Sunday, February 5, 2012

Communing with Bread

Or....Communion Bread, to be totally correct.  It's been a while since I've done a bread post. Some people may have thought I've stopped making bread. Not true. However, I have had to make some major changes.  I've had some health situations that have resulted in my not being able to eat wheat or yeast at the moment. So, I've been terribly thrown out of gear by this, since my family can still have bread, so I'm still making it for them, and sadly watching them enjoy it. :(  I purchased some alternate flours, but there is a lot more specialty ingredients to making gluten free bread than I realized, so I still haven't made a loaf yet.  However, my hubby volunteered me to make communion bread for today's service. When did he do that, you say? Why, yesterday! So I was consumed yesterday with making batches of communion wafers.  I made three batches before we decided it was the right taste.  Here's some pics for you.
This was the first batch, made exactly as the recipe directed.

This was the second, with a decrease in oil.

This was the final batch, with the oil cut in half.
The recipe instructions said to use olive oil, and to "heavily" grease the cookie sheet. So I sprayed the cookie sheet with about twice what I normally would.  They were good, but rather greasy, and with a strong olive oil flavor.  
There's nothing wrong with either of those things, but it wasn't what we were looking for with communion bread.  The second batch, I still followed the recipe, but didn't spray the pan at all, and changed the oil to coconut. Not as greasy, but still not right.
We all decided that this would make a great "thin crust" pizza base.  And all the gluten free folks at church were thrilled that they could participate in communion!
Blessings everyone! Shirley

7 comments:

  1. Wow, that is a great accomplishment and your hubby knew you were good for the challenge.
    Therese

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  2. I'm so sorry to hear about your heath problems :-(
    It must be tough to resist all that delicious freshly baked bread. i know you're not opposed to eat it fresh from the oven, but I could never resist having a slice with some butter.
    Your communion bread looks great! I love the idea of a homemade one as oppose to mass bought, so much better on a symbolical level :-)

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  3. Awesome Shirley! I would love to try the thin crust pizza crust, was hit hard to make?? Miss your bread posts of last year!

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  4. hirley,
    Do you have celiac disease? I have a friend with it and she has adapted pretty well, but it can be quite challenging when going out to eat. I have her cheesecake recipe, delicious and gluten free. Would you like it? Let me know. I hope you ALL are feeling better soon!
    Donna

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  5. Oh I knew you had to be baking up bread behind the scenes! ;-) Your experiment with Communion Bread seems to have been successful - I'm so glad after all of your efforts, and that the congregation could partake as well.

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  6. I, too, am sorry to hear about the health challenges, but you certainly were creative with problem solving for the Communion Bread! Hope you are feeling better...

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  7. For a number of years my doctor thought I had celiac disease. Back then (it was in the 90s) there was almost nothing available commercially that was gluten-free. I say that if you have to go GF, this is a good time for it. I wholeheartedly recommend the Gluten-Free Girl (blog). I used to read it all the time even when I realized I didn't have celiac disease. She has a couple of good cookbooks, too. I hope this is temporary for you. Especially because gf bread is not so great!

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I'm thrilled you stopped by! Thanks for your words of wisdom.