Cozonac - Romanian sweet bread cake with dried fruit, cinnamon and Turkish delight

 

Ingredients: 

 1kg flour 

5 eggs

80 ml vegetable oil 

250 ml milk

50 gr yeast 

cinnamon 

dried fruits - your choice, I had raisins, dates, mango, pineapple 

turkish delight

100 gr walnuts 

7-8 spoons of sugar 

rum or vanilla essence  

1-2 spoons of cacao 

Baking time:  

2.5 hours 

How to:

This type of cake requires a good type of flour which will facilitate the rise of the dough and a warm place for the dough (it could on a heater or a pre-heated oven at 50 deg C).

Also the amount of time you spend on the kneading will have a direct consequence on the softness of the cake, the more, the better. Yes, it is not easy to bake this kind of cake :) 

 

Ok, so the first step is to activate the yeast with a bit of warm milk and sugar and 1-2 spoons of floor. 

While the yeast is working its magic, you can separate the yolks from the white parts. 

Then, in a big bowl, the yeast is added, then slowly flour, the yolks, the warm milk, but slowly to create an elastic dough, gradually adding the flour. 

At this stage you can also use a mixer, kitchen aid, etc. 

The kneading will require your effort, adding the oil slowly and working the dough into an elastic one, for more than 20-30 minutes, depending on the type of the flour and how much it takes to form a good looking dough. 

Then you can let the dough to rise in a warm place, till it doubles the volume. 

 

 In the mean time, you can make the cream by grinding the walnuts into a fine powder, mixing them with 1-2 spoons of cacao and white part of eggs beaten up in a meringue. 

Next step is to assemble the cozonac, by cutting the dough into equal parts, depending on how many baking trays you have: for one rectangular baking tray, I used half of the dough, spread into 2 halves. 

Each of these halves needs to leveled  into a thinner sheet of dough, on which you can add the cinnamon or cacao/nuts cream, depending on preference.  

I chose the cacao/nuts cream for the bigger cozonac and then I added turkish delight and dried fruits, rolled it and braided. 

The same with the smaller parts for the second cozonac with cinnamon as the basis.  

 

 You can transfer the braided cozonac into baking trays on which you laid baking paper. 

And now it is the second moment of the rising of the dough, again in a warm place. 

When risen enough, you can cover them in a thin layer of yolk + milk + sugar and start the baking process, at 180 deg C for approx. 1 hour, depending on your oven. 

 

 

 When done, you can let the cake to "breathe" and dissipate the heat for 10-15 minutes, before removing it from the trays. 

The result should be truly delicious, aromatic, filling up the entire house with a sweet, pleasant smell. 

This type of cake is traditional for Romanian holidays, especially for Christmas and Easter. 

Cozonac is also the test for a lady's
baking abilities :) so I hope yours too will be a success, right from the first try. 

 

 

 

 

  

 

 

Marble cake with dried fruits

 Ingredients: 

300 gr flour 

5 eggs 

150 gr brown sugar 

250 gr yogurt 

400 ml milk 

 3-4 tea spoons of cocoa 

dried fruits (raisins, dates, cranberries) 

baking powder - 1 tea spoon 

vanilla sugar or vanilla essence

Baking time: 40-45 min at 180 degrees C  

How to: 

Separate the yolks from the white parts and mix the yolks with a pinch of salt and the sugar gradually. 

Add the yogurt and milk and vanilla sugar or essence. From this mix, separate some part into a separate bowl. Into this smaller bowl, add the cocoa.

Whisk the white parts with 2-3 spoons of sugar. They need to look like meringue and then mix them into the yolk mix and the cocoa bowl too.

Prepare the dried fruits and place them for 3-4 minutes in water if they are too dry, then dry them on paper. 

Prepare the baking tray, either with baking paper, either with oil and flour as shown here. 

Start by laying a layer of non-cocoa batter into the baking tray and sprinkle the fruits, add another layer of the cocoa mix, add fruits, repeat till the batter is finished. 

Once it got cooler, I cut it and served it with a home made blue berry jam - so the recipe of this jam will be shared soon :) 

Enjoy! 

Plum jam - easy recipe

 Who doesn't like a slice of toast with jam or soft pancakes filled in with jam? or a cake with jam? 

and when the jam is home made and you can control the amount of sugar, it is even better :) 

so here is a recipe of plum jam: 

Ingredients: 

4 kilos of plums: could be different types of plums for a plus of flavour, but well ripe

1 kilo brown sugar 

2-3 satchels of vanilla sugar 

1 cane of cinnamon (optional) 

 

How to:

Wash the fruits well and take out the seeds. Cut the fruits in small pieces. Place the fruits in layers in bowls or pots and sprinkle some 2-3 sugar spoons for each layer, until finishing the fruits. Leave them over night. 

