Fresh Bread

4th Sunday after Epiphany

4th Sunday after the Epiphany

Feast of Saint Brigid of Ireland (February 1)

Lectionary Texts:  Jeremiah 1:4-10; Psalm 71:1-6; 1 Corinthians 13:1-13; Luke 4:21-30

Bread Words

The 1st of February is the feast day of Saint Brigid of Ireland, a nun and the Abbess of Kildare during the fifth century.  "As best as can be discerned through the mists of legend, it is believed that Brigid was born into slavery and was later converted to Christianity by St. Patrick sometime in her childhood.  She was granted her freedom when it proved impossible to curb her enthusiasm for giving alms;  it seems she would otherwise have imporveished her master through such unauthorized largesse.  The themes of generosity and compassion are the feature of miracles without number.  Brigid's only desire was 'to satisfy the poor, to expel every hardship, to spare every miserable man.'...Many of her marvels have a particularly maternal character, reflecting her propensity to nourish and give succor...'Once a leprous woman asking for milk, there being none at hand she gave her cold water, but the water was turned into milk, and when she had drunk it the woman was healed.' " (From All Saints:  Daily Reflections on Saints, Prophets, and Witnesses for Our Time  by Robert Ellsberg)

The Irish are renowned for their story-telling.  The Celtic tales had been passed from generation to generation in the oral tradition centuries before the birth of Jesus.  In fifth century Ireland, the parables and miracles of Jesus must have resonated with the Irish people accustomed to reveling in the heroic and mythic lore of the Celts.  Another Celtic tradition employed to interpret Christianity to the Irish people was the use of straw-plaiting to create the shape of the St. Brigit's Cross.  According to Nigel Pennick, "there are a number of prescriptions that must be observed in making St. Bridget's Crosses.  They must be made on St. Bridgit's Eve, after sunset on the last day of January.  St. Bridget's Day marks the commencement of the pastoral year.  Rushes must be pulled up, not cut, and the weaving must be done sunwise, from left to right.  There are a number of patterns for St. Bridget's Crosses, but the most common is in the form of four equal arms, set on the edge."  (From The Celtic Cross: An Illustrated History and Celebration )

The shape for the Communion bread is based on another traditional configuration of the St. Brigit's Cross as illustrated in Pennick's book.  The bread dough is a simple one made with milk, honey, butter, and whole wheat.

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup boiling water

2 teaspoons dry yeast

3-3 1/2 cups unbleached flour

2 cups whole wheat flour

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup butter

1 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Pouring the boiling water into the milk in a large mixing bowl should make the liquid just the right temperature for dissolving the yeast.  Stir in 2 cups of the unbleached flour and then let it stand for a few minutes.  Add the honey, butter, whole wheat flour, salt and enough unbleached flour to make a stiff dough.  Turn the dough out on a floured surface and knead for 8-10 minutes.  Return the dough to the bowl which has been well-greased with more butter or with olive oil.  Let the dough rise for 1-1 1/2 hours.

Deflate the dough and separate into 7 pieces.  With the smallest (There will be a smallest piece.  It's very HARD to divide anything into 7 equal pieces.) piece, divide it into four portions.

Roll out the six large portions into ropes about 16-inches long.  Each rope represents a bundle of rushes used to create the plaited St. Brigit's Cross.  Weave the ropes together on a well-greased baking sheet, attempting to create symmetrical arms radiating from the center.

Roll the four small portions into thin ropes representing the grasses used to wrap the bundled ends of the arms of the "cross."  Rolling the dough to a length of about 9-inches allows you to wrap the dough arms twice, and that feels right.  Let the dough rise for about an hour.  Bake at 375-degrees.  Let the bread cool for 5-minutes before transferring to a cooling rack. 

It's a MIRACLE!  The bread tastes like LOVE.  And when we eat the bread, we partake of the miracle and we become the LOVE.  May we live this week in the generous spirit of Saint Brigit!

3rd Sunday after the Epiphany

3rd Sunday after the Epiphany / Jubilee Sunday

Lectionary Texts:  Nehemiah 8:1-3,5-6,8-10; Psalm 19; 1 Corinthians 12:12-31a; Luke 4:14-21

Bread Words

The method for creating Communion bread on this Jubilee Sunday is a RADICAL departure from all of the bread baking practices I have ever known....and loved!  It was while listening to "Good Food" on KCRW 89.9 that I was introduced to this phenomenal technique.  Evan Kleiman was interviewing Mark Bittman, The Minimalist chef from The New York Times.  He was fairly raving about the virtues of a "no-knead" bread, something in which I have had ZERO interest.  Kneading bread is an activity that satisfies me.  When I knead bread, I think of my grandmothers through my skin, muscle and bones.  As I knead bread dough, I imagine bread makers all over the world who must work much harder than I do to feed their families.  With the "no-knead" technique set aside, what intrigued me about the "minimalist" bread concept were the claims that Mark Bittman made about the quality of the resulting loaf. 

