Sun Bread

This is such a funny, restless time of year. Our winter has been relatively mild, and short, but even so, now that we're nearing March, we're ready to be done with it. Every beautiful, sunshiny day makes us just that much more anxious for spring. And, every cloudy, rainy, or snowy day seems gloomy, and unwelcome.

Thanks to Little Page Turners, we found a book, that addresses this time of year perfectly - Elisa Kleven's Sun Bread. In a little town, where winter just seems to be hanging on, while children are grumbling in their homes, and everyone is wishing the sun would show it's face again, one baker decides,

"Because the real sun likes to hide, I'll make my own small sun inside."

The town's people celebrate "the joy good bread can bring", and forget to be miserable. When the sun reappears, for a taste of the bread, so much the better. But, in the meantime, on the gray days, the people, or in this case, animals, of the town keep busy making sunshine of their own.

And, in case you're having some restless gray days too, there's a recipe on the back of the book, with step by step instructions, for making the sun bread.

Mix three bowls (I'm giving away the recipe, but the publisher is allowing it to be viewed on Amazon, so I don't think it's a state secret, and besides which, it's so much better with the book):

• one with 3 eggs, and three tablespoons of sugar,
  
• one with 2 cups of flour (bread flour if you have it), and 1 stick of melted butter,
  
• and one with 2 packages of active dry yeast, proofed in 3 tablespoons of lukewarm milk.
  

Combine the bowls together, and kneed the dough for ten minutes.

Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let it rise, in a warm place until double (about 1 hour).

Punch it down. This was my seven year old's favorite part, but sadly, I didn't get a picture of him doing it!

Kneed the dough a few more times, and shape it, on a greased cookie sheet, into a sun shape, using half the dough for the face, and the other half for the corona. Use your fingers, or the greased handle of a wooden spoon, to make deep eye, and mouth holes, and finish the face off with a small, dough ball nose.

Cover the dough, and let it rise for another hour, then bake it for 20 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit.

If the bread looks like it is browning too quickly, you might want to cover it with a piece of tinfoil for the last 15 minutes of baking. Despite how it looks, test it by inserting a tooth pick in the middle. If it comes out clean, the bread is done. It's a very light, fluffy, sweet bread.

And, served warm, with slices of apple, and cheese, and honey, jam, or butter, it makes for a very cheery lunch, or story time snack.

It's great to be a homeschooler.