February 3, 2013

• Gluten Free Unleavened bread

  Today was the “in between” communion at our little country church.  On these days, we share the bread and wine (well, home canned grape juice, for real!).  I have been experimenting with gluten free communion bread recipes, both composition and method, for a number of years, and I truly believe that I have one that I will be using for some time.  And since I have been asked recently for the recipe, I decided to post it.

  1 cup Gluten-free All Purpose Baking Flour  (I use Bob’s Red Mill brand)

  2 Tbsp. Sugar

  1/4 tsp. Salt

  1/3 cup soft Butter

  3 Tbsp. evaporated milk

  I mix the dry ingredients, cut in the soft butter until crumbly, then sprinkle and mix in the milk (like for a pie crust) and then press it into a ball.

  Now here is something I just learned this morning that made things MUCH easier.  I put the ball of dough into a Ziploc quart size freezer bag, zipped it shut and used my rolling pin to fill it completely and to a uniform thickness.  It made this perfect rectangle of the exact right thickness.  Then I carefully opened and cut away the one side of the plastic bag and put the dough onto a flat, thin cookie sheet.  Then, just a carefully, I removed the rest of the plastic bag and then cut the square into narrow strips and fork pierced the strips where I wanted the elders to break it.  I usually have a small strip all the way around that is discard (Or eaten by house members as soon as it is cool enough to handle) and then the rest of the strips are a generous inch wide.  I put the fork pricks this morning every inch, and that looked nice, but I believe that it would be better to have the fork pricks closer together — maybe more like a half an inch apart because it is easier to chew if the piece isn’t quite so large.  If you make it with the ziploc bag, you have five strips one way (with a little strip on either side) and can easily get about ten bite size pieces per strip. There are always people waiting in line to eat the left overs after the service, so I try to be sure to have extra, but if you have 40 or less congregants, I would think one batch would be almost enough

  Bake at 375 for about 12 minutes if you are using a shiny, flat pan.  Be especially watchful of the bottom of the bread.  It browns really quickly, and for some reason, I am just not very enthused about burnt (or even overly brown) communion bread.

  But even when I am sure the bread is a dismal failure, I have always been extended grace by my brothers and sisters who worship at the church at the corner of Carpenter Bridge and Canterbury Roads.  They eat it gladly in the spirit of being a part of The Family.

  And I give grateful praise that I can be one of those parts.

   

  • 3:33 pm
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