Despite the strict Week of the Cross, our ancestors even at this time found an opportunity to please the children. Crosses were baked from a variety of lean dough (yeast and non-yeast), decorated with raisins and sugar.

Crosses (sacrum) are ceremonial biscuits that were baked by Orthodox Christians for many religious holidays, but it was obligatory for Epiphany and the Exaltation of the Cross of the Lord, as well as on the Week of the Cross on the Great Lent.

“... On Saturday of the third week of Great Lent, we bake“ crosses ”: the Cross-worshiper is coming. "Crosses" - special cookies, with an almond flavor, crumbly and sweet; where the diameters of the "cross" lie - raspberries from jam are pressed in, as if nailed down with carnations. So from time immemorial, they baked - as a consolation for fasting ... "(IS Shmelev. Summer of the Lord).

Orthodox Christians also start the first morning home meal for Epiphany (January 19), which was supposed to be washed down with holy water. Special personalized cookies were also baked, which the mother of the family marked with certain signs and symbols known only to her. By such "crosses" taken out of the oven, one could find out what kind of life cross each family member would carry in the coming year.

Honey crosses
Ingredients:
2 cups flour, 300 g honey, 2-3 tbsp. a spoonful of vegetable oil, 100 g of peeled nuts, 1 teaspoon of spices, 1 lemon, 1 teaspoon of soda, raisins.
Preparation
Thoroughly grind or mince the kernels of nuts (walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts), combine with honey, add vegetable oil, spices and lemon grated on a fine grater with zest.
Mix the mass, add flour mixed with soda and knead the dough.
Roll it out, cut out “crosses” with a notch or knife, put the raisins on top and bake in the oven.
Various spices can be used to flavor cookies: cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, etc., as well as mixtures thereof.

Yeast dough crosses
Ingredients:
1 kg of flour, 25 g of yeast, 125 g of vegetable oil, 1 glass of sugar, 250 g of water, a pinch of salt.
For lubrication: sweet strong tea.
Preparation
Prepare a lean yeast dough, roll it out and cut “crosses” with a notch or knife.
In the center of the intersection of the beams, press the raisins into the dough.
Grease the cookies with sweet strong tea and bake in the oven.

Butter crosses
Ingredients:
250 g flour, 1 egg, 125 g butter, 2.5 tbsp. tablespoons of sugar, 1 glass of cognac or rum, salt and vanillin to taste.
Preparation
Combine all products, knead unleavened dough and divide it into several parts.
Roll each part in the form of a rope and lay them on top of each other with a cross.
Place the cookies on a greased baking sheet and bake in the oven until golden brown.

During the all-night vigil, the Holy Cross is brought to the center of the church. All believers worship the Cross, and at this time it is sung: "We worship Your Cross, O Lord, and we glorify Your holy resurrection."

In the middle of fasting, we worship the cross in order to be strengthened by the reminder of the suffering and death of the Lord to continue fasting. The Holy Cross remains in the church for a week until Friday. Therefore, the third Sunday and the fourth week of Great Lent are called "worshipers of the cross."

In Russia, there was a tradition to bake crosses for the week of the Cross. This is how the great Russian writer IS Shmelev wrote about this wonderful and, for many, consoling tradition in his work "The Lord's Summer":

« On Saturday of the third week of Great Lent, we bake "crosses": the "Worship of the Cross" is coming. “Crosses” are special cookies with almond flavor, crumbly and sweet. Where the cross-pieces of the "cross" lie - raspberries from jam are pressed in, as if nailed with carnations. So from time immemorial they baked, even before the great-grandmother Ustinya - as a consolation for the post.

Gorkin instructed me this way: Our Orthodox faith, Russian ... it, my dear, is the best, the most cheerful! and relieves the weak, enlightens despondency, and joy to the small. And this is absolutely true. Although you have Great Lent, but still a relief for the soul, "crosses" are something. Only with great-grandmother Ustinya raisins in sadness, and now funny raspberries.
"The Worship of the Cross" is a sacred week, a strict fast, some kind of special, "su-lip" - Gorkin says so, in a church way. If we were to keep strictly in the church way, we would have to stay in dry food, and due to weakness, relief is given. On Wednesday - Friday we will eat without butter, - pea stew and vinaigrette, and on other days, which are "colorful", - indulgence: you can mushroom caviar, soup with mushroom ears, stewed cabbage with porridge, cranberry jelly with almond milk, rice cakes with prune-raisin sauce, with a whisper, baked potatoes in salt. And for a snack there are always "crosses": remember "Krestopoklonnaya".

