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Recipe for "altar-bread"

NAME

     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 45  deg.
               C)
     50 ml     honey
     25 ml     olive oil
     2.5 ml    salt
     7 g       active dry yeast
     350 g     whole wheat flour (Unsifted)

PROCEDURE

          (1)  Combine water and yeast in mixing bowl. Add honey,
               olive oil, and salt.
          (2)  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.
          (3)  Turn out onto a very lightly  floured  board,  and
               knead  thoroughly  for  5  minutes  until dough is
               extremely elastic.
          (4)  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 11/2
               hours, or until doubled in size.
          (5)  Preheat oven to 175 deg. C.  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.
          (6)  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 bak-
               ing  sheet.  Press a cross into the top surface of
               each, so that it can be easily broken apart.
          (7)  Bake the loaves,  on  their  baking  sheet,  in  a
               preheated
               175 deg. C 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