Gluten Free Communion Bread

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For health reasons, I’ve needed to eat Gluten Free for the last 14 years. There have been seasons in those years, where that meant I couldn’t fully partake in the Lord’s Supper with my church family, because I couldn’t eat the traditional communion bread that was served. It was hard to feel excluded from such an important part of our gathering together.

Shortly after marrying, moving towns, and joining a new church congregation, my new pastor graciously allowed me to try making a gluten free communion bread to serve to the whole congregation. That was 10 years ago and we’ve never looked back. Store bought communion bread has never been known for being appetizing, but this bread is tasty! Our whole church family loves our Gluten Free Communion Bread, and I know your congregation will, too!

Gluten Free Communion Bread Recipe

I’ve been so blessed over the last 10 years to be able to fully share in the Lord’s Supper with my church family as we gather each week, and doubly blessed to know that my making it allows other members with food allergies to be able to share in it as well. I’m sharing this Gluten Free Communion Bread recipe here in the hope that it will help other congregations to also be able to serve a delicious and safe option for all of there church family. While those with food allergies and sensitivities usually only make up a small number of a whole congregation, don’t underestimate what a huge blessing it is to those people to be able to join with their brothers and sisters in the special meal of believers.

Read through the recipe and then look at the step by step pictures below. I’ll walk you through how I make these Gluten Free Communion Bread crackers.

Yield: Aproximately 180 pieces

Gluten Free Communion Bread

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This delicious Communion Bread recipe is Gluten Free and Allergy Friendly, making it it a perfect choice to serve to your congregation.

Ingredients

• 1 Cup Gluten Free Flour Blend
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1 Tbsp Palm Shortening, melted
• 1 tsp Olive Oil
• 1/2 tsp Honey
• 1/4 Cup Water

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together gluten free flour blend and salt.
3. Add melted palm shortening, olive oil, honey, and water and stir until the dough comes together in a ball.
4. The dough should completely hold together in a ball without being sticky. If it seems crumbly, add more water a few drops at a time. Be careful not to add too much water, or the dough will be too sticky to roll. If it does get too sticky, sprinkle a bit more flour over it, and work it in.
5. Place the ball of dough between two pieces of parchment paper. Use a rolling pin to roll the dough out very thin, about 1/8 inch thick. See note below for tips on this step.
6. Remove the top sheet of parchment and cut the dough into thin strips top to bottom and side to side. Around 1/2 inch to 5/8 inch thick wide works well. Do not seperate.
7. Using a pastry brush, lightly brush the dough with water and then sprinkle with a coarse salt. A salt grinder works well for this purpose.
8. Slide the parchment paper with prepared dough onto a cookie sheet and bake until crisp, slightly puffed, and pleasantly brown. Begin checking for doneness at 12 minutes. See note below for tips on this step.
9. Let the bread cool completely. Seperate into individual wafers and place in an airtight container (a ziploc bag works well) to store. Store in the freezer to maintain freshness.

Notes

1. When rolling out the dough, try to make the thickness uniform and the dough pretty rectangular in shape. I find that the dough often bunches up on the bottom parchment paper, so stopping part way through rolling to flip over the dough, peel off what was the bottom parchment paper and lay it flat again is very helpful. As the dough gets close to the right thickness, I like to stop and shape it more into a rectangle. Peel off the top parchment paper, and, using a butter knife, trim off dough around the edges that is sticking off funny and add it around the sides to create a better rectangle. Replace the parchment and roll to smooth the trimmed pieces into the main piece of dough. The rectangle doesn't have to be perfect.

2. How long the baking takes varies based on how thin you roll the dough and other factors such as baking multiple pans at once. If baking two pans at once, be sure to swap them half way through baking. You will want to keep a close eye on the bread after the 12 minute mark. Often the edges will brown before the center is done, so I often take it out after 12 minutes and take off any edges that are crispy and browned. It's helpful to seperate the remaining squares a bit at this point to help them crisp up. Return the pan to the oven for 2 more minutes and then check again. If some crackers still need more baking time, removing any done ones and return the pan to the oven for 2 more minutes. Repeat until all crackers are pleasantly browned.

This is the texture you want in your finished ball of dough. It is easy to shape into a ball, without being sticky.

Place the dough between two sheets of parchment to roll it out. Otherwise it will stick to the rolling pin.