Maryushka makes “crosses” with a prayer, tenderly says: “And these are carnations, as the villainous torturers nailed Christ… here a carnation, and here a carnation,” and pushes in cheerful raspberries. And I think: why are they funny ... it would be better to have blue blueberries ... We all watch how she folds the "crosses". On a large baking sheet they lie in rows, shine with cheerful raspberries. Little white "crosses", as if they were made of a paw, are cut off. Sometimes you couldn't wait: ah, they'd rather take them out of the oven!

And Gorkin also instructed: eat the cross and think to yourself - "The Worship of the Cross," they say, has come. And these are not for pleasure, but ... everyone, they say, is given a cross to live approximately ... and obediently carry it, as the Lord sends a test. Our faith is good, it does not teach evil, but leads to understanding ... »

So in the Seraphim Church on the eve of the holiday, on Saturday before the All-night Vigil, the guys from the Sunday School gathered in the refectory to bake crosses together. The adults prepared a lean yeast dough in advance, showed how to handle it - after all, the dough is almost "live" and it is not advisable to crush it again, and the work began to boil.

And on Sunday, after the Divine Liturgy, parishioners received a ruddy, fragrant cross.

Also, on the eve of the day of remembrance of 40 martyrs of Sebastia, the children baked larks from dough and distributed them to parishioners after the service.

The Week of the Cross of the Great Lent 2018 falls in the middle of it. For each of the weeks of Great Lent, a special name was assigned, reminiscent of one or another event associated with the holy great martyrs, metropolitans, miracle workers, Jesus Christ himself, the Mother of God and the Holy Trinity.

The names convey special differences in church services, in who should offer prayer and worship. It is also connected with special spiritual instructions, perceiving which Christians should unite in a single impulse, supporting each other in deed and word, let it be reflected only in prayer. The third Week of Lent is dedicated to the worship of the Honest and Life-giving Cross. The editors of the website Useful tips.ru found out when the week of the Cross will be, what week of Great Lent in 2018. What traditions exist, traditions and rituals, as well as the history of this wonderful holiday. And we will share the best recipes for Lenten Crosses cookies, which are traditionally baked at cross-worship week at home.

The name "cross-worshiping" comes from the fact that during this week the services in the church are accompanied by bows to the sacred cross, on which the Son of God was allegedly crucified ("supposedly" means that Jesus was not crucified on each of the crosses in all churches).

This action - bowing after reading a prayer, occurs four times, starting on Sunday, which is called the Cross, and then on Monday, Wednesday and Friday.

Bows mean a tribute to the feat of Christ, a desire to follow him, as well as acceptance of one's own burden, one's destiny, which manifests itself every day in everyday life, such seemingly small deprivations in the form of a reduced portion of food and a complete rejection of worldly entertainment.

The significance of the Week of the Cross lies on the surface. There is an expression among the people "to carry their cross", it has a direct bearing on the explanation. During Great Lent, every Christian tries to endure the burden that lay on the shoulders of Jesus in the days of forty days of abstinence. Everyone experiences their temptation based on the "weak" point.

This means that in the middle of Great Lent, the Christian has already cognized "his cross", has fully felt all the temptations that accompany abstinence, to fight with which he raised his spirit. This is a kind of act of recognition of their voluntary, coveted burden.

Also, the cross is a symbol of a reminder of the death of Christ and the result of the entire fast, after which comes the sacred resurrection. Thus, on the Week of the Cross, everyone can feel the inspiration to continue his fast, realizing for what purpose and for what outcome he keeps his will in his fist.

Story

During the Iranian-Byzantine war in 614, the Persian king Khosroi II besieged and took Jerusalem, taking prisoner the Jerusalem patriarch Zechariah and capturing the Tree of the Life-giving Cross, found once by Equal-to-the-Apostles Helen.

In 626, Khosra, in alliance with the Avars and Slavs (yes, the Slavs!), Almost captured Constantinople. By the miraculous intercession of the Mother of God, the capital city was spared from the invasion, and then the course of the war changed, and in the end the Byzantine emperor Heraclius I celebrated the victorious end of the 26-year war.

Presumably on March 6, 631, the Life-giving Cross returned to Jerusalem. The emperor brought him into the city with his own hand, and Patriarch Zachariah, released from captivity, happily walked alongside. Since then, Jerusalem began to celebrate the anniversary of the return of the Life-giving Cross.

