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About our bread

“Bread is the staff of life!” – as they said in ancient Russia. People would greet their dear guests with salt and bread. “Give Us This Day Our Daily Bread...” – more than a billion people from all over the world say this grace “Our Father” every day. Monasteries became gatherers and guardians of the best recipes of real bread without which we can’t imagine a healthy diet. From the Middle Ages to the present day, people have baked both yeast and unleavened bread using a sourdough starter, often accompanied by a prayer and a request for God's blessings, making it a sacramental process.

The history of the production of bread in the Trinity Lavra of St. Sergius has a direct connection to St. Sergius of Radonezh. Although many recipes were lost during the 700-year existence of this monastery, some have survived and are still in use today. Our production of these healthy products is based on these ancient recipes and does not use any chemical preservatives or substitutes for natural ingredients. Meanwhile, we use ancient Russian technology as our bread is baked on a sourdough starter and does not contain any industrial yeasts.

The first appearance of ancient Russian rye bread made with fermented dough dates back to the 10^th century. The creation of this bread required high-level skills in using special starters and kvass. The secrets of bread baking were completely confidential and were passed down from one generation of bread-bakers to the next. A sourdough starter was part of a fermented dough that belonged to a previous pastry. A sourdough starter was added to a new dough for dilution and storage of acidity. The taste and aroma directly depend on the quality of a sourdough starter. The dough is made through a series of steps – especially difficult methods of dough-making involve five-step processes for dough making.

Some technologies have survived to this day. A big selection of Lavrovsky’s bread is made with a sourdough starter, these recipes are saved by monks of the Trinity Lavra. The most popular types of bread are unleavened kinds, such as “Sergievsky”, “Borodinsky”, and “Kelarsky” with prunes and nuts.

“Sergiev Kanon” bakery also offers a few types of wheat flour bread, one of them is “Sergievsky” wheat bread, which is also made with a sourdough starter.

It is also important to mention that some bread is made with bread-baking yeast – grain or wheat. Since the production of such bread is based on sourdough, there is no yeast excess. Sourdough production is characterized by biochemical processes – slow dough fermentation, which can take 6 hours or more. This process allows us to use less yeast which is fully absorbed by the dough with minimal residue.

As a result, the “Sergiev Kanon” bread has an explicit aroma and taste and in ancient Russia, they would call it “spiritual”. The shelf life of our bread is much longer than of the bread that is made by modern express technologies that use different mixes. Our sourdough starter bread keeps its great quality for up to 10 days and those that are made with yeast – for approximately a week. The great quality of “Sergiev Kanon” healthy bread was awarded by professional societies.

There are almost 60 items of pastry in our assortment.