Unleavened SDA-style Communion Bread Recipe
Written on March 14th, 2006 by JennaPosted in Cooking, Food and Drinks, Recipes
If Bree is the epitome of the perfect housewife, then the perfect housewife must also be a religious, conservative protestant. In the first episode of the second season (Next), we discovered that she attends the First Methodist Church of Fairview. I’m surprised that they never mentioned anything about her cooking the communion bread, she seems like the perfect character for that task!
In most Christian churches, you find loaves of fresh baked bread made for communion. In other churches like the Seventh-day Adventist Church, they don’t consume real wine or orthodox bread in their communion service. “SDAs” actually drink a Welch’s-type grape juice and eat unleavened bread. The juice is commonplace, but what on earth is unleavened bread? This special type of bread dates back to the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt to Canaan.When they fled from Egypt, the Israelites didn’t have enough time to let the bread rise. So, God told them not to add leavening, which is yeast, to the dough. Hence the unleavened bread. Basically, this bread is absent of any rising agents like yeast or backing powder. Essentially, it is flat bread.
Occasions for Making this Recipe
Unleavened bread is a perfect complement to any gourmet soup, especially one that is tomato based. I also make this bread every time I see my sister because she always asks for it. Feel free to use it for your gourmet meals, church service, or as a tasty snack!
Unleavened Bread Recipe for the Lord’s Supper
- 1/2 Cup of Olive Oil
- 1/2 Cup of Water
- Salt
- 2 Cups of Whole Wheat Flour - I use King Arthur Brand. Whatever you use, make sure it is whole wheat. You can tell if the flour is brown.
- Preheat the oven to 350 F
- Combine the olive oil, water, and salt. Wisk it with a wisk or a fork until its near-frothy white. Alternatively, you can put it in a blender instead.
- Loosely mix the flour to the blend. You don’t want to mix it too much or glutton chains will start to form. When making normal bread, this is desirable. But, since we’re making unleavened bread, it will make it too hard.
- Make sure the dough is the same consistency of a drier batch of cookie dough.
- Grease a cookie sheet well with a hard fat like Crisco, Smart Balance, or any other Trans Fat/Saturated Fat.
- Roll the dough flat (as thin as pie crust). I find it helpful using a hand roller.
- Once the dough is flat, it is necessary to make some incisions so that bubbles will not form in the baking process. I like to cut it into cracker-like squares. If you want to keep larger pieces, simply make a sizable incision every 6-12 inches.
- Bake for about 10 minutes. Watch it constantly after 9 minutes to avoid burn. Browned (not just burnt) communion bread tastes bitter. Adjust the time for crispier or flimsier bread.
Closing Thought
The “pious” may think that this is sacrilegious. My response is that if we can drink grape juice, why can’t we make this. Remember communion shouldn’t be so solemn. After all, Jesus and his disciples were celebrating the Passover feast! Think about that while participating in your next communion service. Enjoy!
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September 2nd, 2006 at 6:07 am
Hello,
I am thinking about trying your communion bread recipe. How much salt do you add? Does the bread puff up at all or does it stay thin like a cracker?
Thanks, Joan
September 2nd, 2006 at 6:49 pm
I would add about 1-2 tablespoons. The bread stays thin like a cracker. Though, it will form annoying bubbles if you don’t follow step 7 in the recipe above. Thanks for your interest!
December 29th, 2006 at 8:39 am
The communion bread recipe is so easy and comes out great; however, 1-2 tbsp. salt is way too much. I had to throw out the batch. Based on other unleavened bread recipes it should only be about 1/2 tsp. I tried it with 1/2 tsp and it is perfect.
January 11th, 2007 at 1:50 pm
How long will this communion bread keep? If I have any left over, can I store it in the freezer until the next use?
January 11th, 2007 at 4:21 pm
i actually don’t have any idea. My guess is that the cooked bread will not last. for me, the bread doesn’t last for more than 2 days. in the freezer it will get soggy and the crisp freshness is hard to retain. but maybe the dough will last in the freezer since it hasn’t been cooked yet … i would try that
January 31st, 2007 at 10:10 pm
Besides communion, what other uses have you found for this unleavened bread?
February 1st, 2007 at 6:24 pm
Meagan, my family likes to eat it with hearty soups like lentil or minestrone. This bread is also great with cheese instead of crackers. I actually would prefer it instead of homemade bread. Try it! You’ll like it!
March 18th, 2007 at 11:53 am
Thanks.
April 9th, 2007 at 7:51 pm
My husband is an Episcopal priest and I made this recipe for use at all the lenton services. Everyone loved it! We have even had people ask to be part of a host making committee. What are your suggestions on freezing? My husband didn’t like after freezing it became quite brittle. He also suggested that we use less olive oil. The chalice and fingers became a bit greasy. What do you think?