 

Next day, you can put the pot to boil to a low temperature so the juice evaporates. Depending on how much juice the fruits have, it will take longer or shorter to get the right consistency of jam. 

One important step: when the jam starts to foil, there will be a foam - it is necessary to collect that foam and throw it away - contains impurities of fruits and sugar. 

 

In this case, it took around 3hours, at a very very low temperature. 

To test if the jam is ready, you take a spoon of jam, place it on a plate and when you separate the jam with spoon, it shouldn't run from plate. 

You need to have sterilized jars, ready to be used. 

After the jam is done, you can wait till it gets a bit cooler and then place it in jars. 

For a 2nd sterilization, place the jars in oven at 50-60 degrees C, for about 1 hour. 

Final product ready to be stored in pantry: 

Chocolate & Jam roll cake

 Hello, 

Today I want to share with you an easy recipe for a roll cake. 

You can use jam, chocolate, cream, pudding to fill it. I used my home made jam - plum jam to be more specific :) 

Ingredients: 

5 eggs 

6 spoons flour 

2-3 spoons of sugar 

vanilla essence or vanilla sugar 

baking paper 

How to:

Pre-heat oven at 180 degrees C. 

Separate the eggs and use a mixer to beat them up. Once this is done, you can mix up the whites and the yolks and add the rest of sugar, flour slowly. 

Lay it on the tray, in a thin layer (not more than 1 cm) on a baking paper. 

Bake it for 10-12min at 180 degrees C. 

Once done, you can leave it to cool down for a while, then spread the filling (jam, chocolate, etc.)

At the end I chose to cover it in chocolate spread and shower it with coconut flakes. 

The result is yummy! 

Greek moussaka - a lighter version

hello! :) 

It's been a while since I wrote here, but it doesn't mean I have not tried a variety of new recipes which I hope to share them here.

Today I will share my recipe for Greek moussaka . Summer time is the best time to try this recipe because you can find fresh aubergines - the most important ingredient of this dish. 

The regular recipe for moussaka calls for sour cream and grated cheese on top. I chose a lighter version: yogurt and just a tiny bit of cheese for serving. 

Ingredients: 

2-3 aubergines

1 onion 

500 gr minced meat (pork  and beef) 

2-3 cloves of garlic

tomato paste

2 eggs

250-300ml yogurt 

First, wash and cut the aubergines in slices of 1cm. Then you can either fry them with just a bit of oil, or place in the oven on a baking paper. 

While the aubergines are getting ready, you can prepare the sauce: onion, garlic chopped and then fried. Add the tomato paste, spices and the meat. 

In a tray, place the slices of aubergines, slightly one under another, like scales of a fish. Depending on how much sauce there is and how many aubergines you have, there can be more levels. So add the sauce and another level of aubergines and so on till ingredients are finished. In a bowl, mix the eggs and yogurt and then add the mix on top of the aubergines and meat. 

Bake in the oven for 45min-1h at 180 degrees Celsius. 

And voila, the final result: 

 Bon appetit! :) 

Creme brulee with a twist

 

A delicious dessert for the times when you don't wanna bother too much with the baking part. 

Here it is my interpretation of the famous creme brulee (Crème brûlée). 

Ingredients: 

- 6 eggs

- 1 glass milk 

- 6 spoons of brown sugar 

 - vanilla essence

- coconut flakes, coconut favoured sugar 

Cooking time: 1h 

Start by mixing the eggs with sugar until they double their volume. Add the coconut flakes and milk. 

The trick of baking the creme brulee is to do it in a bain marie style: pot in a pot with water. 

The oven needs to be set at a lower degree, 150 C. Bake for 45 min. 

The result is: 

it is extremely flavoured and has just the right consistency. I served it with ice cream. Enjoy! 

Home made burgers and bread rolls

Today is about burgers. And home made bread which was a first attempt, but it worked out quite nicely. 

 I enjoy home made burgers because I can be sure of the meat quality and the ingredients used. 

Considering the pandemic situation, when many of our favourite restaurants are closed, I think they make a yummy dinner. 

Ingredients: 

- for the bread: 200 gr flour (mix of pizza and all purpose flour) 

10 gr yeast

2 spoons olive oil 

spices 

- for the burgers: 400 gr minced meat (beef, or mix), 1 egg 

spices 

Bread rolls take about 40 min to prepare and bake. 

For the dough is quite easy: start with the yeast in a half a glass warm water, wait about 5 min, then start to add the flour slowly. Add the oil, some pinch of salt and knead, then let it rest in a warm place about 20 min. 

Once it has risen, you can bake them in previous heated oven for about 10-12min. 

For the burgers, I use a simple recipe: meat mixed with spices and 1 egg, make 4 flat meat balls, fry them 5 min in frying pan, then move the pan in the oven for about 15 min. 

And that' it: the recipe for a home made dinner :)