Vegan Kitchen Witchery: Lughnasadh / Lammas Harvest Sheaf: A vegan-take on a traditional bread

Hello again Magickal People!
This Sabbat is just PERFECT for baking bread!
Here is a look at Lughnasadh at my place. I have a scrumptious recipe for you – a traditional Harvest Sheaf – which is usually made during the Harvest months – so you can make one for Mabon as well. They can take-on many designs – so be creative and let your witchy/pagan imagination run wild! There are many recipes online to make these sheafs, but here’s my vegan version. The texture is like a Challah / Enriched bread.
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VEGAN HARVEST SHEAF

For the Harvest Sheaf you will need:

*Aquafaba from 1 tin of chickpeas, strained and whipped to a frothy consistency

*¼ cup warm water
*1 tbl instant dried yeast
*1 tsp sugar
Add these together and leave to activate for about 10 minutes

*3 to 3.5 cups plain white flour
*1/8 cup extra virgin olive oil
*¼ cup soy milk or your preferred plant milk
*½ cup sugar

*1tbl each of maple syrup / rice malt syrup with 1 tbl water to make a glaze that will also be used to help your design adhere and not fall apart after baking.

In a stand mixer with a dough hook attached, add flour. Make a well and pour in the activated yeast mixture. Start mixing. Slowly add the frothy aquafaba. When that is complete, then add the rest of the ingredients and knead until dough is firm, elastic and not sticky. *** You may want to start with 3 cups of flour and work up from there. I used 3.5 cups in total for my recipe on the video, but it will depend on the quality of the flour batch… If the dough is too sticky, just add a bit more flour, knead again and test like I do in the video.
Let it rise anywhere between 2 and 4 hours. Just go off and forget about it for a while – get other things done. The dough needs to rise until it is doubled in size, and I find 2 hours, minimum, does the job.

Knead the dough a little before you divide it for shaping. Make sure you cover the dough you are not using immediately to prevent drying-out. You can do a lot with this dough. Make braids, ropes, animals – anything really. It is a labour of love, so allow time. Mine took over an hour as I kept changing my mind and making adjustments. Don’t forget to brush your dough surface with the maple-water wash to ensure dough adherence.

Ensure you allow at least 20 minutes to preheat your oven to 180 degrees Celsius and have some foil available that will cover the bread.

Because of the time it takes to design, another rise is not necessary, but if you want to, just cover and rest the dough for about 10minutes before baking. Brush the unbaked bread one more time before placing on the middle rack in the oven. Bake for about 35 minutes and check at 20minutes to make sure it is not browning too quickly. You may wish to rotate the bread to ensure even baking. Cover the bread with the foil if the bread is browning to fast. You may wish to stop baking at 30minutes. Just keep an eye on it.

Allow to cool at least to lukewarm before scoffing! This bread is AWESOME warm!

BBQ
The Tofu Shasliks were intuitive (typical Kitchen Witch!). So, all I did was grab about 500g of firm tofu, which I pressed for a few hours. I diced it and then marinated it for about 30 hours in extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice, salt and heaps of fresh minced garlic. I finely chopped handfuls of chive, mint, dill, oregano and parsley. Incidentally I mixed the leftover marinate into the vegan butter to cover the corn as well!
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Please do not hesitate to let me know what type of content you would be interested in seeing for future videos. I’m always open to friendly suggestions and requests.

Peace and Love to you XX
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Equipment:
Camera: Canon EOS700D
Editing Software: DaVinci Resolve 17

Sounds are licenced and attributed to:
YouTube Audio Library – Waltz of the Flowers (by Tchaikovsky)
AND
https://www.mixkit.co/

Stock video footage attributed to:
Videvo.net (Royalty Free Footage)
*A pedestal shot rising above and back down into a wheat field.
*A static shot of a cornfield on a sunny day. Shot by Hervard Olander Merved - check out more of Hervard's work at    / dravreh  
*Sunrise Timelapse over Trees: An early morning time-lapse as an amber sun rises. Courtesy of www.beachfrontbroll.com.
***Creative Commons 3.0 Unported (CC BY 3.0)