Baking Bread With Freyja's Help
A quick sourdough for the busy kitchen witch.
Hello, wonderful witches!
I’m catching up from my trip to Austria, so not much to report up top here. Are any of you able to sleep on planes? No matter what I do, I can’t. I’m always up and watching every movie possible. On this flight home, I watched Bring It On, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Field of Dreams. What’s your go-to movie or activity on flights?
Today’s article is about little cheats for when you’re making sourdough. If you LOVE SOURDOUGH and other breads like I do, be sure to check out
— it’s one of my favorite newsletters on Substack.
The Busy Witch’s Guide to Mana Bread
By Jessica Triana de Ford
Bread-making has a measure of artistry to it. It takes time, love, and skill to bake bread that not only smells amazing, but tastes it too. Sourdough has long been considered the superior loaf due to its use of natural yeasts and longer rising, which produce a more digestion-friendly bread.
Sourdough is quite tricky to make and keep alive, though, and you have to start making it two weeks in advance of the loaf you wish to bake. So, in that way, it can also be a faff for the busy kitchen witch.
The recipe we have for you today uses many of the sourdough principles and produces a very sourdough-like texture, while shortening the process with a simple overnight starter using baker’s yeast to get it going.
You can then call on Freyja to bless the bread at several stages in the process to aid in its rising. Check out the recipe below for these prayers.
More than anything, the energy you put into your baking dictates the quality of the end product. If you are a hard kneader, stressed, or in your head too much, then the bread will come out dense and heavy. On the other hand, if you knead with softness, joy, and intention, the bread will take on that lightness, rise higher, and be fluffier.
Here’s the recipe.
Cheat’s Sourdough Seeded Bread
Makes 2 Loaves
Ingredients
Overnight Sourdough Starter
450 grams white bread flour
450 milliliter water
8 grams baker’s yeast
Bread
Sourdough starter
450 grams white bread flour
450 grams brown bread flour
10 grams salt
50 milliliter olive oil
420 milliliter water
120 grams mixed seeds (linseed, sesame, poppy, pumpkin, sunflower)
Topping
Sesame seeds for sprinkling
Olive oil to drizzle
Directions
Prepare the Overnight Starter in a bowl. If you are using a mixer, you can prepare it straight into the mixing bowl.
Prayer to Freyja before you begin: Freyja, goddess of fertility and magic, blessings and welcome. Goddess of the land, bless this bread that I make for me and mine, that we may receive your blessings of good health and fortune. Every day I try to be worthy of your gift of Mana.
Add all the ingredients and mix lightly with your index finger until combined. A light touch is best. Be light in thought and in deed. Simply allow the blessings of the goddess to flow through you. Cover the bowl with a plate or a tea towel, and leave in a warm place overnight.
The next day, repeat the prayer to Freyja.
Freyja, goddess of fertility and magic, blessings and welcome. Goddess of the land, bless this bread that I make for me and mine, that we may receive your blessings of good health and fortune. Every day I try to be worthy of your gift of Mana.
Add all the bread ingredients except for the seeds into the bowl. Mix with your hands until combined. If you are using a mixer, set it to 4 (or medium), for about 8 minutes. After 8 minutes, turn the mixer to low and add the seeds a little at a time until combined.
If you are kneading by hand: Flour the surface and knead until the dough becomes elastic, usually 12 to 15 minutes. The dough of this recipe will be very sticky and you will likely need to flour your mixing surface regularly. Add the seeds a little at a time until combined.Turn the dough into a large well-oiled container. The container can be any shape, but I recommend a rectangle so that the loaves come out a wide baton shape and require less manipulation later.
Leave the dough in a warm place to rise for 45 minutes. It should double in size. Say the prayer to Freyja again.
Freyja, goddess of fertility and magic, blessings and welcome. Goddess of the land, bless this bread that I make for me and mine, that we may receive your blessings of good health and fortune. Every day I try to be worthy of your gift of Mana.Open the lid and knock the bread back. Do this by stretching out the opposite ends of the dough and folding it over itself. Lift the dough out of the box and turn it over. Repeat by folding over the other opposite ends. Turn the dough over once more. Press the dough back into the corners of the container with love, re-cover and allow to rise in a warm place for a further 30 minutes.
If you kneaded by hand: Repeat this process a second time before moving on to the next step.Preheat the oven to 220ºC or 428ºF. Repeat the prayer to Freyja.
Prayer to Freyja before you begin: Freyja, goddess of fertility and magic, blessings and welcome. Goddess of the land, bless this bread that I make for me and mine, that we may receive your blessings of good health and fortune. Every day I try to be worthy of your gift of Mana.Turn the dough onto a large baking tray. Use a knife or bench scraper to cut the dough in half and shape it into two loaves. Try not to mess with it too much. Cover with cling film and let it rest for a further 10 minutes.
Before putting it into the oven, make dimples in the dough by pressing your fingertips over its surface, sprinkle it with sesame seeds, and drizzle over a little oil. As you do so, say the following while connecting to Freyja:
May your strength, wisdom and magic flow through my hands into this bread. May your blessings and mana heal all those who eat of it.Bake for 15 minutes. It’s imperative that you don’t open the door during this time. After 15 minutes, open the door, turn the tray around, and bake for a further 15 minutes at 200ºC or 392ºF.
Take out of the oven and put on a wire rack to cool.
This bread is best eaten fresh the same day, but lasts for up to three days. It can be preserved longer by pre-slicing and freezing it — you can have fresh bread within 10 to 20 minutes of defrost time.
Jessica Triana de Ford is an author, philosopher, and copywriter. She’s a member of Exeter Writers. Her parting wisdom? “Life's better when you live it as a witch.”
In the next issue…
The next newsletter will have… well, I’m not sure yet. We’ll find out together!
See you then!
Thank you for the shoutout! You know I will be sharing this one over there.