As soon as I could, I went to The New York Times Website and found the November 8, 2006, article titled, "The Secret of Great Bread:  Let Time Do the Work."  Because I have trusted other Mark Bittman recipes, I was prepared for conversion;  but it was this sentence that convinced me that I had to try the recipe as soon as possible:  "What makes (this) process revolutionary is the resulting combination of great crumb, lightness, incredible flavor--long fermentation gives you that--and an enviable, crackling crust, the feature of bread that most frequently separates the amateurs from the pros."  Having made hundreds of loaves of bread and having tried various techniques to create the home-version of a steam-injected oven to achieve that "crackling crust," I "needed" to try this method described by its creator, Jim Lahey, as so "surprisingly simple--I think a 4-year old could master it."

I read the recipe over and over....incredulous at the unconventional process.  Then I plunged in.  I am going to quote the recipe precisely as it was printed in The New York Times article, but I will intersperse photos of the process.

No-Knead Bread

Adapted from Jim Lahey, Sullivan Street Bakery

Time:  About 1 1/2 hours plus 14 to 20 hours' rising

* * * * * * * * * * * *

3 cups all-purpose or bread flour, more for dusting

1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

Cornmeal or wheat bran as needed.

1.  In a large bowl combine flour, yeast and salt.  Add 1 5/8 cups water, and stir until blended;  dough will be shaggy and sticky.  Cover bowl with plastic wrap.  Let dough rest at least 12 hours, preferably about 18, at warm room temperature, about 70 degrees.

2.  Dough is ready when its surface is dotted with bubbles.

Lightly flour a work surface and place dough on it;  sprinkle it with a little more flour and fold it over on itself once or twice.  Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rest about 15 minutes.

 

3.  Using just enough flour to keep dough from sticking to work surface or to your fingers, gently and quickly shape dough into a ball.  Generously coat a cotton towel (not terry cloth) with flour, wheat bran or cornmeal; put dough seam side down on towel and dust with more flour, bran or cornmeal.  Cover with another cotton towel and let rise for about 2 hours.  When it is ready, dough will be more than double in size and will not readily spring back when poked with a finger.

   

 

4.  At least a half-hour before dough is ready, heat oven to 450 degrees.  Put a 6-to-8-quart heavy covered pot (cast iron, enamel, Pyrex, or ceramic) in oven as it heats.  When dough is ready, carefully remove pot from oven.  Slide you hand under towel and turn dough over into pot, seam side up;  it may look like a mess, but that is O.K.  Shake pan once or twice if dough is unevenly distributed;  it will straighten out as it bakes.  Cover with lid and bake 30 minutes, then remove lid and bake another 15 to 30 minutes, until loaf is beautifully browned.  Cool on a rack.

Yield:  One 1 1/2 pound loaf.

 

Though no further instruction is required, I will add some of the details that would have reassured me prior to trying the recipe for the first time.  Unlike most homemade breads, this bread is best if served after it has cooled to room temperature.  For this reason and for ease in calculating the preparation time, it was simplest to begin the bread-making 24 hours prior to when it would be served.

One of the assumptions I made prior to making the bread was that I have more than one 8-quart Dutch oven, cast iron pot, etc. in which the bread could be baked.  Just before I needed to pre-heat the pan in the oven, I realized that the only 8-quart utensils in my possession were stainless steel stock pots (not one of the listed options in Mark Bittman's article).  But as can be seen in the photos, that's what I had to use.....and they worked!

Another detail about the baking which worried me was that there was no mention of the pans being greased, though there was assurance that the bread wouldn't stick.  Admittedly, I did use a generous amount of corn meal (on the towel and on the surface of the bread).  Maybe it's not required, but the toasted cornmeal tastes great and it adds a desireable texture to the finished loaf.  While the first loaf baked, I was imagining a gorgeous, golden glob of bread stuck to the sides and bottom of the stock pot.  At the end of the 50-minute baking time, I removed the pot from the hot oven and was amazed that the size of the loaf had not changed appreciably.  I giggled the pan slightly.  To my complete amazement, the loaf shifted easily in the bottom of the pan.  NO STICKING!

After removing the bread from the pan, we cut into the first loaf almost immediately.  This was a mistake.  The texture of the bread was much too moist to tolerate slicing or breaking right out of the oven.  Waiting at least one hour does the bread justice.  It's all the things Mark Bittman promised it could be.  To appreciate this recipe more fully, I suggest that you read the entire text in The New York Times as well as listening to the January 13th "Good Food" interview in the KCRW archives.  One of the possibilities Mark Bittman mentioned in the interview eith Evan Kleiman was using 1/4 rye flour in the recipes to create an exceptionally easy and flavorful rye bread.  I haven't tried it yet;  but when I do, I think I will add caraway or dill seeds to the mix.