It must be said that at that time the duration and severity of Lent were still being discussed, and the order of the Lent services was just being formed. When the custom arose to postpone the holidays that occur in Great Lent from weekdays to Saturdays and Sundays (so as not to violate the strict mood of weekdays), then the feast in honor of the Cross also shifted and was gradually fixed on the third Sunday of Lent.

It was in the middle of Lent that intensive preparation began for those catechumens who were going to be baptized on Easter this year. And it turned out to be very appropriate to begin this preparation with the worship of the Cross.

Starting next Wednesday, at each Presanctified Liturgy, after the litany of the catechumens, there will be another litany - about those "preparing for enlightenment" - just in memory of those who diligently prepared and were going to be baptized soon.

Over time, the purely Jerusalem holiday of the Return of the Cross became not so relevant for the entire Christian world, and the holiday in honor of the Cross acquired a more global sound and more applied meaning: as a memory and help in the middle of the most strict and difficult of the fasts.

When and how is the Week of the Cross

Many of these sources call the 4th week of Great Lent the Cross of the Cross, which seems quite logical and memorable, given the hint that it falls exactly in the middle of Lent. However, in fact, the name

The worship of the Cross passes to the week from the Sunday of the same name, which ends the 3rd week of fasting. Consequently, the Week of the Cross is also the third, despite the fact that more services with worship of the cross are held on the 4th week.

The first service with bows to the cross takes place on the above-mentioned Sunday. The next one takes place on Monday, exactly every other day. Also on Wednesday, and on Friday evening of the 4th week, the last service of the Cross takes place, after which the cross takes place in the altar.

The Week of the Cross of Lent in 2018 falls on March 5th. On this day, the traditional removal of the cross into the middle of the temple hall will take place, so that each prayer can bow down to the ground before him and be inspired by the deed done by Jesus to continue fasting.

During the liturgy on these days, the prayer to the Most Holy Trinity, which traditionally accompanies the service every day, is replaced by the prayer song "We worship your cross, O Lord, and gloriously your Resurrection", after which it is necessary to bow.

If possible, you should visit all 4 services. A single voice of dozens, addressed to prayer, can work a miracle, especially if our will has weakened under the pressure of routine.

Service in the church

On Saturday evening, at an all-night vigil, the Life-giving Cross of the Lord is solemnly brought to the center of the church - a reminder of the approaching Passion Week and Easter of Christ. After that, the priests and parishioners of the temple make three bows before the cross. While worshiping the Cross, the Church sings: "We worship Your Cross, O Lord, and we glorify Your holy resurrection." This hymn is sung at the Liturgy instead of the Trisagion.

The Holy Cross remains for worship for a week until Friday, when it is brought back into the altar before the Liturgy. Therefore, the third Sunday and the fourth week of Great Lent are called "worshipers of the cross."

According to the Charter, it is necessary to do four worship during the week of the Cross: on Sunday, Monday, Wednesday and Friday. On Sunday, worship of the Cross occurs only at matins (after the removal of the Cross), on Monday and Wednesday it is performed at the first hour, and on Friday "after the hours are gone."

Liturgical texts in honor of the Cross are very sublime and beautiful, they abound in oppositions, allegories, and artistic personification.

Tradition - to bake cookies in the form of crosses during the week of the cross

There was such an interesting Russian folk tradition - to bake cookies in the form of crosses on Krestopoklonnaya. Crosses may vary in size, but they are always similar in shape, most often they are made symmetrical, equilateral, with four rays.

To do this, two equal strips of dough are placed on top of each other crosswise (these are "simple" crosses). or the rolled dough is cut into "crosses" with a mold or a knife (these are "cut" crosses).

Sometimes they are made even easier - in the form of round cakes, on which the image of a cross is applied. According to legend, such Crosses "drove away" everything bad from the house and households.

Ivan Shmelev in his book "Summer of the Lord" well described this custom. I will cite here an extensive quote - Shmelev very vividly showed how such a tradition is inscribed in the order of life and thinking of an Orthodox, church child. Showed the "angle of presentation" of this custom:

“On the Saturday of the third week of Great Lent, we bake“ crosses ”: the“ Worship of the Cross ”is coming.
“Crosses” - special cookies, with an almond flavor, crumbly and sweet; where the cross-pieces of the “cross” lie - raspberries from jam are pressed in, as if nailed with carnations. So from time immemorial they baked, even before the great-grandmother Ustinya - as a consolation for the post. Gorkin taught me this:
- Our Orthodox faith, Russian ... it is, my dear, the best, most cheerful! and relieves the weak, enlightens despondency, and joy to the small.