April 11th, 2007 at 12:39 pm
Melanie, I’m so glad that your church loved it! Like I said, I really don’t have any experience about the freezing. But if anything, only freeze the dough not the already cooked bread. About the olive oil, I would not lessen it. It is one of the best parts about this recipe and I think it would taste worse without it. I’m surprised that your congregation noticed it was greasy. Usually, I try to put even more oil int he recipe because it seems too dry. But try it out home and tell me what you think.
May 24th, 2007 at 5:13 am
Hi all, approximately how much bread comes out of this receipe? How many people would it feed for communion? Thanks
May 24th, 2007 at 12:04 pm
It depends on how much they eat. If your church member’s eat just one 1″ square, this will feed about 50 people. however, if you are cooking for a “passover feast,” you better start cracking. cause you’ll need to cook this at least 10 times!
June 29th, 2007 at 6:49 pm
The bread will freeze well in an air-tight plastic container, if you put it into a zip bag first.
August 3rd, 2007 at 7:59 pm
[...] One of the church members left voice mail that tomorrow is Communion. I googled communion SDA and found this. I thought it was pretty interesting. My mother-in-law had an early SDA cookbook that had a recipe for unleavened bread that was really delicious. It was very simple, ingredient-wise, but it had to be pounded. I broke a rolling pin doing that once upon a time. I never baked it for the church. The one year I was a deaconess was really rough because I tried to take care of the duties and play the organ, too. It was next to impossible and I was never asked again. [...]
November 25th, 2007 at 10:35 am
Thanks for this wonderful information! I teach Catholic Religious Medals for the Boy Scouts and part of the medal requirements is to make one of the things that Christ would have had at the Last Supper. Since wine is out of the question, bread was our next choice. This seems like an easy recipe to follow and my Scouts will enjoy being a part of the meal served to Our Lord. We are going to try the freezing suggestion given by Crystal so we can share some at the Medal presentations.
December 11th, 2007 at 6:31 pm
I made this recipe and used vegetable oil instead and the bread turned out light and fluffy and left everyone begging for more!!! Thanks.
December 17th, 2007 at 8:07 pm
What happens if you use normal flour instead?
December 17th, 2007 at 11:11 pm
if you use normal flour. it turns out nasty.
December 23rd, 2007 at 3:26 pm
Normal flour makes it just as good. The best oil to use is pork oil.
December 24th, 2007 at 9:40 pm
Just completed and tasted it. Fantastic. I used the multigrain from a bread machine-mix plus a little corn meal,..used 1/2 teaspoon salt but a tad more canola oil. It seemed greasy after rolling in the cookie sheet, consequently took longer to cook, maby 15 minutes as I kept peeking with door open.
However, the edges on bottom are slightly toasted but they came out delicious!!! My wife will be happy! Thanks for this!
January 1st, 2008 at 8:06 pm
I couldn’t get access to wheat flour so I used normal flour and it was great! It tasted just like it does in my church!
March 27th, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Hello Everyone,
The only communion bread that should/could be frozen is the bread that has NOT been blessed during a communion service. The bread that has been blessed, if not consumed in the service is to be burned or buried, thus says the LORD. So please do not keep it until the next service or bring home leftovers to use in other meals. If you want a bread like this for some other purpose, it takes all of 20 minutes to mix, roll and bake some fresh.
April 2nd, 2008 at 11:17 am
I recently made communion unleavened bread and would like to share this recipe as it has less oil and salt, and gives a nice simple wafer. I started doubling the recipe because the children like it so, and as Shirley mentioned above - it is traditionally respectful to burn the leftovers from the service. So half goes to church, and half stays home for my family.
1 1/8 cup cold water
3/4 cup olive oil
1 tsp salt
Mix well.
4 cups whole wheat flour
Add to wet mix.
Turn out onto floured board and knead lightly. Roll to desired thickness. About the thickness of pie crust. With a knife or pizza cutter, cut into portions. Bake at 350 to 375 for about 12 minutes. Watch carefully, bake to golden brown.
April 18th, 2008 at 11:57 am
Fantastic! I am a messianic Christian, and will now be able to make unleaved bread for my family. Thanks…
April 21st, 2008 at 7:25 pm
I use this recipe at home to make unleavened bread cakes to go with dinner- I add about a tablespoon of honey to the oil and water and run it in the blender. Adds just a hint of sweetness without making it taste sweetened. A little warning though- the bread is a bit more addicting with the honey added.
