Before starting to study the issue of how prosphora is baked, we will understand what a prosphora is. The bread in the Church is a symbol of Christ. The Lord himself said about this: "I am the Bread of life." Christ is Heavenly Bread, which brings human life to the fullness of the Divine life in eternity.
Prosphora
Therefore, the prosphora became an integral part of church liturgical life. And since without the Liturgy the Church cannot exist, such obedience as the furnace of prosphora is of particular importance. Then I wonder how it was adopted in Russia?
In ancient times, prosphora could bake everything, as it was considered an offering to the temple. Of these offerings, the best were selected; the Divine Liturgy was served at them. At that time, almost all the housewives knew how to bake bread. Being churched, they knew that bread baking, salt, water and flour are necessary for baking prosphora. Any housewife could bake the 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 prosforders themselves know how hard and responsible work this is. Responsibility is only exacerbated by the fact that the prosphora is liturgical bread. And this requires that it be prepared in the best possible way.
In monasteries, the reverent and prayerful attitude to prosphora never ceased. This process began to be equated with real church art.
And here you also need to know from what flour the prosphora is baked, and what yeast should be. If we talk about American flour, then to obtain a snow-white color it is often bleached with chlorine, and in fact it is not suitable for baking prosphora.
Many housewives love to use French yeast, but they are also not very suitable for baking, since when fermenting they immediately give a lot of carbon dioxide, and for baking at the same time a large batch of prosphora is a disaster. After all, it will not be possible to keep track of 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 want to tell how the main Lavra prosphorite with the brethren and novices, having prayed, at half past three in the morning begins to knead the dough for the prosphora. It is unlikely that it would be possible to imagine that at one time 7500 prosphora were prepared.
They are baked three to four times a week. On holidays, the number of prosphores increases. And of course, it is not possible to carry out this process manually, therefore the brethren use technology.
Flour of the highest grade is poured into a special mixer, followed by water with yeast and salt. In the laurel, water is delivered from the sources of the Monks Anthony and Theodosius of the Caves.
In five minutes, the machine kneads, of which there are only three. The mixed dough is laid out in a wooden trough, they are left to lie there until three in the morning. This is done so that it can turn sour and increase in volume.
Deal with prayer
It is believed that first - prayer, and then - everything else. The novices begin to bake prosphora with a prayer before the beginning of any good deed and call for the help of the venerable prosphors Nicodemus and Spyridon, whose relics rest in the laurel caves. And the monastic brethren adds Jesus prayer to them, prayers to the Most Holy Theotokos, all the venerable Fathers of the Caves and all the saints.
The process continues by the fact that the dough is taken out of the trough and placed in the apparatus, where everything is well kneaded and rolled. It is very important at the same time that the dough turned out steep, air bubbles did not form in it. Otherwise, the prosphora can be distorted, may begin to crumble, and voids can be found in the service large prosphora when cut, and this should not be allowed.
Formation of prosphora
Some of them form the lower parts of prosphora from a rolled out dough of 2 cm, while others form the upper part of the prosphora, 1 cm thick. . In these cabinets, a temperature of about 40 degrees with a humidity of 80% is maintained.
While the work is in full swing, the incited reader aloud reads the monastic rule. And already at nine o’clock in the morning the first part of the prosphora begins to be placed in the oven, it takes 26 minutes to prepare. Finished hot prosphora are laid out on a table with high edges and covered with a cotton cloth. When they cool, they are immediately stored in a refrigerator.
Products for prosphora
And now we’ll come closer to what products go to prosphora, in what proportions. It uses high-quality flour of the highest grade. Yeast is used only fresh.
And now we are starting to recipe the preparation of God's bread.
First you need to prepare a solution of salt and yeast, which is done in the following proportion: per 100 kg of flour - 10 l of water, 1 kg of 700 g of salt 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 the Lavra prosphora is very tasty. The main secret of their preparation is prayer, hard and careful work, and that they all are well baked.
Antique Choux Dough Recipe
Being interested in a question related to how prosphora is baked, it should be noted that there are several ways to prepare them. Here is another one. In this recipe for making prosphora, you need to make choux 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 mixing, 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, 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 the hour has passed, add one of the half of the dough to the “awakened” yeast, leave it to approach in a warm place for another 1.5 hours. At the end of this time there, in order to “rejuvenate” the dough, so to speak, pour another 150 g of flour and pour 170 ml of warm water. And then we thoroughly stir everything and leave it in a warm place for 2 hours. Next, we prepare an aqueous saline solution of 40 g of salt and 170 ml of warm water. In conclusion, the preparation of the dough for prosphora must combine the formed dough with an unused half and an aqueous saline solution.
Modern recipe
Usually, a very large batch is prepared in prosphorne, therefore, 20 kg of the highest quality wheat flour will require 250 g of salt, about 10 l of water and up to 100 g of yeast,
Before kneading, the flour must be sieved through a sieve, filtered, then pour salt and yeast into it, and finally stir. This solution must be poured into the flour and knead well at the end, then wrap it and leave it to fit.
When the dough is doubled, it needs to be rolled out through special rollers several times, and then pass the resulting sheet using a calibration dough sheet, in which a certain thickness is set. And then the upper and lower parts of the prosphora should be formed by slicing, then print, cover with oilcloth and leave to come up. As a result, the dough should rise and connect the top and bottom. In the center of the press, then the prosphora must be punctured and put everything in the 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 containers and put in the refrigerator.
How to bake prosphora. Recipe
If you wish, you can even cook this holy bread yourself. The question of how to bake prosphora at home, many Orthodox people are often often interested in.
So, for this you need to take 1200 g of flour. Pour a little holy water into the mixing bowl, pour 400 g of flour there. Pour boiling water over all this. This is done so that sweetness and resistance to mold appear. Now mix the mixture.
When everything has cooled, add salt to the same container, diluted in holy water, and yeast - 25 g. Mix and let stand for 30 minutes so that the dough fits a little. And then add the remaining 800 g of flour, then again make the batch.
Leave it for 30 minutes, then rub the dough well, roll out the desired thickness and cut into circles. We make the lower part larger.
Then cover with a damp towel, then with a dry towel, and let stand for another 30 minutes. We put a stamp on the top of the resulting billet prosphora. To connect the prosphora, we moisten them with warm water and lay 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 for about 15-20 minutes we bake prosphora at home. The recipe seems to be simple, but it needs some experience and skill, if this is not, then you should not do this at all.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the most important thing to note is that in such leavened bread as prosphora, there are three substances, as well as our three-part soul in honor of the Trinity, where everything has its own meaning. Flour with leaven is the soul, water is baptism, and salt is the teaching of the Word and the mind. The Lord Himself once told His disciples that they are the salt of the earth.
The flour, water and salt that fire unites means that God unites with all of our nature and gives us help and assistance.