And this is absolutely true. Although you have Great Lent, but still a relief for the soul, "crosses" are something. Only with great-grandmother Ustinya raisins in sadness, and now funny raspberries.

“The Worship of the Cross” is a sacred week, a strict fast, some kind of special, - “su-lip”, - Gorkin says so, in a church way. If we kept it strictly in the church way, we would have to stay in dry food, but relief is given due to weakness: on Wednesday-Friday we will eat without butter, - pea soup and vinaigrette, and on other days, which are “colorful”, - a concession the snack is always "crosses": remember the "Cross-worship".
Maryushka makes “crosses” with a prayer ...

And Gorkin also instructed:
- Taste the cross and think to yourself - “The Worship of the Cross”, they say, has come. And these are not for pleasure, but everyone, they say, is given a cross to live approximately ... and obediently carry it, as the Lord sends a test. Our faith is good, it does not teach evil, but leads to understanding ”.

Macaroons "Cross" recipe

Products:

• 150 g peeled almonds
• 1⁄2 cup boiling water
• 100 g of honey
• 1 circle of lemon with skin about 1 cm thick
• 1⁄2 tsp. cinnamon and nutmeg,
• 1⁄4 cup olive oil
• 250 g wheat flour
• 50 g rye flour
• 2/3 sachet of baking powder.

How to cook:

Rinse the almonds and pour boiling water over for 10 minutes. Add honey, oil, a circle of lemon there and grind with a blender. Combine flour, baking powder and spices. Pour the honey nut syrup into the flour and knead the dough, which should eventually roll into a ball.
Leave the dough in the refrigerator for half an hour, then roll it into a thin layer (about 5 mm) and cut the crosses. Bake at 190 degrees for 20-25 minutes.

Cookies "crosses" honey

Ingredients:

• 2 cups of flour,
• 300 g honey
• 2-3 st. a spoonful of vegetable oil
• 100 g shelled nuts
• 1 teaspoon of spices,
• 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda, raisins.

Preparation

Thoroughly grind or mince the kernels of nuts (walnuts, almonds or hazelnuts), combine with honey, add vegetable oil, spices and lemon grated on a fine grater with zest.

Mix the mass, add flour mixed with soda and knead the dough.

Roll it out, cut out “crosses” with a notch or knife, put the raisins on top and bake in the oven.
Various spices can be used to flavor cookies: cinnamon, cloves, cardamom, ginger, nutmeg, etc., as well as mixtures thereof.

Lemon crosses

Would need:

• 250 g lean margarine
• 3 cups flour
• 1 cup potato starch
• 1 tbsp. l. baking powder,
• 2 bags of vanilla sugar
• zest of 1 lemon,
• 1 glass of water.

We bake lean cookies lemon crosses:

Chop the margarine with flour and starch. Add sugar, baking powder, finely grated zest and replace the dough with very cold water (from the refrigerator). Blind the crosses, crush the raisins into the bars and bake.

Cookies Crosses on cucumber pickle

Products:

• 1 cup cucumber pickle
• 1 cup refined sunflower oil
• 1 cup of sugar,
• 100 g coconut flakes
• 2-3 cups flour.

A simple recipe for lean cookies Crosses in brine:

Combine butter, sugar, brine, half shavings and flour. Knead the dough as thick as a shortbread. Roll out, sprinkling with the remaining coconut flakes. Cut the crosses, place on a baking sheet lightly sprinkled with flour and bake at 180 degrees for 5-8 minutes. Instead of coconut flakes, you can use poppy seeds, lemon zest, candied fruits, dried apricots, cut into small pieces, or dried orange peels crushed in a coffee grinder.

Lean cookie dough Crosses with poppy seeds

Cookies Ingredients:

• 25 g poppy seeds
• 1 cup flour
• 4 tbsp. tablespoons of sugar
• 5 tbsp. tablespoons of vegetable oil,
• 0.5 tsp of baking soda,
• 3 tbsp. tablespoons of water with lemon juice

Lean cookies with poppy seeds Crosses for the week of the cross - a step by step recipe with a photo:

1. Mix poppy seeds with 1 tbsp. spoon of sugar, add 100 g of water, heat for 10 minutes until the water boils. To cover with a lid. Rub the poppy seeds in a mortar until poppy milk and the characteristic poppy smell appear.
2. Pour flour, poppy seeds into a bowl, 3 tbsp. tablespoons of sugar and rub with your hands.
3. Add oil.
4. Add soda with lemon juice, add 2 tbsp. spoons of water and knead the dough. Wrap in plastic and put in the refrigerator for 20 minutes.
5. Roll out the dough 0.5 cm thick, cut the crosses. Press raisins into the middle of each cross. Bake at 180 C for 15 minutes.

