St Lucia Bread

G, as my oldest daughter, really wanted to lead the children in a candlelight breakfast procession this morning, in honor of St. Lucia's Day. I value my early morning quiet though, so opted for a later breakfast, using Family Fun's recipe for Saint Lucia Bread.


I made a few changes, cutting the recipe in half, and mixing it in the bread maker, so all I would have to do was bread the dough, and let it rise, before baking.


Remember, if you want to make a regular bread recipe in a bread machine, it's wet ingredients in first, and water temperature doesn't matter so much, then the flour, and the rest of the dry ingredients, with the yeast going in last.


We did add candles, as the recipe suggests, and I let G carry it to the table lit. We like the legend of St. Lucia, that says she was known to sneak food to the persecuted Christians hiding in the Roman catacombs. She wore a crown of candles to light her way through the dark tunnels, keeping her hands free to carry the food.

If she had thought to put the candles in the bread, she wouldn't have needed to wear them on her head.



One final note though, if you decide to try this yourself, wait until the bread has cooled completely, before putting in the candles, or the hot bread will cause them to melt from the bottom up.

You can find out more about St. Lucia, and her day at whychristmas.com's Swedish page (they are a very good Christmas around the world resource, too).


And, there is a very cute St. Lucia paper doll printable, here. My children were offended by the nakedness of the doll, but the problem was quickly solved by drawing on a pair of underwear. G, especially likes this doll, because she looks like Kirsten from the American Girl series.


Which, is also our suggested reading for St. Lucia's day. Kirsten's Surprise, A Christmas Story, is G's (age 11) favorite of the Kirsten books, and I can only assume, the reason she was so gung-ho to celebrate the day.

It's great to be a homeschooler.