Easter bread from above. There is Easter bread on a plate on the table. Cherry blossoms are visible in the foreground. The white towel lies in the upper left corner of the frame. There are also quail eggs on the table.

Dessert+Yeast baking

Easter bread or Kozunak from old book

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Kozunak is a Bulgarian Easter bread. Traditionally, it is kneaded on a table lubricated with vegetable oil. The crumb is simply incredible - soft, tender, and fragrant.

This particular recipe is unique because it is from a 1985 Bulgarian book. This book was SHOWN to me by the mother of my Bulgarian friend - leafing through the recipes with trepidation, she praised each of them! This nice smiling woman has kept the book at home for several decades - like a relic. And she makes all her recipes from this book till now.

Author and photographs: Olga

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No, I don't think it's necessary to be hoarders and cling to everything from the past... Life is us, our feelings, and what we do and sees daily.

Real life is not only a material component ...

Just ... sometimes the story of life is warmed by small details - 📖 mom's recipe book... 🖼 photo of dad in his youth with shoulder-length hair... ❤️‍🩹 Grandma's towel already washed to holes 🍳 or a cast-iron EGG pan that is about 60 years old and remembers sooo old eggs 😆.

It is essential to USE such things - after all, it somehow becomes warmer from them ...

I took a picture of the recipe and brought it for your review.

Easter bread or Kozunak from old book

Yield: 2 pcs.

Ingredients

Bulgarian kozunak

2 eggs room T
100 gr sugar
120 ml milk (room T)
380 gr flour
11 gr live fresh Yeast
1/2 lemon
vanilla
1 tbsp cognac
75 ml vegetable oil
150 gr candied fruits

Instructions

Crumble the yeast into a bowl. Add 1 tsp of sugar from the total amount, half the warm milk, and 2 tbsp. flour. Stir and let the yeast activate.

Dissolve the remaining sugar in warm milk. Add eggs to the milk and sugar mixture. Stir until smooth and add oil, lemon zest, salt, alcohol, and vanilla.

Stir in the butter mixture and flour to the activated yeast and knead into a smooth elastic dough.

There is Christmas bread on the table. There is Easter bread on the table. It is decorated with cherry blossoms and powdered sugar. Next to the kozunak are quail eggs and a cherry branch.

After kneading, put the dough in a container that you greased with oil, and cover it with a film so that the dough does not wind (for eco-friendly people I can recommend using a shower cap - for covering the dough many times). Approximately 1.5 hours. The dough should double in volume.

I recommend - to knit it and stay aside for 1 hour more - if you have time. This will make the taste of the dough even more intense.

Another way (if you hurry up) is don't do second rest and immediately add raisins. Form the dough into 2 pieces and fold them into paper forms for proofing for about 45 minutes.

I baked kozunaks in 2 forms 13 cm. The risen kozunak can be smeared with egg yolk - but I sprinkled it with crumbs from 25 g butter

25 g sugar
20 g flour
10 g almond flour.

You can sprinkle it with sugar and nuts if desired. Bake in a preheated oven at 170 degrees. The baking time depends on the size of the kozunak. My 13 cm molds were baked for 35 minutes. 35 minutes after starting the baking, check the readiness with a wooden skewer.