The most traditional romanian sweet: COZONAC

This following recipe might be the longest I have been posting on the blog, but my mother offer to share with me a traditional special desert called "cozonac" that is served in our romanian family particulary on important holidays like Christmas and Easter.

The good part is that, originally the recipe is not vegan, but there is also a vegan version of it which is as good or even better than the original one.

The need ingredients for the "cozonac"

At first, the ingredients that you will need for the dough are:

• 1000 grams of white self-raising flour

• 300 grams of sugar

• 100 ml of vegetable oil

• the juice from one orange

• 4 packets of vanilla sugar

• 500 ml of oat milk

•  2 cubes of yeast ( about 80-100 grams )

• 150 grams of margarine

• a peel of a lemon

  

For the filling the ingredients that you need are:

• 1 box of turkish delight circa 300 grams

• 100 grams of raisins

• rum essence

• ground nuts mixed with cocoa and sugar (optional)

The raisins are put together with 1 bottle of rum essence in a bowl some time before in the beginning of the cake preparation.

How to prepare the chocolate filling

The chocolate filling is prepared at first to cool and thicken. It is prepared as follows: in a small pot put: the 150 grams of sugar, 50 grams of cocoa 100 grams of margarine and 100ml of oat milk or water, 2 tablespoons of flour.

Put the mixture on low heat, stirring continuously until the composition thickens. Stop the fire and than add 200 grams of bitter chocolate and rum essence. Allow it to cool. Meanwhile, the turkish deligh is cut to pieces.

How to prepare the fluffy dough?

Preparing the dough: mix the yeast with 2 tablespoons sugar, 50ml of warm milk and 2 tablespoons of white flour. Place it in warm place to activate the yeast. In the room where the dough is prepared it should be warm, about 25-27 degrees.

The flour is sifted into a large bowl. Milk, sugar, margarine are heated over low heat until the sugar melts. It should not be hot, just warm. Put the yeast mixture, milk, sugar, margarine over the flour, in the bowl. Add a little salt, 1/2 teaspoon, vanilla, lemon zest, orange juice and oil. Stir continuously for about 15 minutes until the dough becomes fluffy and does not stick to the hands. Allow the dough to raise in a warm place for 30 to 45 minutes.

In the meantime, the "cozonac" trays are being prepared with baking sheet and vegetable oil.

How to assemble the "cozonaci"?

When the dough has grown it is divided into four equal pieces. They are anointed with a little oil to adhere to the hands and the table. There are 2 sheets in a row. Put the chocolate filling, about 2 tablespoons and spread over the sheet. The raisins and the turkish delight are sprinkled too, than roll the sheets with the filling together as is exemplified in the photos.

There are 2 rolls which are finally rolled into a single one and put it on a oily baking sheet and then in the tray. The same is done with the second cake. Place the unbaked cakes in a warm place for about 30 minutes.

And lastly, the baking part

After the 30 minutes have passed and the oven starts to warm up, the "Cozonacii" are baked at 180 degrees for 35-40 minutes until they are brown. When ready, grease the top of them with a little water and sprinkle sugar. Allow to cool, then cut into slices.

As you might see in the photos added through the article, this time we have the "cozonacii"  for Christmas and they are extremly tasty. What I love the most about preparing this recipe is the fact that the house gets filled with the warm sweet smell of the cakes and believe me, you cannot wait for them to cool down, but you will eat it right away even if you are most likely to burn your tongue. 

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