EMMA WATSON looks at the role bread plays in both the Old and New Testaments – and provides her own simple recipe…
Ground coffee. Mown lawn. A balmy salty breeze off the ocean. Freshly baked bread. For some reason, these scents trigger something deep down in us, making us feel happy, content, and sometimes even hungry! For me, the smell of baked bread has to be number one. The crunchy crust, revealing the fluffy, soft centre. Pair it with soft cheese and cold meat cuts, a chilled glass of sav blanc, and I’m in Heaven.
Not only delicious to eat, bread is used symbolically in the Bible 492 times. It represents life, provision, salvation, and God’s presence on Earth.
EASY, NO KNEAD BREAD RECIPE
Ingredients:
430g plain white flour
1/4 tsp instant yeast
345g tepid water
1 1/4 tsp salt
Method:
1. Stir the ingredients together with a spoon until they are a claggy heap, rest for 12 to 18 hours, then stretch and fold a couple of times, and shape into a vague ball.
2. Rest for another two hours in a heavily floured tea towel in a colander (or similar).
3. Heat oven with a covered casserole-style pot with lid in it at 250 degrees Celsius for 30 mins (or however long it takes to get really hot).
4. Plop the bread into the hot pot. Cook for 30 mins with lid on, then 15 to 20 minutes with lid off so crust is dark brown.
5. Resist urge to eat immediately. Leave it to cool a bit.
We’re all familiar with the story of Moses freeing the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. God’s provision for them was important. Not only was He delivering them from captivity, but He was demonstrating that He had a plan, a miraculous but also practical path to freedom. God’s love and concern for their safety was revealed as He instructs them how to make their bread…in a hurry! No yeast for this recipe.
Once in the wilderness, the dough ran out, but God’s provision endured in a supernatural way, providing His people with manna, bread, from Heaven. This incredible offering is described in Exodus 16:31: “The people of Israel called the bread manna.It was white like coriander seed and tasted like wafers made with honey.”
Delicious! Bread is central to the representation of God’s presence and love on Earth, but it was also a way for His people to show their love and loyalty to God. The grain offering in the Old Testament had two functions. Firstly, it was a way to thank God for His provision, as agriculture was a vital part of the Israelites economy, sacrificial giving was and still is an act of worship. The second was to feed the priest who lived and served God in the temple. Another act of provision!
God’s care for His people’s well being is represented by grain and bread throughout the Bible, a vital element of which Jesus Himself was well aware. The birthplace of Jesus was chosen deliberately to fulfil prophesy, but also as yet another symbol of God’s love and provision to the world. In fact, Bethlehem means ‘House of Bread’. How incredible that the Saviour of the world, the ‘Bread of Life’, the one who fed the hungry, not only physically but spiritually, was born in this place.
Bread followed Jesus throughout His ministry, including feeding 5000 people with only five loaves and two fish and in the Last Supper where He teaches the disciples that, from that night on, bread would represent His body, broken and sacrificed for the salvation of all.
It’s beautiful that God knows how to talk to people on their level. Bread is used in the Bible to speak to the people of the time in a way that would be familiar to them. It was a vital, life-giving part of their lives.
Jesus warned against the ‘Yeast of the Pharisees’, a term that the people would have immediately understood. It was a caution against the growing influence of the corrupt practices of these religious leaders.
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There are so many instances of bread front and centre in the Bible, but one that stands out for all the wrong reasons was the less than delicious recipe given to Ezekiel to make bread, using human excrement as fuel for the fire. Full of symbolism and meaning, it wasn’t the tastiest of recipes – no honey or spices in this creation.
So, we’ll bypass that offering for this month’s recipe. We love making bread at our place. It can seem a daunting task, but you don’t have to be a true blue, dough-runs-in-your-veins baker to make top notch bread at home; just a bit of time.
Before you know it, those incredible, happiness-inducing aromas will be wafting through your place too. One of the best things about this recipe, besides no kneading, is that you can add your own touch…garlic, rosemary, or even parmesan cheese. It’s fairly forgiving, fun, and delicious!
