This is the bread we bake together on all our Family Days, and sometimes at other occasions such as Harvest, Holy Week, etc. Bread can symbolise the Body of Christ, the lifegiving death of the fruits of the harvest (a natural metaphor for the Body of Christ!), and our communal life together.
It's virtually foolproof - even if the water is too hot and the yeast doesn't proof as well as it should, and it doesn't really rise, as happened at our All Saints' Family Day yesterday, it still tastes good!
2 cups warm water
1 package yeast
1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup honey (use the same measuring cup, right after the oil - the honey will slide right out of it!)
2 teaspoons salt
Flour (as much as is needed to turn it to dough - about seven cups - and more for kneading and shaping)
Mix the ingredients together, and then knead. Set the dough to rise for at least two hours, in a warm, moist place.
Punch the risen dough down, and cover a workplace with flour. Sprinkle a little extra flour on top of the dough. The dough can then be shaped - encourage children to think of an appropriate shape for the occasion.
When you've shaped the dough, set it to rise again, then brush it with egg or oil, and bake. Smaller sculptures can bake in about 20 minutes at 190C, while larger ones may take up to 45.
Here are some examples of how you can shape the dough (these are my own work, not kids' work).
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| An angel, at Christmas. |
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| A sheaf of wheat, at Easter. |
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| At first glance, this looks like a bunny, but it's actually Jonah and the whale.. The ear-like structures are the whale's tail. Jonah is visible at the far right, being spat out. |
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