As you roll, the bottom parchment will bunch up. Here I’ve flipped the whole thing over, and I’m carefully peeling back what was the bottom sheet. Lay it backdown flat on top and continue rolling.

After the dough has gotten pretty thin, you’ll want to stop and shape it up a bit. Cut off pieces that stick off funny to create a rectangle.

You can use the knife to help you lift pieces to move around where needed.

Here you can see I’ve trimmed the dough into a rectangle and pressed the trimmed dough into corners and places that needed extra. Place your parchment back on top and roll it lightly again to press it into a smooth dough.

I’m finished rolling out the dough! You can see it doesn’t have to be a perfect rectangle.

Here is a ruler for reference. The dough should be close to an 1/8 of an inch thick.

Now cut the dough into strips that are roughly 1/2 inch to 5/8 inch wide. This is not an exact science, but try not to go too big or too tiny. If you ere on the smaller size, you’ll have more crackers.

Next brush the dough very gently with a pastry brush dipped in water. You want to avoid soaking the dough or pressing the cracks back together. The purpose of the water is to make the salt stick.

I like to brush a section of the dough at a time, and then go ahead and sprinkle that one with salt before moving to the next section. That helps keep the water from drying before the salt gets on there. You can use any salt, but I like to use my salt grinder, so it’s slightly coarse.

Ready to go in the oven! (If you notice pinkish dots, it’s because I use a pink himalayan salt)

This is what the bread looked like when I pulled it out at 12 minutes. Often the edges are crispy at this point, but the middle still feels soft. Go ahead and remove the pieces that are very brown and crispy, so they don’t burn.

It is helpful to seperate the remaining pieces a bit to help the middle pieces get crispy. Return it to the oven and check every 2 minutes, removing any done pieces so they don’t burn.

These pieces have all browned and crisped up nicely, and this pan is done baking.

Let your bread cool and then break it up into individual pieces. You’ll need to store these in an airtight container; I like to use a ziploc bag.

Serving these at Church

If you have more crackers than you’ll eat on one Sunday (and I reccomend making enough for multiple Sundays), be sure to store the extra ones in the freezer to maintain their freshness. These thaw very quickly, so if you serve communion at the end of your service, then pulling these out the freezer shortly before and putting them on your serving trays, will give them plenty of time to get to room temperture.

Helpful ingredient resources

While the olive oil, honey, salt and water shouldn’t be hard for you to source to make this recipe, the flour blend and palm shortening might be new to you. Here are a few links to help you source those ingredients if you can’t find them at your local grocery store.

**Some of the links below are affiliate links, which means, as an Amazon Associate, I earn a small commission on qualifying purchases at no cost to you.**

Gluten Free Flour Blend: This is a blend of multiple gluten free flours designed to bake like a wheat flour. There are good cup for cup GF flour blends available to buy, and I’ll link to some in case your grocery store doesn’t carry them. I prefer to make my own flour blend and it’s what I use for this recipe, so I know it works well here. Keep in mind that different gluten free blends will have different properties, and that can make a difference in the way they work in the recipe.

My Gluten Free Flour Blend is my favorite option. You’ll find the recipe here.

Bob’s Red Mill 1 to 1 Gluten Free Baking Flour

King Arthur Measure for Measure Gluten Free Flour

Palm Shortening: This is a healthy shortening that acts just like conventional shortening in recipes, but is allergy friendly. Sometimes you can find this at a grocery store, but in case you can’t, here are some links.

Spectrum brand is what I normally use. Sometimes it can be found at your local grocery stores, but I usually order it from Vitacost. Here it is on Vitacost. It can also be found on Amazon for a bit more here and here.

This one is another option from Amazon.

If you need to order a large container, or multiple containers, and you don’t think you’ll be using it quickly, be sure to store it in the freezer. This will prevent it from going rancid, which can happen if stored at room temperature for long periods of time (more than a year).

One more note on tools

Before you get started, be sure you have parchment paper and a pastry brush on hand. Everything else like pans and rolling pins, you probably already have in your kitchen. Pastry brushes can be found at your local grocery or dollar store. Parchment paper comes in either a roll or in sheets pre-cut to fit your baking pan. I prefer to use the sheets, because the roll has a tendency to curl up on you while you’re using it. You should be able to find parchment paper at your grocery store, but if not, this is the one I’ve been using from Amazon.

Let me know if you try this Gluten Free Communion Bread

I would love to hear if you try this recipe out. Let me know in the comments below how it goes and what your congregation thinks!

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