Before we start studying the question of how prosphora is baked, let's figure out what prosphora is. Bread in the Church is a symbol of Christ. The Lord Himself said about this: "I am the Bread of Life." Christ is the Heavenly Bread, which brings human life to the fullness of Divine life in eternity.
Prosphora
Therefore, prosphora has become an integral part of church liturgical life. And since the Church cannot exist without the Liturgy, such obedience as baking prosphora is of particular importance. Then I wonder how it was accepted in Russia?
In ancient times, prosphora could bake everything, as it was considered an offering to the temple. The best were selected from these offerings, and the Divine Liturgy was served on them. At that time, almost all housewives knew how to bake bread. Being churched, they knew that bread leaven, s alt, water and flour were needed to bake prosphora. Any housewife could bake prosphora at home and bring it to the temple.
In Greece,for example, today you can buy it in a store and bring it to the temple as an offering.
How to bake?
Throughout the Orthodox world, prosphora has been baked with prayer since ancient times. And only the prosphora makers themselves know how hard and responsible work it is. Responsibility is only aggravated by the fact that prosphora is liturgical bread. And that requires it to be cooked to the best of its ability.
In the monasteries, the reverent and prayerful attitude towards prosphora never ceased. This process began to be equated with real church art.
And here, too, you need to know what kind of flour the prosphora is baked from, and what kind of yeast should be. Speaking of American flour, it is often bleached with chlorine to obtain a snow-white color, and in fact it is not suitable for baking prosphora.
Many housewives like to use French yeast, but they are also not very suitable for baking, since they immediately give a lot of carbon dioxide during sourdough, and this is a disaster for baking a large batch of prosphora at the same time. After all, it will not be possible to follow the test - the yeast will “run away”. Therefore, it is best to use our domestic yeast.
How prosphora is baked in monasteries
On the example of the Kiev-Pechersk Lavra, I would like to tell how the main Lavra prosphora with brethren and novices, having prayed, at half past three in the morning begins to knead the dough for prosphora. It is hardly possible to imagine that 7500 prosphora were prepared at a time.
They are baked three or four times a week. On holidays, the number of prosphoraincreases. And of course, it is not possible to perform this process manually, so the brethren use the technique.
In a special kneader, flour of the highest grade is poured, followed by water with yeast and s alt. In the Lavra, water is delivered from the springs of St. Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves.
In five minutes, the machine makes a batch, of which there are only three. The kneaded dough is laid out in a wooden trough, where it is left to lie until three o'clock in the morning. This is done so that it can sour and increase in volume.
Dealing with prayer
It is believed that prayer comes first, and then everything else. The novices begin to bake prosphora with a prayer before starting any good deed and call for help the venerable prosphora Nikodim and Spyridon, whose relics rest in the Lavra caves. And the monastic brethren add to them the Jesus Prayer, prayers to the Most Holy Theotokos, to all the Reverend Fathers of the Caves and to all the saints.
The process continues with the fact that the dough is taken out of the trough and placed in the apparatus, where everything is well kneaded and rolled out. It is very important at the same time that the dough turns out cool, air bubbles do not form in it. Otherwise, the prosphora will be bent, may begin to crumble, and voids may be found in the service large prosphora when cut, and this should not be allowed.
Forming prosphora
Some form the lower parts of the prosphora from rolled dough 2 cm, while others are engaged in the formation of the upper part of the prosphora,1 cm thick. Still others put the ovens and lay them out on baking sheets, then put them on racks and send them to a special cabinet so that they rise a little more. These cabinets are kept at a temperature of about 40 degrees with a humidity of 80%.
While the work is in full swing, the committed reader reads the monastic rule aloud. And by nine o'clock in the morning the first part of the prosphora begins to be placed in the oven, it takes 26 minutes to cook. Ready hot prosphora is laid out on a table with high edges and covered with a cotton cloth. When they have cooled, they are immediately placed in a refrigerator for storage.
Prosphora products
And now let's get closer to what products go to prosphora, in what proportions. Only the highest quality flour is used here. Yeast is used only fresh.
And now we are starting the recipe for making God's bread.
