bread - Related Content

Ingredients:
2   1 / 2 C warm water (100-110 degrees)
1 packet or 1 T yeast (regular or quick rise)
Option:  2 T oil or melted butter
1 T brown sugar, honey or other sweetener
6 C flour (A good combination is 2 1 / 2 whole wheat and 3 1 / 2 white.  You may use a combination of whole wheat, white whole wheat, all-purpose white flour or bread flour.  You may substitute I C wheat germ or flax seed meal for 1 C whole wheat flour. If adding wheat germ or flax meal, add it with the yeast so that these heavier flours can soften as yeast activates.) 
1 T salt

Procedure:

• Sprinkle yeast onto water.  Stir or whisk to wet yeast granules completely.  Mix sweetener and oil, if using into the wet ingredients until dissolved. Let this stand about 10 minutes as yeast activates.  Gather and/or measure other ingredients. Grease your pans by thoroughly brushing with olive or vegetable oil or spray with non-stick cooking spray.
• Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients gradually to make a soft, sticky dough, adding the salt toward the end. 
• Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface for kneading.  Adjust amount of flour so that dough does not feel water – logged or runny.  If it feels too stiff and you feel strain in your fingers as you knead, add a sprinkle of water.  Knead about 10 – 20 minutes until dough loses its wet quality and you can see specks of bran against a lighter dough. It might still be a bit sticky.
• Clean the bowl and oil it lightly.  Shape the dough into a smooth ball and put it in the bowl.  Move it around in the bowl to collect some oil and then turn it over.  Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a dry towel.  Be sure there is enough room for the dough to double.  Keep bowl in a warm, draft-free place until doubled, about 30 – 45 minutes, up to an hour, as time allows.  This develops flavor as well as lift.  
• When dough is doubled, you may give it a 2nd rise, if time allows.  This means deflate the dough, form it into a ball, return to bowl and cover for another 45 minutes.  You can skip the 2nd rise and form the dough into loaves. 
• Divide dough into 2 large or 3 small loaves.  Squeeze out any air and shape or roll tightly into loaves, placing them each in a greased pan, seam side down.  Cover and let rise again, until dough rises to just above the top of the pan, about 30 minutes.  Slit the loaf in several places with a sharp knife or razor to let air escape in the over.  This can be done once diagonally across the length of the loaf or several times diagonally across its width.  Bake at 375 degrees about 25 – 35 minutes or until internal temperature of loaf is about 185-190 degrees.  This is a time when a meat thermometer comes in handy!  Insert it into the bottom of the loaf.  OR, take the loaf out of the pan and tap it on the bottom.  If it sounds hollow, it is probably done baking.

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Story:

This Easter Week or during the 50-day Easter season, let the Holy One feed your deepest hungers.  Even make bread with this recipe for Basic Whole Wheat Bread.   Consider how you give bread - material and spiritual - to the hungry.  Live the Eucharist and pray  "Holy God, give bread to the hungry and hunger for You to those who have bread."

As a follow up to last week's post on food pantries and food insecurity, consider how in the Easter season, you might develop a practice that feeds the hungry and your own hunger for God.   After all, the 50 days of the season give us time to develop and maintain a new practice as much as Lent is meant to do!  Let your inner voice tell you more about what is yours to do spiritually, materially for the good of the world.

This might mean adopting a food pantry and making a monthly donation of food.  Or, if you save on groceries by foregoing a food indulgence, cooking from scratch or meatless more often, tally up the savings and add your local pantry to a monthly charitable giving practice.   The season (which includes Earth Day on April 22) might inspire loving the earth  through a practice that has been calling to you:  gardening, recycling, reusing, reducing waste or writing to your elected official about your love of the earth and all her human and other-than-human creatures.

Ingredients:
2 1/2 C warm water (100-110 degrees)
1 packet or 1 T yeast (regular or quick rise)
2 T oil or melted butter (optional)
1 T brown sugar, honey, or other sweeteners
6 C flour (A good combination is: 2 1/2 whole wheat and 3 1/2 white. You may use a combination of whole wheat, white whole wheat, all-purpose white flour or bread flour. You may substitute I C wheat germ or flax seed meal for 1 C whole wheat flour. If adding wheat germ or flax meal, add it with the yeast so that these heavier flours can soften as yeast activates.)
1 T salt

Directions:

