Since St. Lucia’s Day (or St. Lucy’s Day) is just around the corner on December 13th, we thought we’d share this special Swedish bread with you – fantastic for the Holidays. The celebration of the day comes from stories that were told by Monks who first brought Christianity to Sweden. “St Lucia was a young Christian girl who was martyred, killed for her faith, in 304. The most common story told about St Lucia is that she would secretly bring food to the persecuted Christians in Rome, who lived in hiding in the catacombs under the city. She would wear candles on her head, so she had both her hands free to carry things. Lucy means ‘light’ so this is a very appropriate name.” (see note below**)

December 13th was also the Winter Solstice, the shortest day of the year, in the old ‘Julian’ Calendar and a pagan festival of lights in Sweden was turned into St. Lucia’s Day. It is now celebrated by a girl dressing in a white dress with a red sash around her waist and a crown of candles on her head. Thus, the wreath of bread dotted with candied “berries.” If you’d like you can also add small candles to the cake as well for a more festive look.

** read more at https://www.whychristmas.com/cultures/sweden.shtml

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St. Lucia Bread

SERVINGS 2loaves CHANGE SERVING SIZE loaves

COOK TIME 20-25mins

PREP TIME 30mins

READY IN 2-3hrs

Ingredients

• Dough
• 2 pkgs. yeast (or 2 scant Tbsp), active, dry
• 1/4 cup water very warm
• 1 3/4 cups milk
• 1/2 cup vegetable oil or canola oil
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp saffron ground, or saffron threads
• 3 eggs slightly beaten
• 8 cups flour
• 4 tsp lemon zest
• 1 cup candied citron chopped
• 1 cup almond(s) blanched
• 1 eggs well-beaten
• 1 Tbsp water
• Frosting
• 8 cups powdered sugar
• 4 tsp almond extract
• 1 tsp canola oil
• milk as needed
• candied cerries (red and green) for garnish

Instructions

1. In a large mixer, soften the yeast in the warm water
2. Heat the milk until warm. Add the oil and sugar and stir to dissolve.
3. Add this mixture to the yeast mixture in the mixer
4. Add salt and saffron
5. Add the 3 slightly beaten eggs and mix with dough hook.
6. Add the lemon zest, citron and almonds and continue mixing
7. One cup at a time, add the flour and mix well after each addition. Stop adding the flour when the dough starts pulling away from the side of the bowl. Adding more flour if necessary.
8. Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead for 5 min, or until dough becomes smooth and elastic; adding flour as necessary.
9. Place the dough in a greased bowl, cover, and let rise in a warm place until almost doubled in size, about 1 hr. (At this point, you can refrigerate the dough, if you want to work with it later).
10. Divide the dough into six equal balls and roll into large ropes and then braid three together, making two braids.
11. Pinch the two ends together and tuck under, forming two circular loaves.
12. Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line two sheet pans with baking paper, or grease, and put a braided loaf on each pan.
13. Cover and let rise in a warm place, until doubled.
14. Combine the remaining egg with a tablespoon of water to make an egg wash, and brush on the braids.
15. Bake for about 20-25 min or until the loaf feels firm to the touch. If you would like to use a thermometer, the internal temperature should read about 190 degrees.
16. While the bread is baking, prepare your frosting, mixing all ingredients until smooth and on the thicker side. Cut your cherries in half.
17. Remove bread from the oven and cool slightly, then decorate, using the green cherries as leaves, and the red as berries.