First you need to prepare a solution of s alt and yeast, which is done in the following proportion: for 100 kg of flour - 10 liters of water, 1 kg 700 g of s alt and 500 g of yeast. 4.5 buckets of water are added to this mixture. 3750 prosphora should come out of this.
It should be noted that laurel prosphora are very tasty. The main secret of their preparation lies in prayer, diligent and careful work, and that they are all well baked.
Old choux pastry recipe
Inquiring about the question of how prosphora is baked, it should be noted that there are several ways to cook them. Here's another one. In this recipe for making prosphorayou need to make dough. We take 215 g of wheat flour and pour 320 ml of boiling water. Then we rub everything with a whisk and then, constantly stirring, add another 670 ml of boiling water.
Then we divide the dough into two equal parts and leave it to cool. Meanwhile, pour 50 ml of boiled water that has cooled to room temperature, take 10 g of pressed or a teaspoon of dry yeast, mix thoroughly, then put the resulting mass in a warm place.
When an hour has passed, add one of the halves of the dough to the “awakened” yeast, leave it to rise in a warm place for another 1.5 hours. At the end of this time, in order to, so to speak, “rejuvenate” the dough, you need to add another 150 g of flour and pour in 170 ml of warm water. And then everything is thoroughly stirred and left in a warm place for 2 hours. Next, we prepare an aqueous s alt solution from 40 g of s alt and 170 ml of warm water. At the end of the preparation of the dough for prosphora, it is necessary to combine the resulting dough with the unused half and an aqueous saline solution.
Modern recipe
Usually a very large batch is prepared in prosphora, so 250 g of s alt, about 10 liters of water and up to 100 g of yeast will be required for 20 kg of the highest quality wheat flour, Before kneading, sift the flour through a sieve, filter the water, then add s alt and yeast into it, and stir at the end. This solution must be poured into the flour and knead well at the end, then wrap it up and leave it to fit.
When the dough has doubled in size, it must be rolled out through special rollersseveral times, and then skip the resulting sheet using a calibration dough sheeter, in which a certain thickness is set. And then you should form the upper and lower parts of the prosphora by cutting, then apply a seal, cover with oilcloth and leave to approach. As a result, the dough should rise and connect the top and bottom. In the center of the seal, then you need to pierce the prosphora and put everything in an oven heated to 250 degrees for 25 minutes.
After they are ready, they are left to cool for 10-12 hours, after which the prosphora are put in a container and put in the refrigerator.
How prosphora is baked. Recipe
If you wish, you can even make this holy bread yourself. The question of how to bake prosphora at home is often of interest to many Orthodox people.
So, for this you need to take 1200 g of flour. Pour a little holy water into the kneading bowl, pour 400 g of flour into it. All this is poured with boiling water. This is done so that sweetness and resistance to mold appear. Now stir the mixture.
When everything cools down, in the same container add s alt, diluted in holy water, and yeast - 25 g. Mix and hold for 30 minutes so that the dough comes up a little. And then add the remaining 800 g of flour, then knead again.
Leave for 30 minutes, then rub the dough well, roll out the desired thickness and cut into circles. We make the lower part larger.
Then we cover the top with a damp towel, then with a dry one, and hold for another 30 minutes. Toppart of the resulting prosphora blank we put a seal. To connect the prosphora, we moisten them with warm water and lay them on top of each other. And then we pierce them with a needle so that there is no formation of voids. Before baking prosphora (and this is best done in an electric oven at a temperature that can be different), the temperature is chosen empirically (200-210 degrees).
We put a baking sheet and bake prosphora for about 15-20 minutes at home. The cooking recipe seems to be simple, but it needs some experience and skill, if you don’t have it, then you shouldn’t do it at all.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the most important thing should be noted - such leavened bread as prosphora contains three substances, as well as our tripartite soul in honor of the Trinity, where everything has its own meaning. Flour with leaven is the soul, water is baptism, and s alt is the teaching of the Word and the mind. The Lord Himself once told His disciples that they are the s alt of the earth.
Flour, water and s alt, which fire connects, means that God connects with our whole being and gives us help and assistance.