It was puzzling to me why I had made the decision to make this unconventional bread for Communion.  There is nothing about the ingredients or about the shape of the bread which really fit the images derived from the Lectionary texts, unless it might be something about the LAW (the recipe) being obeyed, fulfilled.  But this is Jubilee Sunday.  And this crazy bread has everything to do with Jubilee.

There is absolutely nothing about the Jubilee concept  that makes sense within the paradigm of fairness and justice which is second-nature to me.  Prior to being exposed to the Biblical concept of Jubiliee, I had always thought that Jubilee meant a kind of special celebration.  It was not until I encountered the idea of cyclical debt-forgiveness and re-distribution of wealth as described in the Hebrew Bible that I began to recognize the potential for transformation in the practice of Jubilee.  The benefit of debt-forgiveness by the wealthy nations and institutions to the impoverished and deprived is not something that can be demonstrated by economists' spread sheets.  Debt-forgiveness on a scale that matters is an act of good faith.  The gesture defies conventions.  And so does this wacky recipe for No-Knead Bread.  The techniques are contrary to--and defiantly simpler than--conventional bread-making practices.  But the results are extraordinary!  It's the PERFECT bread for Jubilee Sunday.

2nd Sunday after the Epiphany

2nd Sunday after the Epiphany / Martin Luther King Day 

14 January 2007

Bread Words

Lectionary Texts:  Isaiah 62:1-5; Psalm 36:5-10;

1 Corinthians 12:1-11; John 2:1-11

 

One of the benefits of using the Lectionary texts as the basis for liturgy is that all of the passages will be re-visited every three years.  With each cyclical encounter, a different part of the texts will emerge as significant.  This week when I read the Gospel passage from John, it was this verse describing the Wedding at Cana that captured my interest: "When the steward tasted the water that had become wine, and did not know where it came from (though the servants who had drawn the water knew), the steward called the bridegroom."  (John 2:9)  After initially recalling the scene from "Zorba, the Greek" when the character played by Anthony Quinn substituted wine for the water in the urns at the hillside monastery, I recognized this passage is one example of Jesus having first revealed the miraculous to those who were marginalized by the dominant society, of how Jesus brought signs of hope to the poor and disenfranchised.  On this Sunday when Martin Luther King Day is observed, it is important to recognize the ways in which the ministry of the young African-American pastor from Georgia mirrors the ministry of the young prophet from Nazareth.

The shape of the bread for Communion is inspired by the stories of how Martin Luther King, Jr. commited his life to breaking the chains of bondage binding African-Americans to the reality of separate-and-unequal status while also whacking away at the arrogant supremacy of the dominant white class.  Black and white.  Yellow and brown.  We need each other!  If one among us is demeaned or harmed, each of us suffers.  "Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are varieties of services, but the same Lord; and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who activates all of them in everyone.  To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good.  To one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the discernment of spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues.  All these are activated by one and the same Spirit, who allots to each one individually just as the Spirit chooses." (1 Corinthians 12:1-11)  There's not one word about the color of our skin.  Not one word about our gender or sexual orientation.  Each one has special worth and value.  But as long as humans subscribe to the notion of the "other," we are bound by the chains of our predjudices.  Our potentials are doomed.

And so, the Communion bread for this week is formed into a chain, a chain symbolizing the bondage to which we subscribe and submit.  Racism.  Sexism.  Classism.  It's a chain made just like the one made with a crochet hook--very strong and enduring--but one that will be unravelled with the steady perseverance of committed Christians willing to pull at the vulnerable strand until it is broken and cast off. 

The bread dough is made from a simple recipe, divided into two different colored portions which are twisted together to make the chain.  If it seems too complicated to make the bread from a single recipe, the shape can be readily created from two separate bread recipes, one for white bread and one for dark bread.  The reason that I prefer to make the two shades of bread from a single recipe is because the bread will properly bake at the same temperature.

White and Tan Bread

1 3/4 cups milk, heated

1 Tablespoon active dry yeast

2 cups unbleached flour

Sprinkle the yeast over the surface of the warmed milk.  Let the yeast dissolve and then stir in the unbleached flour.  Stir for two minutes.  Divide the mixture into two equal portions, about 1 3/4 cups each. 

In one bowl, add:

1/4 cup honey

2 Tablespoons softened butter

2 cups unbleached flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

Mix the ingredients and then turn out onto a floured surface.  Knead for about five minutes.  Place in a greased bowl and let rise for an hour.

To the other bowl, add:

1/4 cup molasses

1 ounce of dark chocolate

2 Tablespoons softened butter

3/4 teaspoon salt

2 cups of whole wheat flour

Mix together and then turn out onto a floured surface.  Knead for five minutes.  Place in a greased bowl and let the dough rise for an hour.

