St. Nicholas’ Real Good Bread for Vegetarians
In many parts of the world, families bake simple loaves of bread like the ones St. Nicholas took to poor people. The loaves are taken to church and blessed.

In the 13th century, when St. Nicholas lived, bread would have been made with a sour dough starter. Making sour dough starter the medieval way can be dicey and insanitary, not to mention time-consuming. Old-fashioned sour dough bread can take 18 hours to rise before baking, making a pretty long day for a baker. So the Sisters have adapted a recipe for conventional dry yeast.

1 cup warm water
1 package dry yeast
1 ½ tsp salt
1 ½ tsp sugar
2 ½ cups flour (the Sisters like half unbleached, half whole wheat)

Medieval bakers often added freshly chopped rosemary, parsley or sage to the bread for extra flavor. A couple of tablespoons should do it. You could also add flax seed if you like a more textured bread.

Soften yeast in water, mix all ingredients and knead well. Place in a well-greased, cast-iron Dutch oven with lid and let rise until doubled in bulk.
Bake in Dutch oven placed in the bottom third of your oven at 400 degrees for about 25 minutes.

Bread was often baked under "cloches," bell-shaped ceramic or iron lids that helped bake bread evenly in outdoor woodstoves. The Dutch oven approximates the results you’d get using the medieval method.