At Least 6 Hours Before Baking

Combine the starter, water, honey, salt and butter in a mixing bowl. Mix until smooth;. If using a mixer, you can use the whisk or paddle attachment of your mixer first. Once done mixing, replace with dough hook attachment.

Add flour in 1 cup increments and mix until incorporated in between. The dough will clean the sides of the bowl when it is thoroughly mixed. The dough will be slightly sticky still but don't add too much flour or this will dry out the bread. See notes for more info.

Take out the dough hook and scrape off dough into the bowl. Cover with plastic wrap or lid and keep in warm place until doubled. This can take 6-10 hours.

Before the bread dough is ready to work, set up all the dragon embellishments on a large table with parchment paper, scissors, towels, etc.

Prepare your baking sheets by lining them with parchment paper. You will need at least two if you are making mini-dragons.

Shape and Final Rise

Wet your hands and punch down the dough. If making mini-loaf dragons, divide the dough into six even parts.

Disperse the dough and begin decorating, reminding kids to work as quickly as they can.

To make a basic dragon shape, roll a log of dough like a fat snake.

Choose one end for the head and form a rounded diamond at that end to be its jaws and eyes.

Twist the lower end up and over itself to be a coiled body.

Press the tail end into a point.*

Use pinched fingers to flair out ridges of dough to be raised scales. Go along these ridges and cut every quarter inch with the scissors. This will give you a scale-like bread once baked. You can also snip along the dragon's skin to create raised areas that will be scale-like once baked.

Place raisins, cacao nibs, or small candies for eyes and nostrils, or anywhere else to create effect.

Once ready, allow the dragons to rise a bit in a warm place, covered lightly, while the oven pre-heats.

Pre-heat the oven.

Brush the dragons with the egg white wash. Keep it light, but be sure to get the crevices.

Bake at 325F/163C for 30-40 minutes or until an inserted thermometer reads 180F/82C. Cover dragons with tented foil if they are browning too quickly and you are concerned about scorching while the bake time finishes.

Remove from the oven and allow to set up and cool a bit for at least 20 minutes.

Serve warm with butter, honey, or jam.