In the old days on the week of the Cross on Wednesday, congratulations were made on the end of the first half of the fast. It was accepted to bake cookies in the form of crosses from fresh dough. The cookies were baked with prayer. In these crosses, either a grain of rye was baked so that bread would be born, or a chicken feather, so that chickens were led, or a human hair, so that the head was easier.

A person was considered happy if he came across one of these items. The cookie was a reminder of the suffering of Christ and of the fact that each person has his own cross in life.

There was a custom on the third Sunday of Lent to fumigate the house with vapors of vinegar and mint in order to cleanse the dwelling and drive out the spirit of any disease.

From the history of traditions and rituals

Epiphanythis is one of the largest holidays of the Orthodox Church, celebrated on January 19 in memory of the baptism of Jesus Christ in the waters of the Jordan. In all cities and villages where there were churches, water was sanctified.

This is the third and last big holiday of the Christmas and New Year period.

The main tradition of the feast of the Baptism of the Lord is the blessing of water. This tradition existed among other Christian peoples even before the adoption of Christianity in Russia - for example, among the Greeks, on the feast of Epiphany, it is customary to immerse themselves in water.

Orthodox Christians have a long tradition of bringing holy water home and keeping it carefully. This water is considered curative, they drink it, they wash it, sprinkle it on the house.

In ancient times, Baptism was considered a turning point. That evening they hoped for the best, made plans, made wishes. “On the night of the Epiphany, the sky opens,” said the people.

But, the feast of Epiphany is not only bathing, blessing of water and fortune-telling. Our ancestors had to ceremonial baking.

Ritual cooking,partially preserved to this day, keeps echoes the most ancient magical rites.

The collector of Russian folklore I.P. Sakharov noted: “In some villages the old custom has been preserved to cook ... from wheat dough animals: cows, bulls, sheep and poultry, as well as figurines of shepherds. Animals were exhibited at the windows to be shown to passers-by, on the table they flaunted for the family in the morning and were sent out as a gift to relatives in the evening ”.

But this is already the enlightened 19th century. And the first mentions of dough figurines are found in Russian chronicles of the 12th century.

Traditional characters - a horse, a deer, a cow, a goat, a duck, a grouse with chicks in those days, such ritual figurines of animals or birds were hung on barnyards as amulets, later, in the mainstream of the Christian tradition on Epiphany, soaked figurines were added to feed for livestock to be healthy and prolific.

Also, at baptism, it was traditionally baked ceremonial cookies "Crosses".

Russian peasants believed that these biscuits could contribute to a good harvest, the well-being of the farm and family.

On January 18, the hostesses bake these cookies according to custom. The first morning meal on January 19 for each of the household should consist of these cookies, which are supposed to be washed down with holy water. So the Siberians believed that the eaten "cross" gives a person health.

Special cookies were also baked - nominal ones. The mother of the family, when she rolls out the dough and molds it, marks flour products: for herself with a zest, for her husband - with poppy seeds, for her son - with anise, for her daughter - with caraway seeds, or simply squeezes out the first letter of her name with a knife.

These symbols, taken out of the oven, tell what kind of life cross all family members will have to bear in the coming year.

If the cross is well-baked, yellow-pink, then it will give success, health, prosperity.
The person who got such a cookie can then look for sympathy, intercession, and advice for a whole year.
If the “cross” is broken with cracks, then it predicts changes in fate, difficulties.

Figurines

I used brioche dough to bake the figurines.

Although it would be more correct to use the dough for lean baking.

Figures can be formed from a piece of dough, or they can be cut out using a stencil. You can take a stencil of figures from children's coloring pages.

BISCUITS "CROSSES"

Recipe

1 cup wheat flour
2 eggs
150g softened butter
100 g sugar
2 tablespoons of rum, cognac (I used a balm)
Vanillin
Salt
Cinnamon

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Technology

Grind the softened butter white with sugar. Add beaten eggs, salt, vanillin, cinnamon, alcohol. Then add flour, stir quickly. I usually keep shortbread dough in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours. Roll the resulting dough into a layer 0.5 cm thick. Then, with a sharp knife, cut into strips 2 cm wide and about 8 cm long. You can choose other sizes.

