Recipe for prosphora dough

Did you know that Kyiv-Pechersk Lavra gladly shared prosphora’s recipe at the request of all interested in the early 20th century?

At the end of 1910, Pavlo Khutsiyev, the priest of the Church of Kars Military Hospital (now - Turkey) addressed the Spiritual Council of the monastery with the request to provide the easiest testing recipe for prosphora baking from white flour. In response, he received the  recipe “for baking dry yeasty prosphora”. To get 1 pood (about 16 kg) of flour it is necessary to prepare pre-dough. To do this, 1/8 of flour is filled with hot water. The mass obtained is given time to cool down. Then, pre-dough is diluted with water. After that, 3/8 pound (approximately 150 g) of yeast is mixed with a small amount of flour. The substance stands for an hour and a half to “turn sour”. At that, the remaining flour is added to the “sour” dough and thick dough is made. The product obtained should “sour” for another 3-4 hours. Then, one can start forming prosphora, which are allowed to rest and rise before baking. Prosphora “tops” are pierced with a needle so that no cavities are formed in the middle.

Lavra monks advised to use the first-grade cereal flour to prepare prosphora.

Anna Yanenko

Captions to the illustrations:

1. Prosphora

2-3. “The method for baking dry yeasty prosphora” (Central State Historical Archive of Ukraine, Kyiv, f. 128, op. 1 general, file no. 3263, part 1, pp. 433-433).