The handmade bread made of wholemeal flour and homemade leaven is the key to health and longevity, it is a true Godsend, Botyu Borissov who makes over 50 types of bread and pastry products contends. The fans of his homemade bread order healthy Easter cakes for the forthcoming feast. His bakery makes Easter cakes for vegans as well. I would like to quell the deception that bread makes you fat. Only bread made of white flour may do so. The bread made under the ancient recipes is a valuable source of the daily amount of vitamins, minerals, microelements and fibers. People need to regain their primordial reverence to bread and I am working in this direction, Botyu Borisov said and added:

I studied engineering and worked for ten years in this field. I have ten inventions in my career of an engineer, but it was difficult to instill them in production due to economic reasons. Since 1970 I have been interested in healthy nutrition. In the beginning I was very impressed with Peter Deunov’s texts dedicated to bread. I was terrified when I learned the content of the bread produced in Bulgaria. That is why when I retired I decided to start producing real bread, the same bread our ancestors used to make. All my products are made of wholemeal flour only without additives, coloring agents and white sugar. I use brown sugar only, but I substitute this sugar with honey when possible. My bread is mainly produced of spelt flour, but we also use rye, barley, oats, buck-wheat and various kernels.

Although healthy nutrition regimes have attracted huge interest recently, the taste of the contemporary people remains influenced by the cult for freshly-baked bread. However, one century ago the Bulgarians could afford to eat freshly-baked bread once a week only and often called this bread tomorrow’s bread, knowing that it was healthier to eat it on the following day.

Scientists are unanimous that wholemeal bread helps metabolism, Mr Borissov specifies. Metabolic processes must happen with the help of many minerals and vitamins and wholemeal foods abound with these elements. The content of nutrients in spelt for instance is twice higher than in the conventional wheat. We start the metabolism with the consumption of wholemeal products and the rest of the food we include in our daily menu give us the daily amount of nutrients which guarantee good health and longevity. I shared my knowledge about nutrition in my book Za Hlyaba Nash Nasushtniy (For our daily bread). I used comparative studies on the content of different whole grains and in particular spelt bread and the rest of the products in our daily menu, including animal food. People can reduce consumption of animal products to the minimum, which will not affect their metabolism, but they should not go to extremes and say they must definitely become vegetarians or vegans. It is a matter of personal decision and people should find out what is good for them. I read a scientific publication where Swedish experts contend that barely bread fights cancer. It is very difficult to make barley bread, but now I sell several types of bread containing barley, spelt, oats and other substances which fight cancer. I named my bread Bulgarica and every type of bread in my bakery has a Bulgarian name- Tangra, Orpheus, Perun, etc.

I don’t know when exactly Easter cake appeared in Bulgaria, but it has been part of the Easter menu for many years. In the 19^th century it was definitely part of the festive menu of the Bulgarians. I think that our bakery is the only in Bulgaria which makes Easter cakes with wholemeal flours and homemade leaven.  Well, it is not as fluffy as the regular Easter bread made of white flour. We prepare Easter cake for vegans with nut milk, turmeric, seeds, kernels and fruits and people who chose this type of diet like it a lot.

English version: Kostadin Atanasov