it to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches! My personal favorite is to make them with strawberry or raspberry jam so that you get pops of every color - red, white, and blue!
Of course, you can use any bread recipe for this. But here’s the one we use and have had great luck with. This recipe makes two loaves so you can dye one blue and keep one white!
It may seem simple, but it’s always a hit! The last time we made star bread sandwiches, my nephew referred to them as his favorite holiday tradition of all! Which is a biiiggg deal coming from him.
Tips & Options:
We always plan to have “Star Bread Sandwiches” prepared for lunch on the holiday to hold everyone over until our BBQ that usually takes place late afternoon or early evening.
If you’re trying to make enough for a big group and don’t want to double the recipe, you could make two loaves of all blue bread and use store bought white bread to interchange the stars with. Sometimes the size of your homemade bread and the store bought slices don’t line up exactly, but it tends to still work just fine.
This recipe and concept could work for lots of different holidays! You could dye the dough pink or red for Valentines Day and cut out a heart from the center of your bread. Or do orange bread and pumpkins for Halloween!
Regardless of when or how you do it, I hope you and your family love it as much as we do!
Cheers!
Meg
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