The greatest difficulty of preparing for divine liturgy once a month in Hattiesburg is the baking of prosphora. After years of baking prosphora, I finally have an excellent recipe for prosphora baked with all-purpose flour. Unsurprisingly, it is essentially the recipe for french bread (2/3 hydration wheat flour bread).

One thing that is often insufficiently described in the many recipes for prosphora baking is technique. Numbers abound, but never do we learn how to do the thing. But, what one man can do, another can do.

So here is my technique for baking decent prosphora.

First: you need a stand mixer or high counters. Since I have low counters, I use a stand mixer. KitchenAid Classic, 4.5 quarts.

Second, you need fresh ingredients.

Third, you need patience.

And then you begin. Please note that this recipe makes five "host" sized loaves in the Russian tradition, with some dough left over for a test loaf. It is essential that you test your bread, because nobody appreciates salty or dry prosphora.

1. Pray.

2. Get your equipment, including a kitchen scale, ready.

3. Weigh out 393 grams of flour into your stand mixer bowl.

4. Add 7 grams salt. I use pickling salt, which is uniodized and very fine.

5. Weigh out 266 grams of lukewarm water.

6. Dissolve 2.25 teaspoons of instant yeast in the water, stirring carefully to hydrate fully, and wait for ten minutes.

7. Pour the water and yeast into the flour and salt.

8. Start mixer on low setting (2 on my KitchenAid). Observe until dough has been fully homogenized and is stuck to dough hook. Then, let it keep mixing (kneading) for at least 6 minutes, up to ten minutes.

9. When your dough is finished, it will have fully covered the hook, and will have a smooth, semi-gloss texture. If your dough looks wet or is beading, keep kneading it.

10. Let rise covered for 1 to 1.5 hours, until doubled in size.

11. Remove dough from mixing bowl onto floured surface. Lightly knead dough until air pockets have escaped, and you have a uniform ball of dough a little bigger than a softball.

12. Divide that ball in half, more or less.

13. At this time, feel free to prepare your baking sheet. I use two half-sheet pans, each with parchment paper on them, for the second rise. Eventually, one of them will be used to bake the prosphora.

14. Roll out the first portion of dough into a rough circle, about 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick. Using a toothpick, poke all bubbles. If you handled step 11 correctly, there should not be many of these.

15. Using your large (base) cutter, cut five loaf bases out of the dough and place them on parchment paper covered half-sheet pan, covering with tea towel.

16. Roll out second portion of dough into a rough circle, about 1/4 to 3/8 inch thick. Using a toothpick, poke all bubbles. If you handled step 11 correctly, there should not be many of these.

17. Using your smaller (top) cutter, cut five loaf tops out of the dough and place them on second parchment paper covered half-sheet pan, covering with tea towel.

18. Let rise for about 1/2 hour. Turn on oven and set to 350 degrees F.

19. Using a toothpick, poke twelve holes into each base, signifying the Twelve Apostles. Then, lightly brush with cool water. Brushing with water helps the two halves join.

20. Place a lightly-floured top on a bench knife or flat spatula. Flour the seal, and press firmly into top, leaving a good relief. Gently place top on base. Repeat five times.

21. Depending on the seal you use, you will poke between four and nine holes through the loaf from the top to the bottom. This helps join the top to the bottom.

22. After a minute or so, place prosphora in the oven. Bake for no more than 25 minutes at no more than 350 F.

23. Remove from oven and place on cooling rack. Prosphora should not be brown or toasted looking, although golden is acceptable.

24. Give thanks to God that you have managed to bake prosphora without embarrassing mishap.

Please note, I've been doing this for five years, and it's taken me this long to get a recipe that works about 80% of the time. This is ascesis, pure and simple.