Almond, Turkish delight and cocoa sweet bread (Cozonac)

It's Christmas time so I couldn't miss to do a cozonac (a traditional Romanian sweet bread).

Merry Christmas my dear readers!

 If you think of panettone, you are right, this cake is very similar to it. Only the shape is different and probably the filling.


Ingredients for dough:

• 200ml of milk
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 125g butter (room temperature)
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg yolks
• 750g all-puprose flour
• 100g sourdough
• 150g sugar
• 1 tablespoon of lemon zest
• 42g of fresh yeast or 3 teaspoons of dried yeast

Ingredients for filling:

• 6 egg whites 
• 250g Turkish delight (diced)
• 250g almonds (powder)
• 100g sugar
• 3 teaspoons cocoa powder

Directions for the dough:

1. Mix all the ingredients for the dough until well incorporated.
2. Let the dough rest in a warm place for 2 hours.

Directions for the filling:

1. Beat the egg whites with sugar.
2. Add cocoa, almond powder and mix.

Directions to assemble the cake:

1. Take out the dough and split it in 2 or 3. For bigger pans, split it only in 2.
2. Strech every part, put on top the filling and sprinkle the Turkish delight.
3. Roll the dough with the filling.
4. Put the cake in a pan oiled in advanced.
5. (optionally) Brush the cake with yolk to have a shiny crust.
6. Put it in the oven to raise at 50ºC for 90 min.
7. Increase the temperature to 180ºC and bake it for 25 min,
8. Take it out and let it cool.