Deflate each of the doughs and then roll each dough into a rope about 5 feet long.  Twist the two ropes together.  On a well-greased baking sheet, shape the twisted ropes into a simple chain, leaving both ends free.  So that the loop in the chain would remain "open" during the rising and baking process, I placed a small, greased ceramic cup in the loop;  I don't think the result is effective and I will skip that detail the next time I make this bread.  (Rather than wasting more words attempting to describe how to loop the dough, the pictures below will be more instructive.)

Let the shaped dough rise for about one hour.  Bake at 375-degrees for 25-35 minutes.  Let the bread remain on the baking sheet for about 5 minutes and then transfer to a cooling rack.  Though there isn't much difference between the dark and the light doughs on the outside crust, the two kinds of dough can be distinguished--but they are inseparable. 

       

Baptism of Jesus / Ordination

Baptism of Jesus / Ordination     7 January 2007

Bread Words

Lectionary Texts:  Isaiah 43:1-7; Psalm 29; Acts 8:14-17; Luke 3:15-17,21-22

"Now when all the people were baptized, and when Jesus also had been baptized and was praying, the heaven was opened, and the Holy Spirit descended upon Jesus in bodily form like a dove.  And a voice came from heaven, "You are my Child, the Beloved;  with you I am well pleased."              (Luke 3:21-22.)

It is this ritual of baptism performed by his cousin, John, that marks the beginning of Jesus' ministry.  "Jesus was about thirty years old when he began his work."  (Luke 3:23)  In early Christian artworks depicting this baptism, John is frequently portrayed streaming water from a shell over Jesus' head.  This is a likely explanation for the association of the shell image with the baptism ritual.

Another kind of spiritual practice associated with the shell image is the pilgrimage on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela (The Way of Saint James, Field of Stars) in northern Spain.  The remains of the Apostle James are said to be buried at the Santiago de Compostela.  There are a number of pre-Christian legends about the pilgrimage which embrace the symbolism of the shell--a pagan fertility ritual and a Celtic death journey are examples.  For modern-day sojourners who may walk El Camino for weeks as a spiritual quest, the scallop shell has become a token signifying the successful completion of their trek to the Atlantic coast of Spain.  Whether or not sojourners on a faith journey ever visit the Continent or ever set foot on El Camino, the scallop shell has come to be symbolic of spiritual seeking.

Because of the associations with baptism and spiritual seeking, the scallop shell seems like a fitting shape for the Communion bread for the Baptism of Jesus Sunday when a member of the congregation will be Ordained as an Elder.  On the occasion of Ordination, the faith community embraces the unique gifts and graces of the new elder and pledges to support her special ministry.  As the Communion table is approached on this day (which also celebrates Jesus' Epiphany), there will be a Great Thankgiving for ALL the gifts we bring for God's glory.

The bread dough is slightly sweet, and it is flavored with Chai tea.  The formation of the bread will be made easier with the use of kitchen shears to create a shell-shape.

(Not-quite) Whole Wheat Bread

3 to 3 1/2 cups unbleached flour

2 teaspoons active dry yeast

1 3/4 cups warmed milk

3 Chai tea bags

1/2 cup organic sugar

3 Tablespoons softened butter

1 1/4 teaspoons salt

2 cups whole wheat flour

Warm the milk to almost scalding.  Let the tea bags steep in the warmed milk for about five minutes.  Pour the tea-flavored milk into a large mixing bowl.  After the milk has cooled sufficiently, sprinkle the dry yeast over the surface to dissolve.  Add 3 cups of the unbleached flour and stir for about two minutes.  Let the sponge sit for about five minutes.

Add the sugar, butter, salt, and some of the whole wheat flour.  Mix well and then add more whole wheat flour to make a very stiff dough.  Turn the dough out on a floured surface, thoroughly scraping the bowl.  Knead the dough, utilizing the remaining flours, for about 8 minutes.  (Singing "We Three Kings" provides a perfect meter for kneading the bread....and it helps me to get my annual quota of the one carol which seems to get short shrift at church.)  Place the dough back in the bowl which has been well-greased; turn the dough to grease the entire surface.  Let the dough rise in a warm place for about 75 minutes.

Punch the dough down and pat it out on a floured surface into a circular shape about 12-inches in diameter and 1 1/2-inches thick.  Place the dough on a well-greased baking sheet.  Using kitchen shears, cut the base of the scallop-shell shape and the fan-shape radiating from the base.

To create the ridge-effect on the body of the shell, either use a knife or the kitchen shears to cut seven "rays" in the bread.  Let the bread rise for about one hour and then bake at 375-degrees for about 45 minutes, or until golden brown.  After removing the pan from the oven, let the bread sit on the baking sheet for five minutes before transferring to a cooling rack.  M-m-m-m...the flavor is indescribable.