Cozonac

This is a Romanian traditional cake made especially for Christmas and Easter. I like it also for breakfast in ordinary days, so I cook it more often than twice a year.

Ingredients for dough:

• 250ml of milk
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 125g soft butter
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 800g all-puprose flour
• 100g sugar
• 1 tablespoon of lemon zest
• 42g of fresh yeast or 3 teaspoons of dried yeast

Ingredients for filling:

• 2 egg whites (the ones remaining from the dough)
• 2 tablespoons of sugar
• 1 tablespoon cocoa powder
• 300g Turkish delight
• 200g raisins

Directions for the dough:

1. Put all the ingredients in the bread machine in the listed order.
2. Program the bread machine for dough and raising.. Mine has a program of 1h30.

Directions for the filling:

1. Beat the egg whites. I use a hand mixer to do this.
2. Add the sugar and the cocoa and mix.

Directions to assemble the cake:

1. Take out the dough from the bread machine and split it in 3. For bigger pans, split it only in 2. Further, if I braid the dough I split again in 3. If I twist the dough, then I split only in 2 parts.
2. Every part I stretch  and put on top the filling and sprinkle the raisins and the Turkish delight cut in little cubes.
3. Roll the dough with the filling.
4. Put the cake in a long pan oiled in advanced.
5. (optionally) Beat an egg and brush the cake with it.
6. Put it in the oven to raise at 50ºC for 60 min.
7. Increase the temperature to 180ºC and bake it for 30-40 min (until the top crust becomes dark brown).
8. Take it out and let it cool.

This is a cake that takes some time from the moment you start until the end, but it doesn't imply so much work. The filling can vary, with nuts, poppy, dried fruits etc., or it can be done even without.

It is very similar to the Italian panettone but the shape and the filling is different.