Ingredients
7/8 cup water, lukewarm (about 110 degrees, f.)
3 tbsp honey
1 1/2 tsp olive oil
1/2 tsp salt
1 package yeast (dry), active
2 2/3 cup flour, whole wheat (unsifted)
Directions
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 350 degrees F. 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 about 1/4 inch.
Using something like a large peanut butter jar or a giant cookie
cutter, cut out about 4-inch 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 350 degree F.
oven for 10 minutes.
NOTES:
* 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. Yield: 8-10 single-serving loaves.
* 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.
: Difficulty: moderate.
: Time: 15 minutes preparation, 2 hours rising, 10 minutes baking.
: Precision: measure the ingredients.
: Fr. Bill Coats
: Church of the Redeemer
: Pittsburgh, PA
: Copyright (C) 1986 USENET Community Trust
Servings: 1 batch
Pennsylvania Altar Bread Recipe brought to you by Recipe Ideas
Categories: Bread; Breads
The History of Recipes
It is quite feasible to track the history of written cooking instructions back into antiquity, at least as far as the ancient Egyptians, and possibly even further than that. In practice though, in the main part, these ancient cookbooks were just simple pictorial instructions for preparing food.
The truth of the matter is, the oldest recipe discovered so far, according to food historians are a few tablets in the Sumerian language which show the baking of bread which is then used to make a drink, quite possibly a form of beer as it is recorded as having made people feel `exhilarated, wonderful and blissful`. As our culinary historical trip moves on a few more years there are a couple of interesting cookery books which date from the 1300s - one book published under the title `Forme of Cury`, and another, similary named `Curye on Inglish`. Although the titles sound familiar, these two books are not about the indian food that is served today, but rather recipes for the types of food on the tables of the rich people of that period. Over the following few hundred years, the wealthy families of Wesstern Europe tried to serve the most exotic banquets, and consequentially chefs and their recipes were greatly in demand. Even so, it was during the nineteenth century that fine cookery and cookery books really came of age. The Famous Mrs Beeton in the UK, and Fannie Merritt Farmer in the US, devoted much of their lives to assembling, trying out, and recording recipes to help cooks of their time. By the arrival of the 20th century, recipe publications are increasing in popularity mostly due to better eduction, leisure time and having more money. The introduction of television brought us celebrity chefs and the accompanying recipe books. And that brings us to the present day and the invention of computers and the internet, allowing everybody to access massive numbers of recipes just like those on our site. |
We hope you enjoy this Pennsylvania Altar Bread recipe.
