PENNSYLVANIA ALTAR BREAD
An earthy whole-wheat bread used for communion
In Pittsburgh and other Western Pennsylvania parishes of the Episcopal
church, it is common to use small, thin loaves of real, fresh, home-made
bread at communion instead of the pressed wafers popular in most other
places. The bread has a chewy texture to it, keeps tremendously well, and
makes a great lunchbox food (each "loaf" is about the size a large cookie).
This recipe comes from Father Bill Coats of the
Church of the Redeemer in Pittsburgh.
Ingredients
(8-10 single-serving loaves)
- 210 ml lukewarm water
(The water should be about
45C
- 50 ml honey
- 25 ml olive oil
- 2.5 ml salt
- 7 g active dry yeast
- 350 g whole wheat flour
(Unsifted)
Procedure
-
Combine water and yeast in mixing bowl. Add honey, olive oil, and salt.
-
Add flour. If flour does not completely dampen, add small amounts of water
until all of the flour is damp. Be sparing with the water.
-
Turn out onto a very lightly floured board, and knead thoroughly for 5
minutes until dough is extremely elastic.
-
Sprinkle a tiny amount of olive oil in a big bowl, then roll the dough in it
until the dough is covered with olive oil. Leave the dough in the bowl,
cover with a cloth, and let rise for 1 1/2 hours, or until doubled in size.
-
Preheat oven to
175C
Punch the dough down, knead again for a few seconds. Roll the dough out with
a rolling pin, as if you were making a pizza crust, to a thickness of
5 mm
-
Using something like a large peanut butter jar or a giant cookie cutter, cut
out
10-cm
circles of the dough and lift them onto a slightly-oiled baking
sheet. Press a cross into the top surface of each, so that it can be easily
broken apart.
-
Bake the loaves, on their baking sheet, in a preheated
175C
oven for
10 minutes.
Notes
You can freeze these loaves easily; either put them in single-serving ziploc
bags and use them for school lunches, or freeze a bunch in a large
food-storage bag.
Rating
Difficulty:
moderate.
Time:
15 minutes preparation, 2 hours rising, 10 minutes baking.
Precision:
measure the ingredients.
Contributor
Fr. Bill Coats
Church of the Redeemer
Pittsburgh, PA
Recipe last modified: 1 Dec 78
Original header
From: reid@decwrl (Brian Reid)
Newsgroups: mod.recipes
Subject: RECIPE: Altar bread
Date: 30 Nov 85 10:39:06 GMT
Organization: DEC Western Research Lab, Palo Alto CA
Approved: reid@glacier.ARPA
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