It’s time to bake prosphoras the Orthodox Christian Holy Bread. A deacon asked me to write down how my wife makes prosphoras. It’s best for prosphoras baking in a quite and solitude atmosphere.
Starting with your morning prayers then prepare an area on the countertop and gather everything there. Shaying a special prayer asking for guidance and about being unworthy for doing such an important task. Put the sign of the cross on your working area and everything in that area. Have lit lampada close to your work area in the kitchen.
Dissolve the yeast and salt in warm filtered water and make sure that it has all been dissolved. The recipe is for every cup of water she is using half of a teaspoon of yeast and 2/3 teaspoon of salt with three cups of unbleached all-purpose flour.
Put everything in the mixer then after it’s mixed knead the dough by hand. Kneads the dough until it is smooth and it dose not stick to your fingers, about five to seven minutes.
The Lamb is made with two layers as a symbol of the two natures of Christ, Divine and man. Roll out two circles of dough, cutting one larger and one smaller. Ad flour on her baking sheet and places the larger dough onto it. Then you add a little water on top of the larger dough and place the smaller dough on top of it. Some extra flour is added to the top of the smaller dough so that the seal dose not stick to it. She gets the phosphor seal and places it over the smaller dough and presses down hard enough to indent the seal, which also sets both layers together as one Lamb.
Poke the center of the stamp area with a toothpick making five holes; make sure the toothpick goes clear thru the dough. This helps the yeast bubbles to go out and not be trapped in your bread. Add several additional holes around the outside edge of your dough.
The loaves will rise for about 45 minutes. Put a tray with warm water on the bottom of the stove and turn the stove on to 315° F. Bake for about fifty minutes. When bread is done put the bread on cooling racks. Put a cloth over the rack and put bread on the cloth, also covering up the top of the prosphoras with a cloth. This helps cool the bread evenly and keeps the crust moist.
Baking is an art. That means, just because you followed the recipe doesn't mean the bread always comes out the way you intended. Learn from your mistakes, glorify God for your successes and never cease to relish the feel of well-kneaded dough!
In the ancient Tradition of the Orthodox Church, Holy Mystery of Communion is carried out through the mediums of wine and leavened bread. The bread is specially baked for the purpose of communion, and it is called "Prosphora" (meaning "that which is offered" in Greek.)
Baking is an art. That means, just because you followed the recipe doesn't mean the bread always comes out the way you intended. Learn from your mistakes, glorify God for your successes and never cease to relish the feel of well-kneaded dough!
Sacramental bread, sometimes called the lamb, altar bread, host or simply Communion bread, is the bread, which is used, in the Christian ritual of the Eucharist. **
Prosphora (Greek for "offering") is bread prepared for use in the Divine Liturgy. A portion of it, known as the lamb (or amnon) is cut out during the proskomedia which is consecrated during the Divine Liturgy to be the Eucharist, while the rest is cut up for the antidoron, the blessed bread distributed at the end of the liturgy.
During its preparation, prosphora is stamped with an image usually including IC XC NIKA ("Jesus Christ conquers"), which is maintained during baking and then serves as a guide for cutting out the lamb during the proskomedia. Prosphora can vary in size and stamp in different traditions. Generally, the Slavic traditions use smaller prosphora with a simpler stamp, while the Byzantine ones use larger ones with a more complex stamp. Prosphora
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Prosphora may be made from only four ingredients:
* the finest pure wheat flour (white)
* yeast
* salt
* water
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