Communion Bread - No Crumbs

Five or six years ago, I became the chair of the bread committee for Central Presbyterian Church in Atlanta. We do communion by intinction in which you break a piece of bread from the loaf and dip it in the cup. The charge from the worship committee was that they would like me to find a recipe that would not leave the church floor littered with crumbs and multitudes of crumbs floating in the communion cup.

I headed for the Internet and found two recipes that I combined for our communion bread with no crumbs. One was from a church in California: St. Jude the Apostle Episcopal Church and the second was from All Saints Episcopal School in Vicksburg, Mississippi.

Here's the recipe we use:

1 pkg active dry yeast (about 1 scant T)
2 cups lukewarm water
pinch of sugar

2 T white sugar
3 cups white bread flour
2 tsp salt

1/2 cup hot water
3 T shortening (or 3/8 stick margarine)
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 tsp malt barley (can be found at Whole Foods) or you can use real vanilla

3 - 4 cups whole wheat flour

Soften yeast for about ten minutes in the warm water with a pinch of sugar in a large mixing bowl. When it begins to work (gets bubbly), add white sugar, white flour and salt. Beat smooth. Cover and set in a warm place until "spongy" - usually about 30 minutes or so.

Bring hot water almost to a boil. Add shortening, brown sugar, and malt barley. Cool to lukewarm and add to sponge

Add whole wheat flour. Mix as smooth as you can

Turn dough out onto floured board to rest for about 10 minutes

Knead. As you knead, add little flour since the dough will be gooey at first. Kneading is the process that develops the gluten in the bread so knead for at least 10 minutes. Well-developed gluten is one of the keys to NO CRUMBS. If you are kneading with your mixer, also knead on the counter to assure good gluten development.

Cover and let rise in lightly oiled bowl until doubled in volume. Punch down, kenad lightly for a minute or two and turn out on kneading board. Divide dough into three equal parts. Shape in oval loaves. Put onto greased cookie sheet or parchment paper lined cookie sheet about 3 inches apart. Cover.

Let rise about 30 minutes in a warm place. Bake in a pre-heated 375 degree oven for about 20 minutes until the crust sounds hollow. I often cut a cross into the top of each loaf with a serrated knife (about 1/4 inch deep) before baking.


My grandson was here and helped me make a double recipe of the communion bread. He loves to knead and was again in his role as "chief kneader."


Only a grandmother could fully appreciate his little handprint in the bread after his turn kneading.


He put the dough in the pan to rise.
Below are the six loaves (two recipes worth) bagged to take to church this morning.

Multi-Grain Bread

Today Dylan and I made Multi Grain Bread, loosely based on a recipe in an out of print cookbook (The Book of Bread by Jones and Jones) .

Here's the recipe with our changes:
2 cups boiling water
1 cup stone-ground white corn meal
1 cup stone ground grits
1 cup oatmeal
2 T active dry yeast
1/3 cup warm water
at least 4 cups white flour, unbleached bread flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
1 cup oat bran
1 cup sour cream or yogurt (we used about 1/2 cup sour cream and 1/2 cup buttermilk)
1 cup milk
1/3 cup packed dark brown sugar
1/4 cup peanut oil
2 T Kosher salt

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with a pinch of sugar
Pour the boiling water over corn meal, the grits, and the oatmeal and set aside to cool.
Add 1 cup of white flour and 1 1/2 cups whole wheat to the mixture and beat well.
Stir in the yeast, bran, sour cream/buttermilk mixture), milk, sugar, oil and salt.
Add the remaining white flour 1/2 cup at a time until the dough is stiff.

I then changed to a dough hook and kneaded the bread, adding flour as needed. How much flour you need varies with the humidity and with the types of oatmeal, corn meal and grits that you use.

Continue to knead either with the machine or by hand, ending with some on the counter kneading. When the dough is smooth, form it into a ball and put it in a greased bowl.

Dylan is putting the dough into the greased bowl in the pictures below. He was so proud that he could pick up the whole amount of the dough and throw it into the bowl.




We covered it in plastic and to tell the truth we left it for most of the day. After rising about three hours, we punched it down and left it until about 3 PM before we shaped the loaves.

I love about bread making that you can ignore the rising bread and get back to it whenever. With just a little attention (punch it down, turn it over), it keeps doing the rising process and doesn't seem to mind the neglect!

The three loaves at the beginning of this post are the result of our labors.

We had to taste it right out of the oven. Ummmmm, ummmmm, Good!

Buttermilk Oatmeal Bread - Part Two

Stir in the cold buttermilk, the salt and the brown sugar. Allow the mixture to cool to 115 degrees, although using cold buttermilk usually does the job. I like Sparkman's Buttermilk for it's natural treatment of the cows and its freshness.


Stir in 2 cups of bread flour and mix. Add the proofed yeast and beat until smooth. Continue to add flour, 1/2 cup at a time until the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl.
At this point, I switch my mixer to the dough hook and continue to mix in flour.At the end of the mixing when the dough forms a ball around the dough hook, it's time to knead the bread.
My grandson is my "chief kneader." Here he is at work:


Knead well until the dough becomes pliable and elastic. Add flour to the board as needed. You should knead about 8 - 10 minutes if you do it entirely by hand. If you have used the dough hook on the mixer, counter kneading can be for about 5 minutes.

Grease a bowl in which the bread dough can rise. Put the dough in the bowl and turn it over to allow the top to get greased. Cover the bowl with a damp dishtowel or plastic wrap. Put in a warm place until doubled in size.