Dragonbread Tips for 2nd Grade Moms to Come

Before the details slide irretrievably from my consciousness, I thought it might be a good idea to make note of how we tackled the Dragonbread for the Michalmas Festival for those who might need a point of reference in the future. 


- Bread of choice: Challah, for its malleable quality, and the braiding that nicely mimics scales.
- How much?: We ended up using 8 loaves (4 batches) for all but the tail (which was made separately for our Gluten-free guests, and I believe was made up of 1 loaf -- so, 9 loaves total).
- Proportions: 
        * Head - 1 loaf
        * Neck - 1 loaf
        * Body - 3 loaves
        * Wings - 1 loaf
        * Hind legs - 1 1/2 loaves
        * Front legs & ears - 1/2 loaf
        * Tail - 1 Gluten-free loaf
- Assembly: We ended up assembling the beast directly on the counter and let it rise before cutting it so it would fit on the baking sheets. The cutting-transferring process was by far the most challenging. If I had to do it again (!), I would probably assemble it directly onto the baking sheets (the slim kind with only two edges) and let rise. You can tell from the photo where we needed to make the cuts. Wings, midsection, leg & lower body. The head and upper body needed 2 baking sheets, overlapping, on one rack in the oven.
- Baking: We managed to get the whole thing in 2 ovens at the same time -- 4 racks. Having a double oven is a great boon. How it all turned out fully baked and not burned anywhere was one of St. Michael's miracles, I suppose. 
- Embellishments: Poppy seeds sprinkled on wings (after rising, before baking, with egg-wash), blanched almost shards for claws and teeth (before baking), slice of dried persimmon for the eye (baked with one in the eye but it turned out pretty gnarly, so just replaced it with a fresh one), raisins for nostril and ears (before baking), and dried mango slices for fire (after baking).


So now, take courage... and have fun!