Cozonac - Romanian Traditional Cake

I have been craving for a long time to cozonac. I was missing my mom's sweets, so one day I decided to bake it myself after previously failing about two times.

 

Cozonac is a sweet bread, to which milk, sugar, eggs, butter and raisins are added. Cozonac (Romanian pronunciation: [kozoˈnak]) or Kozunak (Bulgarian: козунак, Bulgarian pronunciation: [kozuˈnak]) is a traditional Romanian and Bulgarian sweet bread. It is usually prepared for Easter in Bulgaria, and mostly for every major holiday (Christmas, Easter, New Year, Pentecost) in Romania. A similar dessert can be found in the Italian cuisine, panettone.

 

I have promised to a friend that I will post this recipe although I am not expert in doing it. So here you go Nada , this is for you sweetie !

Ingredients

1kg  flour

200 gr sugar

1 teaspoon salt

1 sachet of instant yeast

650 ml milk

4 yolks

1 egg

5 tablespoons butter

lemon / orange zest

Vanilla essence

For the filling

Filling is upon desire in any combination : walnuts, raisins, dry fruits, cacao, cinnamon ,

sugar, Turkish delight. Sesame and sugar for the final touch on the top !

 

First , heat the milk with the sugar and the instant yeast ( do not boil it ). Let it aside in order for the yeast  to start working. In a deep bowl put the flour , add the milk composition and the yolks.  Start kneading until the dough becomes smooth. Add the lemon/orange zest plus vanilla and the melted butter and keep on kneading until incorporated. Let it rise covered in a warm place until double the volume.

For my filling I used raisins, dry apricots and cinnamon with sugar. In this case , mix the cinnamon with sugar and melt some butter before starting working with your dough again.

On a clean surface sprinkle some flour and put your dough dividing it in 6 equal balls. Each ball spread it in a rectangle about 1 cm in height and long as your pan. Start with 3 balls only. After the dough is spread put the melted butter and add the filling then roll the dough. Take the 3 rolls and interweave them , arrange them in the pan and let them rise for about 1 hour.  Continue with the next 3 balls in the same manner.

Pre-heat the oven for about 15 minutes before putting the cozonac to bake. Right before putting them in the oven beat an egg and then brush it all over the dough . Sprinkle some sugar and sesame on top.  Now they are ready to go in the oven. The first 10 minutes let them bake at the highest temperature then decrease it to medium . I baked mine for about 40 minutes to  180°C. They are done when they pass the test of the tooth pick. Let them covered for about 15 minutes then remove them from the pan. Keep them cover until serving !