Baking Prosphora

It is customary for some orthodox families to present a loaf of bread called prosphora to the priest on feast days to be blessed and eaten throughout the week. This coming nativity my family and I have asked and been blessed to do this.

Prosphora is used for consecrating and becoming the Lamb used in communion. It is baked to commemorate the saints and the recently reposed and also as a blessed bread to signify festal celebrations. Baking a prosphora is a great way to spiritually prepare for the coming feast and join together as a family, awaiting the Son of God who came as a small, defenseless child to restore humanity and take away the sins of the world.

When we're done, we will show up a little early and hand our bread (plus a loaf for the Church) to our priest and after the Divine Liturgy, pick up the now-blessed loaf.

We got this recipe from http://prosphora.org

EQUIPMENT: large bowl for sifting flour large bread-mixing bowl (preferably not metal) sturdy large mixing spoon two large cookie sheets (I use `pizza' stones) large pastry board or *immaculately* clean work surface rolling pin pastry scraper or metal spatula flour sifter measuring cup small metal skewer or turkey pin carved seals of the size/shape appropriate for the kind of prosphora you're baking clean apron two clean pastry cloths about 30" square one large or two small pastry cooling racks large plastic bag (a new trash bag will do) `Ziploc'-style bags for transporting/freezing -- the jumbo or 2-gallon sixe is best for large prosphora

INGREDIENTS: 9 cups unbleached flour (Pillsbury's `Bread Flour' is good; `natural' flour, maybe from a health food store, is best; it's desirable to use flour which has not been artficially enhanced by adding anything (protein) or subtracting anything (by bleaching).

1 tablespoon (or one small packet) active dry yeast

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups boiling water

Additional flour during kneading, and/or white corn meal for the baking sheets

DIRECTIONS: MAKE SURE THAT ALL UTENSILS, WORK SURFACES AND YOUR HANDS (SCRUB UNDER YOUR NAILS! WASH WITH UNSCENTED SOAP!) ARE SCRUPULOUSLY CLEAN; THAT YOUR HAIR/BEARD WILL NOT CONTAMINATE THE DOUGH; THAT NO HOUSEHOLD PETS ARE IN THE KITCHEN; THAT THE WINDOWS AND DOORS ARE CLOSED AGAINST DRAFTS AND DUST. If your hands begin to feel dry while working with the dough, resist the urge to apply lotion -- it will contaminate the dough with undesirable oils and odors.

Cross yourself and make the Sign of the Cross over your ingredients, remembering that we will offer this bread and ask that God's Holy Spirit change it and us, and make this bread the `precious Body of (His) Christ'.

1. Boil the water (preferably pure spring water from a bottle) in a clean pot or kettle. Turn off the heat and let the water stand while you quickly do steps 2 - 4. Don't measure the water before boiling, just boil more than three cups to allow for evaporation.

2. Sift the flour into a large bowl. If the label says `pre-sifted', sift it anyway.

3. Measure nine cups (3x3) sifted flour into the bread bowl (`cup' means the whole vessel; you don't have to make it exactly even with the line.)

4. Add the yeast and salt, and stir to distribute them evenly throughout the dry flour. Pile the dry mixture in the center of the bread bowl.

5. Measure three cups of the boiled water into the dry mixture, adding it around the flour --don't pour it directly on top of it.

6. Stir the mixture until it begins to hold together; sprinkle some of the reserved flour on the work surface and scrape all the dough out of the bowl onto it.

7. Knead the dough thoroughly for as long as it takes to get it to be of even texture, elastic but fairly dry. Sprinkly some flour into the bread bowl, place the dough ito it, and cover with a cloth. Set the bowl in a warm spot to rise for an hour or so. Someplace near, but not on, the stove is best.

8. Light the oven and set it for 325.

9. WASH YOUR HANDS AGAIN; knead the dough again until it is about the same size as it was before you let it rise.

10. Sprinkle the baking sheets with a generous coating of flour or white cornmeal. DO NOT USE OIL OF ANY KIND TO GREASE THE BAKING SHEETS.

11a. BYZANTINE (large) prosphora: 1. Divide the dough into two equal parts. 2. Cut off 1/4 of each part, and reserve. 3. Shape each of the two large pieces into a ball; roll them out until they are round and flat, about 1 1/2 inches thick. 4. Place the loaves on the baking sheets. 5. Roll out the two small pieces into circles a couple of inches smaller in diameter than the loaves, but larger than the seal. 6. Flour the circles on both sides. Impress the seal firmly and remove it at once. 7. Moisten the tops of the loaves thoroughly with water left over from what was boiled earlier, rubbing in with your fingertips. 8. Place the sealed circles on each loaf. Pat them firmly in place with your fingertips, but not so hard as to obliterate the seal. Cover the prosphora with a cloth and set them aside to rise for another 30 minutes. 9. Using the skewer, pierce each prosphoron in the center and at the corners of each of its five square sections, as well as around the edge of the circle. 10. Place one prosphoron on the oven's upper rack, and the other on the lower. 11. Reduce the temperature to 300. Bake for 30 minutes. 12. Remove the prosphora and rotate them: back to front, top to bottom; bake for another 45 minutes, or until they are lightly browned on top and sound hollow when you tap them. If there's any doubt in your mind that they're done, leave them in for another ten minutes or so. It's better to have them slightly overbaked than raw inside. 13. Brush off as much flour/white corn meal as you can from the bottom of each prosphoron. Place them on cooling racks. 14. Cover the prosphora with a dry cloth, and a damp cloth over the dry cloth. Place the cloth-covered prosphora on their racks into the large plastic bag. (This allows the prosphora to cool as they absorb mosture from the damp cloth, making them less crumbly.) 15. When the prosphora are completely cooled, brush them again to remove any remaining flour/white corn meal from their bottoms, and put them in sealed bags. Ideally, the prosphora should be baked on the morning of the day before the Liturgy. If necessary, they can be baked in advance and frozen in airtight bags until needed; even then, they should be taken out to thaw at least 24 hours in advance of the Liturgy: microwave thawing does undesirable things to bread.