St. Mark's Altar Bread Recipe and instructions _________________ To sign up to make Altar Bread for Sunday, click here. Altar Bread Recipe Makes 4 loaves 1/4 cup butter 1 cup whole milk - scalded and then cooled 1 cup lukewarm water 1 pkg dry yeast 1/4 cup brown sugar - tightly packed 1 tbsp molasses 1 tbsp honey 2 tsp salt 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour 4 - 5 cups white flour Scald milk; then add butter, molasses, brown sugar, honey and salt. Let cool. When mixture is room temperature, dissolve yeast in 1 cup of lukewarm water. Add to milk mixture. Add all of the whole wheat flour and approximately 3 cups of the white flour and mix, gradually adding more white flour until dough clings together. Knead 7 to 8 minutes until dough is smooth and not sticky (add a little more white flour as needed). Put dough in large greased bowl. Turn dough so greased side is up. Put damp cloth over bowl. Let rise until it doubles in volume. Put in a warm place such as under the stove light. It takes approximately 2 hours. Then punch it down. Divide into fourths and shape. Place rounds on greased cookie sheets. Score deeply in quarters. Allow to rise again for 10 to 20 minutes. Bake at 375 degrees - check in 10 - 15 minutes. After removing from oven, lightly brush top of loaves with melted butter. Instructions: 1) Please post a message by clicking here if you plan to make Altar bread for Sunday. 2) Please put all the loaves in a sealed plastic bag, and delivered to the sacristy either on Saturday or early Sunday morning, no later than 7:15 AM, so that the altar guild can set up for the 7:45 service. 3) This recipe should always be made fresh, no sooner than Saturday. PLEASE NOTE: This recipe is wonderful, when fresh. However, it becomes crumbly if more than ONE day old, or if frozen and thawed. If is not possible to make it fresh, no sooner than Saturday, please substitute white Mediterranean Flat Bread (Note: please use white rather than wheat). St Mark's Episcopal Church 12700 Hall Shop Rd, Highland, MD 20777 __________________________________________________________ St Marks is convenient to Clarksville MD, Columbia MD, and Laurel MD, in Howard County, half-way between Baltimore and Washington DC. Click here for a map and directions.