Litha Recipes with Correspondences and Vegan Alternatives
- 1/4 cup loose red (rooibos) tea leaves
- Simple syrup or Agave to taste
- Place water, tea leaves and cinnamon sticks in large container or pitcher. Stir. Cover with lid or plastic wrap. Let stand in sun for 3 to 5 hours.
- Strain tea, discarding tea leaves and cinnamon sticks. Serve tea over ice or refrigerate until chilled. Sweeten with Simple Syrup, if desired.
- Tea ~ courage, mental powers, prosperity, restfulness, strength
- Cinnamon ~ healing, love, luck, lust, peace, protection, psychic powers, strength, success
- 1 1/2 cups whole milk (almond or soy for vegan)
- 4 tablespoons unsalted butter (coconut oil for vegan)
- 5 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
- 2 eggs (egg substitute for vegan)
- 6 cups Vegetable oil, for frying (use more if needed)
- 3 tablespoons honey (agave or maple syrup for vegan)
- 2-3 tablespoons milk or cream (almond or soy for vegan)
- In a small pot, heat the milk, tea, and butter until the butter has melted and the mixture is warm. Remove from heat and allow to cool slightly.
- Mix the flour, nutmeg, cinnamon, salt, sugar, and yeast in the bowl of a mixer (or a large bowl if mixing by hand). Add the warm milk mixture and mix to combine.
- Add the eggs, scraping the bowl well. Turn the mixer up to medium speed, and, using a dough hook, mix until the dough begins to pull away from the edges. If mixing by hand, knead until it easily pulls away from the sides of the bowl as you knead (it will still be quite sticky).
- Transfer the finished dough to a well-oiled container and cover. Allow it to rise until doubled in size, about 1 hour. Alternatively, you can refrigerate the dough overnight so that it’s ready to make in the morning—but you may need to punch the dough down once or twice during that period to prevent it from over-fermenting.
- Roll out the doughnut dough on a lightly floured surface into a rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. Size/precision of the rectangle isn’t important—just focus on an even thickness for the dough.
- Use a knife, pastry scraper, or bench knife to cut the dough into long vertical strips about 1/2 inch wide.
- Next, cut the strips horizontally about 1/2 inch wide—this should make a whole bunch of 1/2 inch squares.
- Divide the dough squares into 12 even portions.
- To shape each doughnut, take about 2/3 of one portion of dough squares and smoosh them gently together. Place about 1/4 to 1/3 cup of diced peaches on top of the dough.
- Top with the remaining 1/3 of the portion of dough squares and smoosh the dough gently to adhere to the peaches and other dough. It’s best for each piece of peach to be touching dough in two places (on top and on bottom), otherwise some may fall out when you go to fry them.
- Cover the doughnuts with greased plastic wrap and let them rise for 20 to 30 minutes.
- While the doughnuts rises heat the oil. If you have one, use a deep-fry thermometer to test the oil and help regulate the temperature—around 350° F is best. If you don’t have one, throw a doughnut hole or scrap piece of dough into the oil and see if it sizzles and rises to the surface. When it does, you’re good to go.
- Working in batches, gently drop the doughnuts into the oil, frying until they’re golden brown on both sides, 2-3 minutes per side. It’s helpful to use a spider or slotted spoon to support the fritter for the first 15-30 seconds, until the dough sets.
- Drain the doughnuts on several layers of absorbent paper towels. Let cool for 5-10 minutes.
-In a small bowl, whisk the powdered sugar, honey, cinnamon, and milk or cream to combine. Add more milk or cream as needed to make drizzly glaze. Drizzle each doughnut into the glaze, and serve immediately.
- Milk ~ Goddess energy, love, nurturing, spirituality
- Tea ~ courage, mental powers, prosperity, restfulness, strength
- Butter ~ smoothing relationships, spirituality, tenacity
- Flour ~ revealing hidden matters, consistency
- Nutmeg ~ confidence, emotional openness, fidelity, healing, luck, prosperity, social interaction
- Cinnamon ~ healing, love, luck, lust, peace, protection, psychic powers, strength, success
- Salt ~ cleansing & purification, grounding, protection
- Yeast ~ grounding, purification
- Egg ~ fertility, lust, protection, spirituality, strength
- Peach ~ happiness, healing, fertility, longevity, love, wisdom
- Honey ~ happiness, healing, love, lust, purification, spirituality, sweet things in life, weight loss, wisdom
- Maple Syrup ~ prosperity, love
- 3/4 cup fresh or frozen raspberries, thawed
- 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
- 1/8 teaspoon ground nutmeg
- 2 eggs (egg substitute for vegan)
- 1/2 teaspoon lemon extract
- Preheat oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease a loaf pan.
- Mash raspberries in a bowl with a fork. Mash banana in another bowl with a fork.
- Combine flour, cinnamon, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg in a bowl.
- Beat sugar, eggs, raspberries, banana, and vegetable oil in a bowl with an electric mixer set on low until smooth, 2 to 3 minutes.
- Stir flour mixture into raspberry mixture until batter is just moistened; stir in lemon extract. Pour batter into prepared loaf pan.
- Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.
- Bread ~ (in general) kinship, sustenance
- Cake ~ (in general) celebrations, hospitality
- Raspberry ~ happiness, love, protection, stamina, vigor
- Banana ~ fertility, love, luck, potency, prosperity, spirituality
- Flour ~ revealing hidden matters, consistency
- Cinnamon ~ healing, love, luck, lust, peace, protection, psychic powers, strength, success
- Baking soda ~ raising energy or expectations
- Salt ~ cleansing & purification, grounding, protection
- Nutmeg ~ confidence, emotional openness, fidelity, healing, luck, prosperity, social interaction
- Egg ~ fertility, lust, protection, spirituality, strength
- Lemon ~ faithfulness, friendship, happiness, longevity, love, marriage
