Soaked Dough Sun-Shaped Bread Recipe • Homestead Lady (2024)

June 1, 2022 by Homestead Lady 6 Comments

Make this delicious soaked-dough recipe that you can shape into a festive sun for your congregation’s summer picnic, your backyard barbeque, or even your summer solstice celebration. The recipe includes instructions for creating a simple sun-shape that only requires your two hands and a pair of kitchen scissors.

Bread is simply celebration food. It goes with everything and is highly adaptable for both ingredients and type. From rolls to pancakes to loaf shapes, there’s a bread for every occasion.

This sun-shaped bread loaf is one of those types of bread that looks complicated to make and is gorgeous once it’s baked. Only you will know that it was a cinch to make!

What is Sun Bread?

Sometimes called star bread, traditional sun bread has been made throughout the centuries all over Europe as part of both the ancient Litha (summer solstice) and Yule (winter solstice) celebrations. As Christianity spread through traditionally pagan areas many of the old traditions were kept.

This was probably due to the fact that the old traditions involved delicious foods!

At either winter or summer solstice, baking sun bread reminds us how very blessed we are by the sun’s life-giving rays. It fuels the plants that make our food, and brings health to our bodies by providing us with Vitamin D.

Christian and pagan alike can celebrate the joy of the sun!

Other Holiday Breads

Sourdough Dragon Bread for Michaelmas

Golden Irish Soda Bread for St. Patrick’s Day

Sourdough Sweet Easter Kulich

Add-Ins for Sun Bread

In modern culture, sun bread is often made with sunflower seeds to imitate the coarse flours of ancient breads. Also, sunflower seeds are delicious!

The recipe we included here for sun bread is a very straightforward soaked dough bread recipe. You can add to it pretty much anything you fancy. Typical add-ins include:

• sunflower seeds
• pumpkin seeds
• sesame seeds
• raisins or Craisins
• chopped dates, figs, or prunes

Soaked Dough Sun Bread Recipe

Since this is a soaked dough recipe, you will need to plan ahead. The dough must soak (ferment) for at least six hours, but overnight is usually what I do. This recipe will also make a single loaf of sandwich bread, FYI.

How Do You Shape Sun Bread?

There are a lot of different options when shaping sun bread. If you look up “star bread” on the Internet, you’ll see even more options. I usually do whatever is simplest but still looks cool.

The following instructions are available in the recipe above (which you can print, by the way), but I thought I’d iterate them here in case you missed them.

The Easiest Way to Shape Sun Bread

1. Shape the bread into a circle resembling a large donut or tire, with a hole in the center.
2. Transfer the dough to a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Cover with a light towel and allow to rise for an hour (or until doubled in size) in a warm place.
3. Using sharp kitchen scissors, make diagonal cuts along the edge of the round loaf. Turn the loaf as you make the cuts. Cut about three quarters of the way into the loaf.
4. Don’t stress too much about measuring between cuts. This is a fun, festive bread that you shouldn’t fret over!

If you don’t have good kitchen scissors, you may also use a sharp knife to make the cuts. Try not to press in on or flatten the dough as you make the cuts with the knife.

You may slightly open each cut you make to splay the “sunbeams” out a bit. Experiment with the look you like best.

To Make Individual Sunbeams

1. You may also reserve half the dough after initial donut shaping to shape “sunbeams”.
2. Cut the reserve into equal portions and shape them into triangles to attach to the round-shaped dough.
3. To get the triangular sunbeams to adhere to the loaf, mix extra egg wash and brush the flat side of the triangle with it.
4. Gently press and slightly pinch the triangle onto the main body of the round-shaped dough.
5. Allow these to rise together until doubled in size.
6. Be careful to allow the bread to completely cool and transfer with care so as not to break away the sunbeams from the main body of the sun.
7. If that happens, no worries! The sunbeams will allow for easy tearing of individual portions of the bread.

Other Ways to Celebrate!

If you’re a homeschooler making a unit study for solstice, or a simple celebrant of this delightful time of year, there are other things you can do to have some fun.

We make rag wreath ornaments every year for Christmas in all the colors of the season. We’ve also assembled some in the colors of our nation’s flag to celebrate our independence. And we even have some designed in yellows and whites to hang around for both winter and summer solstice.

–>>Learn how to make your own Rag Wreath Ornaments–>>

You can also make super funpaper Waldorf Window Stars or even colored paper Origami stars.

How do you celebrate the blessing of the sun during the year? Whether in the depths of winter or the middle of summer, it’s worth taking a moment to celebrate the light! For more wonderful homestead days to celebrate, grab your copy of Homestead Holidays.

To create more cozy family times that bring you closer together, join our newsletter and download your copy of our Homestead Hygge Workbook. Hygge is the Danish concept of turning our homes into sanctuaries of light, love, and peace through simple homespun activities like natural crafts, wholesome recipes, and simple pleasures.