For everyone missing the breaking of bread in community this month, I’ve simplified my sharing bread recipe to make two small loaves you can bake at home. Even if we can’t be together physically, we can be together in the breaking of bread…
Step One: Gather
The first step is to gather your intentions and your ingredients. This sharing bread recipe makes two loaves, one for you and one to share (even if that sharing is virtual this week). You will need water, yeast, sugar or honey, about three cups of flour, salt and, (if you prefer raisin bread) a cup of raisins soaked in warm water. No yeast in the house? Try the no yeast pizza crust or biscuit recipes at the bottom of this page!
Step Two: Bloom
Yeast is a critical element in bread baking, so be sure your yeast is alive and ready to make bread. Pour a cup and a half of warm (bath temperature) water into a bowl and add 1.5 teaspoons of yeast and a teaspoon of honey or sugar. If you are using raisins, use the soaking water (plus enough extra to equal 1.5 cups) to add extra flavor and omit the sugar. Whisk the yeast and water together and wait a few minutes. While you wait, think about the people that will eat your bread. Say a prayer for them. Remember that baking is never just about bread, it is always about community. When the yeast bubbles and becomes foamy, it has “bloomed” and is ready for baking.
Step Three: Mix
Add the flour to the yeast mixture a bit at a time and stir with a wooden spoon or a dough whisk until a shaggy dough forms. This may take more or less flour depending on the type of flour you are using and the humidity in your kitchen. What kind of flour should you use? In an ideal world I like to use King Arthur Organic Bread Flour if I’m shopping at a grocery store or the fresh milled flours from Janie’s Mill (these amazing women are still filling online orders!), but you can use any flour you have on hand. This is a simple recipe and anything will work! The dough does not need to be smooth at this point, you just want to make sure there are no dry bits of flour.
Before adding the salt, you want to give your dough a bit of a break – just ten or fifteen minutes. This break is called the autolyse, and it gives the flour time to absorb the water before the salt is added. Absorb something good yourself during the break, a book of poetry (Mary Oliver’s Devotions is my favorite) or your favorite passage of scripture are great choices. Then sprinkle two teaspoons of kosher salt (cut to 1.5 teaspoons if you are using table salt) on top of your dough and get ready to knead!
Step Four: Knead
Sprinkle a bit of flour on your clean counter then dump the dough out and begin to knead. Use the palm of your lightly floured hand to push the dough away from you, then fold it back toward yourself and do it again. Sprinkle with a bit more flour if the dough is too sticky. If you are adding raisins, this is the time to knead them into the dough. Knead until the salt is completely absorbed and the dough begins to feel smooth. You want it to be just a bit sticky to the touch, like a post-it note.
Step Five: Rest
Put the dough back in the bowl and cover with plastic wrap and a clean towel. Let it rest for about three hours, folding it over itself every thirty minutes or so for the first hour and a half (three folds total) to strengthen the dough.
This does not need to be done on a perfect schedule. Walk the dog. Read a book. Take a nap. The yeast is doing most of the work for you at this point, and with each period of resting and folding you will see the dough rise and transform. After a few hours, the dough should be puffy and smooth and about double its original size. This will happen faster on a warm day and slower on a cool one. Enjoy a bit of sabbath time for yourself while the dough rests.
Step Six: Deflate
Put the dough back on your floured counter and gently deflate it. Tuck in any stray raisins that fell out. Dough does not need to be “punched down” any more than people do. Bread baking is a peaceful practice! Use a gentle touch to push out some of the air, but don’t completely flatten the dough. This reorganizes the yeast in the dough so that it can access the sugars in the dough and rise again. It makes the taste and texture of the final loaf more complex.
Step Seven: Divide
Divide the dough in half and shape each half into a loose ball. This is how we prepare to share our bread, by dividing the dough in half right now. Normally I say that one loaf is to keep and one is to give away. In this time of social distancing, you might freeze this second loaf and instead consider making a donation to Haven Street as a way of sharing your bread. Let the dough rest for about five minutes and take that time to say a prayer for the person who will receive your gift.
Step Eight: Shape
Shape each piece of dough into a tight ball. The easiest way to do this is to gather the dough with both (lightly floured) hands and rotate it on the counter while squeezing it together on the bottom. The goal is to create a nice smooth surface with some tension. Pinch together the seams on the bottom to seal the ball, then place each one seam side up in a floured bowl or bread basket (a banneton in baker’s lingo – but a plain bowl works just great!). Cover with oiled plastic wrap and the clean towel again.
Step Nine: Proof
This is when the loaves proof. They literally prove that they are alive by rising, but this requires one of the most essential ingredients in bread baking: time! Give the dough about an hour to get puffy again, but don’t wait for it to double in size. While the dough is proofing, you need to create the right environment for it to bake. A hot oven is what makes the dough “spring” and rise. Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees and get ready to bake. If you have a pizza stone or a dutch oven (with the lid), you can put it in the oven to preheat, as either of these will hold heat and help the dough rise, but if you don’t have one of these a plain cookie sheet will work almost as well.
Step Ten: Bake
Just before baking, dust the top of each loaf with a bit of flour and slash it with scissors or a sharp knife to make three or four cuts about a quarter of an inch deep. These cuts give some direction to the dough as it springs in the oven. Over time, the way you choose to design these slashes will become your own baker’s signature, but as a starting point three straight lines work just fine. Carefully slide the dough onto your pizza stone or into your dutch oven if you have preheated those, or place it in the oven on a cookie sheet. Drop your oven temperature down to 400. If you are using a dutch oven, leave the lid on for the first 20 minutes of baking to help brown the loaf and make the crust crispy. Total baking time varies by oven – no oven holds heat the same way – so start checking your loaf after about 25 minutes. It should be dark brown and sound hollow when you tap it on the bottom.
Step Eleven: Cool
When the bread has baked, remove it carefully from the hot oven and put it on a wire rack to cool. Some patience is required at this point. Hot bread smells like heaven when you take it from the oven, but if you cut into it too soon it will be gummy on the inside. Let it rest on the cooling rack at least an hour until it is warm, but not too hot to hold comfortably in your hands.
Step Twelve: Share
This is the best part. Take. Thank. Break. Share. If you are breaking your bread as part of a Love Feast during Holy Week, this order for eating bread will sound very familiar to you. Take the bread as the blessing that it is. Give thanks to the creator of all good things; for the wheat, the farmer, the miller, the delivery person who brought your groceries, the people at your table. Break the bread with your hands. Then share it. Gather your family, say a prayer of gratitude, break that beautiful loaf (and if it isn’t so beautiful, don’t worry, no one will notice once it’s broken!), and share it with your companions on the journey. It is all of these steps together that make the baking and breaking of bread a spiritual practice in so many traditions of faith. I cherish my own tradition’s way of defining community as people that break bread together from house to house, eating their food with glad and generous hearts.
Whatever your tradition, and wherever you are this week, may you bake, break and share your bread with glad and generous hearts…
