Prosphora Recipe
This is a Prosphora recipe I have used with great success. It is a combination of several other recipes.

Ingredients

• Bread machine unbleached flour - 4 cups
• Hot (~100 degrees) water - 1 3/8 cups (may take 1/8 cup more depending on flour)
• Dry Yeast - 2 1/4 tsp.
• Salt - 1 tsp.

Tools

• 1 large cookie sheet
• 1 large biscuit cutter
• Prosphora stamp
• toothpick
• rolling pin
• mixing bowl
• aluminum foil or cooking parchment (parchment works best)
• 2 dry towels (regular not paper)

Instructions
In preparing the Prosphora, one first begins with prayer:
O Lord Jesus Christ, only-begotten Son of the Eternal Father: You have said with your holy lips: “Without me you can do nothing.” My Lord, I embrace your words with my heart and soul, and bow before your goodness and say: Help me, your unworthy servant, to prepare the bread of offering, that the works of my hands may be acceptable at the Holy Table and may become through the works of Your Holy Spirit, the communion of Your Most Pure Body for me and all Your people, in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
Amen.

1. Set bread machine on dough cycle and add ingredients.
2. Start machine and let run through the first kneading cycle.
3. Take out dough before the rising cycle.
4. Roll dough out with rolling pin to 1/4 inch thickness.
5. Cut out 24 large pieces with large biscuit cutter and place 12 of them on a cookie sheet that is covered with aluminum foil or cooking parchment.
6. Take the other 12 pieces and place them on top of the 12 pieces on the cookie sheet, then stamp them with a well floured prosphora seal and cover with towel.
7. Let the cookie sheet stand for 1 hour to let dough rise. If the room is cold, they may need to rise longer. During the winter I place the sheet in the furnace room which is usually warmer then the rest of the house
8. After 1 hour, remove towels from over prosphora. Prick the prosphora seal (making the sign of the cross, then piercing the center) - make sure the toothpick is inserted through the bottom half.
9. Allow the loaves to rest (covered) for ten minutes.
10. Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes at 350 degrees or until lightly golden.
11. Finally, conclude your work with a short prayer of thanksgiving of your own.