Place the strips in the form of a cross, one on top of the other. Decorate with raisins. In order for the raisins to hold well in the dough, I made indentations with a ballpoint pen cap at the location of the raisins.
Bake at 200 ° C for about 12 minutes.

R A Z N Y E R A Z N O S T I

FEATURES ON BAPTISM

If there is a blizzard, snow or drift on this day, there will be a harvest.

There is little snow on the branches of the trees - in summer, do not look for mushrooms or berries.

If the stars shine strongly on this night, the bread will be good.

The stars are not visible - there will be no mushrooms.

If there is a blizzard on this day, the same will happen on Shrovetide; if there are strong winds from the south - stormy summer.

CONGRATULATIONS ON THE BAPTISM

On a frosty day on Epiphany
You accept the invitation:
Come to a warm home,
Let's drink tea with pies!

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I hasten to congratulate you on the Baptism
And wish you cleanliness
All thoughts and all aspirations,
Health, happiness and love!

GUESSING ON THE FULFILLMENT OF DESIRES

On the evening before Epiphany, write on the pieces of paper twelve of your wishes and put them under your pillow before going to bed.

Waking up in the morning, take out three pieces of paper at random, those desires that will be indicated on these pieces of paper and must be fulfilled.

Spread a handful of small items on the table, such as nuts, seeds, etc.
Make a wish and count the number of items.

If their number is even - the wish will come true, respectively, the number of objects is odd - the wish will not come true.

Great post 2017, traditional recipes, Lenten pastries on March 19, can be done with children.

In Russia, at the Week of the Cross, they traditionally baked pastries of a peculiar shape - in the form of crosses. This is how Ivan Shmelev remembers this event.

On Saturday of the third week of Great Lent, we bake "crosses": the Cross-worshiper is coming. "Crosses" - special cookies, with an almond flavor, crumbly and sweet; where the cross-pieces of the "cross" lie - raspberries from jam are pressed in, as if nailed with carnations. So from time immemorial they baked, even before great-grandmother Ustinya - as a consolation for the post.

Crosses (crosses, crosses, chresttsy, gristles) are not just traditional Orthodox pastries, but also a wonderful opportunity to get your family together for an interesting joint activity and discuss the meaning of the holiday. These are the events of the post that will definitely be remembered.

In different places, the "crosses" could differ in size. Most often they were made symmetrical, equilateral, with four rays. For this, two equal strips of dough were placed one on top of the other crosswise. Crosses can be made with different "rays". In addition, if there is a suitable mold, then you can cut the rolled dough into "crosses" using the mold.

There is another version of this baking, when the crosses are placed on top of a round cake or made slotted.

The easiest thing is if you just buy puff pastry and cut crosses out of it or cut into strips, connect them crosswise, press raisins or a nut in the place of the crossbars.

If you want to make the dough yourself, here are some recipes - from the simplest to the more complex ones.

Sweet honey (gingerbread) dough recipe

1 tbsp. flour (you can take part of rye flour), a third of a glass of hot water, 2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, 3 tbsp. tablespoons of liquid honey, a little salt, you can add spices (cinnamon, nutmeg).

Dissolve all ingredients, without flour, in water, then add flour and knead the dough and knead it well. The dough should be steep (add flour if necessary), let it sit for a while.

Lean yeast dough recipe

For 2 cups of flour, take 1 cup of warm water, 1 tsp. "Fast" dry yeast, 3 tbsp. l. vegetable oil, sugar, a pinch of salt, vanillin.

Put sugar to taste, Mix all the ingredients, leave the dough to approach.

But if you want to try old recipe those very "crosses" that Shmelev recalled, you will have to make more efforts.

You will need 150 g of almonds, 100 g of boiling water, 100 g of liquid honey, a circle of lemon with a skin, about 1 cm thick, 0.5 tsp each nutmeg and cinnamon, 50 g of vegetable oil and 250 g. wheat and 50 gr. rye flour, baking powder 2/3 sachet

Rinse the almonds, pour boiling water over, let stand for 10 minutes. Then add honey, oil and a circle of lemon there. The whole nut-honey-lemon mass must be grinded with a blender. In a bowl, combine flour, baking powder and spices. Pour the chopped mass into flour there, knead the dough and give it a spherical shape.

Let the prepared dough sit in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Then use the dough as described above. It must be borne in mind that it should be rolled out to about 5 mm thick.

Let's fast with a pleasant fast!