Flat Bread

Oct 3 was World Communion Sunday. Yeah that's how behind I am at posting things. I do get around to posting everything I make...eventually. Anyhow...so World Communion Sunday. It was my turn to set up communion at church. This involves buying bread and juice, cutting up said bread, and pouring the juice in those tiny little cups. Which, by the way, is kind of fun. There is a special plunger funnel thingie and it takes about 3 seconds to fill up each mini cup. OK so I don't get out much if I think that is fun.

ANYHOW... I'm so off topic today. For World Communion Sunday our church cuts up different types of bread to represent the variety of people that are all participating in Communion at the same time. I was also asked to bring some extra loaves of different colors to decorate the table.

So I had my 3 regular loaves of bread, Pumpernickel, wheat and white, and 3 different colored round loaves. I was feelin' like I had accomplished something. Then it hit me, I had the bread for the congregation to eat, the decorative bread for the table, but I had completely forgotten to get bread for the Pastor to break during the service. Sure he could tear into one of the decorative loaves, but our church has 2 services. Having broken bread on the table sort of defeats the purpose of having it as decoration.

I started thinking about it and wondered if I couldn't just make something. My bread skills are still quite mediocre. I can make quick bread and crusty bread. Neither of these breads would be good for what I needed. The quick bread is very crumbly and would make a huge mess when torn in half. The crusty bread, well, the crust is hard and when broken would also make a big crumbly mess on the floor too.

Then I started thinking about unleavened breads. This was a global theme right? Almost every culture has their own version of flat bread, so why not make that. It seemed like it would be easy enough to make. After all, there was no yeast to have to fight with. I did a search and settled on Rosemary Flat bread from Bread and Beta.

What I didn't realize, until I was in the middle of combining the ingredients, was that this was a crispy flat bread. Doh! So I improvised as best as I could. I made 3 breads instead of 4. Then I rolled the dough out thicker than suggested. I also undercooked them. As soon as they began to turn light brown on the bubbles I took them out of the oven. Then I stored them in a container with a few slices of white bread. All this helped out quite a bit. When the bread was broken, if you were paying close attention, you could hear a slight snap, but there was no crumblage. Whew!I also, as you can see from the above photo, omitted the salt, paprika and rosemary that were supposed to be pressed into the rolled out dough before baking. In the interest of not making a mess, I thought it would be best to leave them out. I could just see salt and rosemary falling all over the place when the Pastor picked up the bread.

Because I'm Presbyterian, it's OK for us to do "whatever" with communion bread left over from the service. I'm sure Catholics are horrified to learn that I ate the bread for lunch for the next few days. It was delicious! I'll definitely make it again, although, not for communion. I'll follow the directions and make it very crispy and thin. Oh, and add the spices to the dough before cooking.

As a side note, I don't think I will ever forget making this bread. I got a nice souvenir in the process.Now in addition to the Harry Potter "scar" birthmark smack dab in the middle of my forehead, I've got a crescent moon shaped scar on my arm. Hey, the baby from the movie Willow had a scar on her arm. Maybe this means I'm destined to over throw an evil magician/wizard/queen? Hmmm... or maybe it just means I'm clumsy.

Paprika-Rosemary Flatbread from Bread and Beta Makes 4
1 3/4 c. flour
1 Tbsp. fresh Rosemary, finely chopped (yields approx. 1 tsp.),
1/4 tsp. Paprika
3/4 tsp. salt
1/2 c. water
1/3 c. olive oil

Preheat oven to 450 F with heavy baking sheet on middle rack. Combine flour, rosemary, paprika and salt in a bowl.3. Form well in center of ingredients and add water and oil. Stir to combine and form dough. Knead on floured surface for a minute. Divide dough into 4 balls. Put 3 aside and cover in saran wrap. On piece of parchment paper, or non stick liner, roll out 1 ball. It should be quite thin, and luckily, the shape does not matter. Roll out the flatbread. Rub additional olive oil over bread. Sprinkle sea salt, fresh rosemary sprigs and paprika over dough. Slide parchment paper and dough onto cookie sheet to bake. Bake 8-10 min til crispy and golden. Cool on wire rack, discarding parchment paper.Repeat steps 7-10 with remaining balls of dough. These can be made ahead of time and stored in an airtight container for several days, if you can keep away from them for that long.