1. Sprinkle yeast onto the water. Stir or whisk to wet yeast granules completely. Mix sweetener and oil, if using, into the wet ingredients until dissolved. Let stand for about 10 minutes as the yeast activates. As you wait, gather and/or measure other ingredients. Grease your pans.
2. Stir the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients gradually to make a soft, somewhat sticky dough, adding the salt toward the end.
3. Turn dough onto a lightly floured surface for kneading. Kneading dough is as simple as pushing the dough away from you with the heel of your palm, folding it over itself with your fingers, and pulling it back. Adjust the amount of flour so that the dough does not feel waterlogged or runny. If it feels too stiff and you feel strain in your fingers as you knead, add a sprinkle of water. Knead for about 10-20 minutes until the dough loses its wet quality and you can see specks of bran against a lighter dough. It might still be a bit sticky.
4. Clean the bowl and oil it lightly. Shape the dough into a smooth ball and put it in the bowl. Move it around in the bowl to collect some oil and then turn it over. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap or a dry towel. Be sure there is enough room for the dough to double. Keep the bowl in a warm, draft-free place until doubled, about 30-45 minutes, up to an hour, as time allows. This develops flavor as well as lift.
5. When the dough is doubled, let it rise a second time, if time allows. This means to deflate the dough, form it into a ball, return to the bowl and cover for another 45 minutes. You can skip the 2nd rise. However, this develops flavor.
6. Divide dough into 2 large or 3 small loaves. Squeeze out any air and shape or roll tightly into loaves, making sure the seam is tight and on the bottom as you place them each in a greased pan. Cover and let rise again, until dough rises to just above the top of the pan, about 30 minutes. Slit the loaf in several places with a sharp knife or razor to let air escape in the oven. This can be done once diagonally across the length of the loaf or several times diagonally across its width. Bake at 375 degrees for about 25 – 35 minutes or until the internal temperature of the loaf is about 185-190 degrees.

Story:
Christians celebrate 50 days of Easter, giving us time to celebrate Resurrection transformation: to be of service, forgive, prayerfully plant seeds, surrender to joy, bake bread. A Basic Bread Recipe guides us to bake this "transformational Easter food!" Also included: a reflection inspired by baker theologian Peter Reinhart called From Wheat to Eat.

Transformation From Wheat to Eat
On Holy Thursday, Christians celebrate Jesus by giving thanks, breaking bread, and sharing with his friends. Christians believe that ordinary food is transformed into Christ’s very presence and promise to be among us always. Fed by the Eternal Word made Flesh, we can discover goodness in each person, each living thing. The FSPA to whom we are drawn has a particular focus on the Eucharist, the bread of life.

A wheat seed planted in the dark earth is warmed, fed, and watered. It breaks open and dies.
Without its protective shell, it lives again, transformed into a rising green blade of wheat.
When mature, wheat stalks are harvested, cut down, and killed.

Separated from straw and chaff, some seeds are planted, the next generation, a sign of God’s promise.
Other seeds crushed between stones are never to give birth, dying once more and transformed into flour.
Human hands mix flour with water to form a sort of "clay", which in Hebrew is the same word as “Adam” or "human!" 
Yeast - a living mix of organisms found in the air - is added. Reactivated in water, yeast transforms a lump of dough from clay to bread.

Fed by honey or molasses and the sugars in the flour, sister yeast eats sugar and emits carbon dioxide. Eating sugar and burping air, it leavens and gives lightness and flavor to dough that otherwise would be dense and heavy.
As hands knead this potential food, protein (gluten) in the wheat flour is stretched, and cross-knitted into elastic, pliable strands. The capacity to rise and become something new is nurtured through rhythmic work.

The dough must now rest, expanding slowly, in a warm place. The baker deflates the dough and undisturbed, it rises again.
Skilled hands form risen dough into loaves and place them in pans for one last rise. The beautiful loaves now must be slashed to let air escape in the heat of the oven. In Italian, the oven is “il forno” and in a wonderful unity of roles, the baker (also called "il forno") receives bread for baking.

Heat brings more change. Does it ever end? At a certain temperature, sugars in the pale dough caramelize and form a brown crust. Heated even more, the yeast dies, having given itself completely. When the bread comes from the oven, its transformation continues. The crumb and texture continue to take shape. Bread cools. We eat. This transformational food becomes us, uniting all who bless, break and share him. We become what we receive, one loaf, one Body, transformed into food for others.

If you would like to be notified when we share new recipes, be sure to scroll to the bottom, provide your email address, check the box confirming you are not a robot, click on a few photos to prove it and click subscribe! You will then receive an email after each new post. Remember, we're always looking for new recipes, so keep sending them to ecopact@fspa.org!