April 25th, 2008 at 4:35 am
I just wanted to thank you for publishing this recipe. I am a ministerial trainee with the Adventist church in Australia. We as Adventist’s partake of the communion ritual four times a year, and it is general practice for ministers to take the emblems to the homes of individuals who cannot attend the church service on the day when communion is practiced. I have one particularly cranky (but lovable) parishioner who failed to attend church and was not home at the agreed time following the service. Nevertheless I was given an urgent call tonight telling me in no uncertain terms that the symbols must be brought to his house the following Sabbath day. Usually it is the deaconesses who bake the bread (sexist, I know) but since it was such a late request it was not appropriate for me to pass on the duty. After frantic searching of the internet I stumbled upon this page with the correct recipe. I baked it and i came out wonderful. I set half aside for use in the service tomorrow afternoon and the remaining half was eaten with soup, it was wonderful. Thanks again.
May 2nd, 2008 at 6:53 am
You can modify this recipe to your heart’s content for home consumption, but if you are using it for an actual communion service you shouldn’t. This bread represents the perfect sinless body of Christ that was given for us, and bleached flours, pork oil (are you KIDDING ME? - talk about unclean…) etc., would just be disrespectful.
June 7th, 2008 at 8:30 am
plan 2 use this recipe in a couple of weeks… but can anyone give me a scripture reference that states leftover Lord Supper bread should be burned or buried ? thanx…don romans 12:12
June 28th, 2008 at 1:49 pm
I disagree with your remark that “communionservice should not be o solemn”. Are you not aware of why we partake of communion? We do this in rememberance of the sacrifice our Lord made for us on the cross. My five year old daughter has a better view than you. I am offended by this and that you lead others to believe that SDA’s take such a service so lightly. Never eat left over bread from service. It is disrespectfull. feel free to eat a fresh, unblessed batch to eat at home. But, never take the service so lightly and disrespect what our Lord has asked us to do to honor him. Thank you.
July 18th, 2008 at 3:54 pm
Been looking for this recipe every where. thanks for posting it!
September 1st, 2008 at 11:03 pm
I think you will find that the bread was required to be unleavened because leaven is symbolic of sin.
September 11th, 2008 at 11:28 am
In response to Don’s question on June 7 about “but can anyone give me a scripture reference that states leftover Lord Supper bread should be burned or buried?”:
Going back to the original Passover meal, Exodus 12:10 states “Don’t leave any of it until morning; if there are leftovers, butn them in the fire.” But this was specifically referring to the Passover lamb (which was to be roasted whole, not raw or boiled, with unleavened bread and bitter herbs), and the Israelites were also commanded to eat it “fully dressed with your sandals on and your staff (walking stick) in your hand. Eat in a hurry . . .” (Ex. 12:11).
When Jesus shared His final Passover meal with his disciples, he passed the bread and the wine saying “Take, eat. This is my body . . . Drink this, this is my blood, God’s new covenant poured out for many people for the forgiveness of sins.”
There are no New Testament references to burning the leftover unleavened bread; this practice is a reference to the original Passover commands in Exodus, not a command or practice to the church of the New Testament.
The churches who require this usually believe in transubstantiation, meaning they believe the bread and wine, once prayed over (or “blessed”), miraculously transform into the literal body and blood of Christ. Clearly this was not the case at the Lord’s Last Supper, since He had not yet been crucified and was alive with His disciples during that meal. (Perhaps a truly bizarre form of self-cannibalization?!) No, He was using a metaphor, symbolism to focus the disciples’ minds on what lay ahead for Him, and as a memorial once He was gone. Nor do any of the later references in the New Testament letters mention burning the leftover bread; the references to the bread and wine being Christ’s body and blood speak of them as being a memorial, not as a miraculous transformation. The miracle was in Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection; the New Testament church took the “Lord’s Supper” or “communion” every first day of the week as a remembrance of and a memorial to Christ’s sacrifice and his victory over death for the purpose of our salvation.
The doctrine of transubstantiation is a fundamental tenet of Catholic and many other groups, and has been a point of controvery for centuries.
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:44 pm
This is so shamful to mix commumion bread with desperate house wives the Lord is comming soon. Let Him fimd you seeking Him and not the desperate house wives.
October 2nd, 2008 at 8:45 pm
The Lord is comming soon. May he find us seeking Him and not desperate house wives.
October 4th, 2008 at 9:36 am
In response to Janet, Sept 11, 2008:
You wrote that the early Christians celebrated The Lord\’s Supper or communion every first day of the week and I tried to find a scripture reference for this but I cannot.
October 4th, 2008 at 4:28 pm
Just to clarify- I only add honey to the recipe for bread that I am making at home for common consumption. I would never add honey to bread that is being made to be used in the Passover Supper to represent our Lamb. That is a solemn ceremony of course and that bread should be set apart, just as He is Set-Apart.