Slowrising Altar Bread Recipe

Slowrising Altar Bread*
Yield: 8 small loaves

Slowrise method not only promotes sourdough-type flavor, but also reduces mixing and kneading time. No need for any kind of power mixer.

Stir together in a large bowl:
2 cups whole wheat flour
2 teaspoons (1 packet) dry yeast

Stir thoroughly, then add to flour and yeast mixture:
2 cups lukewarm water
5 Tablespoons sugar OR 5 Tablespoons dark Karo
(a parishioner is allergic to honey!)

Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set it aside to rise at room temperature.
After about two hours, go to the next step:

Add the following to the yeast & flour mixture:
2 cups whole wheat flour
3 Tablespoons sunflower oil
1 teaspoon salt

Stir thoroughly, cover with plastic wrap** and refrigerate overnight, or up to one week.

On Baking Day …
a. Cover 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper.
b. Sprinkle lavish amount of flour on bread board or pastry cloth.
c. Dump the refrigerated dough onto the floured board.
d. Optional: allow the dough to rest for 10-15 minutes.
e. Knead the dough, incorporating more flour as needed, so that it gets all the air squished out and will have a fine texture.
f. Then shape into 8 small round loaves and place on the parchmentpaper‐covered cookie sheets. Allow the loaves to rise a bit – 15‐40 minutes, depending on how cold the dough is and how warm the room
is!
g. TWENTY MINUTES before baking time, preheat oven to 400.
h. Sprinkle the loaf liberally with flour and cut a cross into the top using a sharp knife. (I, Barbara, have stopped doing this because it never looks good when I do it!)
i. Bake for 7 minutes, then take the loaves from the oven, brush lightly with oil, and return to the oven for 4 more minutes, just till nicely browned. (This slight under‐baking creates a moist crumb, good for
church use.)
j. Allow bread to cool before slicing or eating.
k. For church, wrap each loaf in plastic wrap, then place several loaves in a large ziploc bag, and label on the outside with date baked and your initials.
l. Take the refrigerated or frozen bread to church and store (in the red plastic bin) in the basement upright freezer.

(*) Freely adapted from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day, by Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois, p. 74. This book is especially helpful for producing bread with a hard crust, so I have modified the procedures to produce a soft crust for altar bread.
(**) The bowl should not be tightly covered, as the rising yeast produces gases, which need to escape. That’s the reason for the plastic wrap.

Barbara Baumgartner, revised October 2011