Christmas Sprinkle Buttermilk Bread – tender buttermilk quick bread with festive Christmas colored sprinkles.
Christmas Sprinkle Buttermilk Bread
Tender homemade buttermilk quick bread with a colorful Christmas twist. This festive Christmas bread is a must add to your holiday baking. It’s easy to make and perfect for serving at breakfast or brunch. It makes a beautiful gift too!
Christmas Bread Ingredients
- All-Purpose Flour – use the spoon and sweep method to measure flour
- Sugar – granulated white sugar
- Baking Powder and Baking Soda – make sure the baking powder and baking soda are fresh for best results.
- Kosher Salt
- Buttermilk – I use reduced fat buttermilk because that’s what is available in our area.
- Egg – beat lightly before adding buttermilk
- Unsalted Butter – melted and cooled
- Almond Extract – Almond extract adds a lovely flavor that I always associate with the holidays. Vanilla extract would be a great substitute.
- Christmas Colored Sprinkles – also called jimmies
- Christmas Colored Nonpareils – the small round sprinkles
- Powdered Sugar – sifted to prevent lumps
- Light Corn Syrup – for the glaze
How To Make Christmas Bread
Be sure to scroll to the recipe card for full instructions.
- Start by preheating oven and lining a loaf pan with parchment paper.
- Combine dry ingredients in a larger bowl.
- In a smaller bowl, combine wet ingredients.
- Stir just until combined and then fold in sprinkles.
- Bake at 350 for 45-50 minutes on upper rack of oven.
- Let cool completely and glaze.
Recipe Tips
- For the tenderest bread, mix batter as little as possible.
- Bake until the center is just set. If the bread is still jiggly, bake it a bit longer.
- The bread is dense and takes a while to cool completely. If you want the look of the bread with clean slices and set glaze, you will need to let the bread cool completely and let the glaze set until firm.
- Can be made ahead and served the following day.
- To help parchment paper stay in place when adding the batter, I like to spray the pan lightly with non stick cooking spray.
Sprinkles (Jimmies) vs Nonpareils
This recipe uses sprinkles, aka jimmies, and nonpareils. The sprinkles are the longer rod shaped pieces and the nonpareils and the smaller round shapes. The sprinkles are baked into the bread and the nonpareils are added to the top. The sprinkles are mixed into the batter because the colors won’t run during baking. Only use the nonpareils as the topping, their colors will bleed if added to the batter.
Popular Christmas Recipes
- M&M Christmas Cookie Bars
- Christmas Wreath Charcuterie Board
- Snowman Cheese Ball
- Rudolph Cheese Ball
- Christmas Chocolate Chip Sugar Cookies

Christmas Sprinkle Buttermilk Bread - tender buttermilk quick bread with festive Christmas colored sprinkles.
- 2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 cup sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 cup buttermilk
- 1 large egg lightly beaten
- 1/2 cup unsalted butter melted and cooled
- 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
- 1/2 cup sprinkles
- 2 cups powdered sugar sifted
- 3 tablespoons buttermilk plus more as needed
- 1 tablespoon light corn syrup
- Nonpareils
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Move rack to upper third in oven and preheat oven to 350°. Line a 9x5 inch aluminum loaf pan with parchment paper. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and kosher salt. In a smaller bowl, whisk together egg, buttermilk, butter, and almond extract. Add wet ingredients to dry and mix just until combined. Fold in sprinkles.
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Transfer batter to loaf pan and bake for 45-50 minutes or until center of bread is set. Let cool in pan for 5 minutes, then transfer bread to a wire rack to cool completely. The buttermilk bread is dense so it will take 1-2 hours to cool completely.
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Once bread has cooled completely, prepare glaze. Whisk together powdered sugar, buttermilk, and corn syrup. Adjust buttermilk as needed to get a thick pourable consistency. Spoon over bread and top with nonpareils.
Recipe adapted from Buttermilk Sprinkle Quick Bread in the Taste of the South Best of Holiday Baking Magazine
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My family loves this festive look! This buttermilk bread is so quick and easy to make. We enjoyed it! Highly recommended for Christmas treats!
Amazing! Easy to make and so pretty. I made it for my work holiday lunch and it was a hit. I am planning on making it again for Christmas!
I love this Christmas sprinkle buttermilk bread recipe! It’s easy to make and delicious. Perfect for a holiday treat that everyone would love and enjoy. Highly recommended!
Fabulous! Easy to make & tasted great. I baked for 48 minutes. Temp of the bread was 205 when I too it out of the oven. I just used powdered sugar, a little vanilla extract, & milk & used that as a glaze after it cooled. It’s a keeper! Thanks for another great recipe!!