Crumbly Bread

The barley bread came out just as I wanted it to - crumbly, dense and hard to eat.

While I was writing my last non-sermon post, I had the barley bread rising. Well it didn't really rise. I have had this problem before with bread not rising, but normally in the winter when the air temperature in the kitchen is too cold for the yeast to really activate, not in the middle of a muggy summer day. Since the recipe only calls for a baking time of 15-20 minutes I thought I would let the bread continue to rise while Bob and I went to a friends house for the evening.

When we got back a few hours later, the bread still hadn't risen much so I went ahead and baked the sucker. And this is how it turned out looking

And a close up of the top so you can see how it didn't rise..

During the sermon I used it to show what a loaf of barley bread looks like and then knocked on it so we would hear how dense it sounds (like a board) and then broke it so show the crumbliness. After worship we had it out at coffee hour so people could try some (most went to the birds). Some comments included: "I wouldn't want to go swimming after eating that" "That would be great to soak up some water with...I think I have some water in the basement that I could use that with."

So overall while it was a pain in the butt to make, it was a great sermon illustration. But I think next time I make barley bread I will mix the barley flour with white or wheat flour in order for it to be a little more edible.