Ingredients:
2 C lukewarm milk
2 packages (3 and 1/2 tsp.) active dry yeast
¼ C sugar
1 beaten egg
¼ C (1/2 stick) butter, melted
2 tsp salt
5¾ to 6½ C all-purpose flour or bread flour

Instructions:

1.    In a medium-sized bowl, sprinkle yeast over milk and stir to dissolve. Let stand for 5 minutes to develop.
2.    Add in sugar, egg, butter, and salt and mix well. One cup at a time, add 5 cups of flour and beat thoroughly after each addition until flour is incorporated. Add enough of remaining flour to make a soft dough that is slightly sticky.
3.    Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead, adding small amounts of flour as necessary to keep dough manageable. Knead for 6 to 8 minutes, until dough is smooth and satiny.
4.    Lightly oil the surface of the dough and place it back into rinsed bowl and cover with a clean, dry towel. Allow to rise in a warm place free from drafts until doubled, about 60 minutes.
5.    Punch dough down and divide in half. (The recipe makes 2 breads so you can gift one to a neighbor!)
6.    Roll each half of the dough into a rope about 24 inches long, and form the braid as illustrated below.
a)    Form the rope into the shape of a circle with a long 6” - 8" “tail” put under and over the top of the circle toward the right as in Illustration 1.
b)    Take the bottom of your circle,  and turn it toward the left to make what was a circle into the shape of the number “8”.  This is difficult to describe, so look at Illustration 2.  The tail remains at the top right. 
c)    Next, take the end of the long “tail” and move it behind your dough until you can pop the end of the tail through the bottom hole in your “8” shape as in Illustration 3.  This end should form the bambino’s head peeking out from blankets or "swaddling clothes".  

7.    Carefully, place the shaped braided bambino on a lightly greased baking sheet, using one or more large spatulas or a unrimmed cookie sheet.  Cover with a clean, dry towel and let rise for 30 minutes or until doubled.  This should close up any gaps in the braid and resemble the finished bambino.
8.    Bake at 350° for 25 to 30 minutes.  Brush with melted butter to make the surface shine.

To simplify the project:
The slow way of making bread dough is part of the fun of this project, but if time is a deal breaker, frozen bread dough can be used to skip the first steps.  Place one frozen loaf in a large sealed zip lock bag or covered dish and thaw in the fridge overnight.  Each loaf makes two “bambinos”.

OR Use an easy Pizza Dough recipe, such as the one that follows, which is enough for 1 "bambino" or 1 large pizza crust. 
Add 1 T yeast to 1 ¼ C of warm water and let sit for 10 minutes.  
Stir in 1 T sugar or honey and 1 T olive oil.
Add 3 C all-purpose flour or bread flour.  
Knead, let rise as in steps 3 – 8 above. 

Story: 
This Advent and Christmas season is special for Franciscans.  We celebrate that 800 years ago in the Italian village of Greccio, a humble brother named Francesco from nearby Assisi created the first live reenactment of the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem.  I
In a cave in the Umbrian hillside, farmers offered Brother Francis the setting and animals to make simple and loving tribute to the humanity as well as the divinity of the Christ Child.  The creche or manger scene has become a meaningful tradition for Christians all over the world and calls for awe and wonder at the humility of Jesus.
Francis’ simplicity still invites us to embrace the mystery that God became human in a simple and somewhat precarious setting.  Divine love was born on earth as “God in the flesh”.  What could be a more life-changing?

This recipe for Bambino Bread is from Father Dominic Garramone, OSB.   Father Dominic,   the Bread Monk, is a Benedictine priest at Saint Bede Abbey in Peru, Illinois.  He teaches High School drama and his cookbooks, blog, and bread demonstrations are a witness to the Benedictine life of prayer and work.  His latest book is ‘Tis The Season To Be Baking (Reedy Press).

As you may know, FSPA is involved in several events Honoring 800 Years of Tradition.  Click here for more details about: 
Nov. 29 - Dec. 17          The Greccio Experience: A Display of Nativity Scenes from Around the World
Dec. 4 - Dec. 15            Community Mural: A Nativity-Based Paint-by-Number Experience for All
Dec. 4 - Dec. 21            Baby Item Drive: Echoing the Love and Care Shown to the Holy Infant
Dec. 10                        Lighting of Mayo Clinic Health System's CAMS Building
Dec. 10                        Franciscan Night at La Crosse's Rotary Lights Holiday Display

Enjoy an article by Annette Mikat on The 800 Year Legacy of the Creche.

One more fact that impresses me:  Did you know that Bethlehem means “house of bread”?  The Word of God made flesh is born in a manger, a feeding trough, to feed us with his divine presence in the Eucharist, in the Community and in all the poor and lonely of this world.