The summer solstice is an ancient celebration that has been honored throughout history to celebrate the full return of the sun's light. Many different cultures celebrate this longest day of the year, and it has become a special part of the Waldorf wheel of the year. Summer solstice is the perfect opportunity to give thanks to our Earth and all that it provides.
A Sun Blessing:
Flaming light,
Shine so bright.
Flaming light,
Give your might.
Make us strong and make us bold,
turn our word to living gold.
-Margret Meyerkort
Make Solstice Sun Bread
Ingredients:
3 tbsp milk
2 packets active dry yeast
3 eggs
3 tbsp sugar
1 stick of butter, melted
2 cups sifted flour, plus more for dusting
1 tsp salt
Directions
1. Line a baking tray with parchment paper
2. In a small bowl, warm milk slightly to 100-110 degrees. Add dry active yeast to the luke warm milk. Whisk gently and set aside for 10-15 minutes. You will know the yeast is ready when it has foamed/thickened up on the top.
3. In a seperate bowl, mix together eggs, sugar, and butter.
4. In a large bowl, mix sifted flour and salt.
5. Pour the wet ingredients (bowls from steps 2 & 3) into the dry ingredients (bowl from step 4) and stir together.
6. Once the mixture has come together, move it to a floured surface. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. If it is still too wet and sticks to your hands, add a bit more flour.
7. Roll the dough into a ball and place it in a large, greased bowl. Cover the bowl with a kitchen towel and let rise for about 2 hours, or until the dough doubles in size.
8. Place the risen dough back on a floured surface and knead it for a few more minutes.
9. Split the dough into two equal sections. Pull a small peice from the first section and roll into a small ball. Roll the rest of the first section into a ball and flatten into a round disc to form the face of the sun. Use your finger to poke two holes into the dough as eyes, and place the small ball of dough into the center as a nose.
(A TIP: I learned with this first loaf of sun bread, it's important to make the round disc of the sun face as flat as the outer rays, so it does not bake quicker and brown much darker, much faster.)
10. Split the second section of dough into 10-12 smaller sections. Roll each small section into a long tube shape, about 5-6 inches long. Roll the tube into a spiral shape, similar to a snail shell and place on the outside of the sun face to make it's sun rays.
11. Once you've filled in all of the sun rays, cover the dough with a cloth again and let rise for an hour.
12. After an hour, bake the dough at 375 degrees for 10-20 minutes. Check it frequently to prevent burning. When you believe it's done, poke a toothpick into the bread. If it comes out clean with nothing sticking to the sides of the toothpick, it's ready! If there is dough stuck to the toothpick, let it bake a few more minutes, until the toothpick comes out clean.
As you can see from my loaf of sun bread, I made the sun face too round and rise up higher than the sun rays, so it became much darker than the spiral sun rays. I also baked this loaf at 400 degrees, and it baked much faster than needed. 375 degrees should be just right to make the bread rise without browning too quickly.
Fold a Summer Solstice Window Star
While you wait for your bread dough to rise, why not create a beautiful sunshine window decoration from kite paper? For this craft, you will need 15 squares of kite paper in shades of yellow and orange. To save paper, take one standard sheet of kite paper and fold it in half, then in half again. Open and cut along the folded lines to create 4 squares. Repeat with 4 pieces of kite paper and you now have 16 squares (save the leftover square for your next window star!)
1. Fold one square of kite paper in half
2. Open, and fold in half the other direction
3. Open and fold each corner to the center, creating a smaller square with an x through it.
4. Turn so a corner is pointing down. Fold the left and right sides in to meet at the center line, creating a kite shape.
5. Turn over to the smooth side and fold the bottom corner up to create a triangle shape
6. Fold in half, with the smaller triangle on the outside
7. Repeat these folds to create a total of 15 shapes. Slide the left corner of one piece into the right corner of the next. Use a dab of glue stick to secure
8. Repeat interlocking all folded pieces until you've created a sun.
Hang your completed window star/sun in a window or above your summer nature table.
Find another Summer Solstice sun craft here on the Moon Child Blog.
Hi Enza,
I would be happy to! I am not familiar with which book you are talking about though, would you mind sharing the author and title with me? This is a recipe I received from a friend, and has been passed around Waldorf circles, but I would love to know where it originated and give proper credit! Thanks so much
Liz, Social Media Manager
Perhaps you could also give credit to the author of the picture book who designed the sun and provided the recipe. I don’t think I saw it in your post.
Leave a comment