Baking pan: 34 x 24 cm

220g poppy seeds

150g sugar

2 eggs

220g flour

½ sachet of baking powder

a drop of vanilla extract

juice from half a lemon

100ml milk

120g butter (melted)

We have always used poppy seeds in our family. Marcel doesn’t understand it, so this year, for Christmas, I didn’t bake a poppy seed cozonac.

...but I did bake a poppy seed cake using a very old family recipe (I couldn’t let my love for poppy go).

Baking it is very easy!

At first, Marcel helped me grind the poppy seeds. J Here are the next steps—

Mix the sugar with the egg yolks; add the flour, baking powder, vanilla extract, juice from half a lemon, milk, melted butter, and poppy seeds.

Beat the egg whites until stiff and slowly mix the foam into the initial batter.

Pour the mix into the baking pan lined with baking parchment and bake for 23-25 minutes in the preheated oven, at 180°C.

When the cake cools, cut it into square slices. Mine were fluffy, flavourful, and... oozing of childhood.

Hope you enjoy them, too! Merry Christmas! ♥

Here is another cozonac recipe. The recipe of the dough is the same as in the case of the plain and walnut cozonac – and you can find it here. The only difference is the filling.

For 1 poppy seed cozonac you will need:

175g poppy seeds (ground)

70ml milk

40g sugar

Mix all the ingredients in a pan, on medium heat, and then spread half of the filling on each of the sheets. Work carefully and fast, the dough will become soggier.

The poppy seed cozonac is my favourite right after the plain one; it's the perfect reminder of the Easters I used to spend with my grandparents in Bod, year after year.

Happy Easter to all of you celebrating! ♥

/makes 2/

40g fresh yeast

330ml milk

2 eggs

130g sugar

650g flour (+50g flour)

100g butter (melted)

a drop of vanilla extract

zest from 2 organic lemons

Walnut filling:

200g ground walnuts

40g sugar

20g cocoa

a few drops of rum essence

a few drops of milk (optional)

+1 egg

Because some of my girlfriends told me that they found it difficult to bake cozonac and that they failed at it, I told myself that an old family recipe would help them. Especially as Easter approaches. J

It is so easy to make and I guarantee its success.

In a bowl, pour warm milk over the fresh yeast and let it sit for 5 minutes.

Add the whole eggs and the sugar and stir well. Then, mix in the flour, the melted butter, the vanilla extract, and the lemon zest. Knead only a bit (for 2-3 minutes); it will be an easy process, anyway. The dough should be moist but not sticky. Add up to 50g of flour to reach optimal consistency. Cover the bowl and let the dough rise for 2 hours in a warm place.

When the dough doubles, cover the bowl with a plastic film and let it sit in the fridge overnight. Remove the bowl from the fridge one hour before your start baking the cozonac.

Divide the dough into two equal pieces and each of these pieces – into two more. If you have two cozonac baking pans lined with baking parchment, the plain cozonac is very easy to make: roll the two mini-pieces of dough and then twist them and place the cozonac into the baking pan.

In the case of the walnut cozonac, mix the walnut, sugar, cocoa, rum essence, and milk (optional, to keep the filling together). Roll out each mini-piece of dough, spread half of the filling on each sheet and roll, sticking the ends together and the roll with egg. When you finish the second ‘roll’, twist them, place the cozonac in the baking pan and let it rise 10-15 minutes more.

Then, brush each cozonac with egg and place the baking pans inside the preheated oven, at 160°C, for 40-45 minutes. After it cools, slice it and enjoy the fluffiness!

Happy Easter! ♥

Baking pan: 34 x 24 cm | 8-10 portions

Filling:

500g cottage cheese

160g sugar

1 egg

Pie sheets:

400g flour (+50g flour if the dough is too soggy)

1 sachet baking powder

2 medium eggs

120g sour cream

100g butter (melted)

1 drop of vanilla extract

+ powdered sugar for serving

+ butter and flour for the baking pan

At Easter time, we never baked pască (=a round cottage cheese and flour pie with raisins). Actually, this pie was our pască, year after year... and my Mom would always bake it. J

First, make the filling by mixing the cottage cheese, the sugar, and the egg and let it sit in the fridge for 1 hour.

To make the pie sheets, prepare the dough from flour, baking powder, sour cream, eggs, butter, and vanilla extract; let it sit in the fridge, as well, for 1 hour. Then, take it out, let it warm up and divide it into two.

Roll out the first piece and place it in the buttered and floured baking pan. Then, spread the filling. Roll out the second sheet and place it on top of the filling.  

Bake in the preheated oven, at 190°C, for 25-30 minutes.

After taking the pie out of the oven, let it cool and then cut it into squares and sprinkle powdered sugar on them before serving. They taste like childhood to me.  

Makes 45

50ml milk

1 tbsp/5g fresh yeast

1 teaspoon sugar

300g flour

1 teaspoon salt

100g butter

1 egg

+ 1 tbsp caraway seeds

+ 15-20g hard cheese (shredded)

+ 1 egg yolk

I have been planning to try out this recipe for a long time (it’s my godmother Maria’s) and I gladly recall the childhood holidays that had mini-pretzels on the table. I thought it would be nice to inspire you with this recipe for Easter.  

This is how you bake them... and I’m still craving them even though I’ve munched too many today.

Heat the milk (but only a bit in order not to deactivate the yeast); add the fresh yeast and the sugar. After 5 minutes, add the flour, the salt, the melted butter, and the egg and knead well. Let the dough rest for 1 hour.

Divide the dough into two (it will be easier). Roll out the dough (thickness: 3-4mm), cut out mini-pretzels using a cutter, and place the mini-pretzels into a baking pan lined with parchment paper.  

When you’re done (the dough will be harder to work with after the first roll-out, so press firmly on the cutter), brush the yolk on the mini-pretzels. I decided to make 15 plain mini-pretzels, 15 with caraway seeds (my favourites), and 15 with cheddar (but you can use any other hard cheese).

Bake in the preheated oven at 180°C for 10-12 minutes (until the mini-pretzels turn brown).

I love the fact that these mini-pretzels are crunchy on the outside and soft on the inside. To keep them like that, store them in a dish with a lid.

4 baking pans

75g sugar

125ml water

125g brown sugar

1 egg

100g butter (at room temperature)

400g flour (+50g extra flour for kneading)

½ sachet baking powder

1 tbsp cinnamon

+flour for rolling out the dough

(options:

1 tbsp nutmeg powder

1 tbsp ginger powder/1 tbsp grated fresh ginger)

I have repeatedly said that I’d search for my Mom’s gingerbread recipe and my dear friend Corina came up with the idea to test it before St. Nicholas. Which we did, with the help of 3 cute boys and some 36-year-old handwritten instructions.

Leave the sugar caramelise on medium heat and pour water over it [you may reheat the mixture until the sugar melts if you get lumps].

Mix the brown sugar and the egg; add the butter, the syrup mentioned above, the flour, the baking powder, and the cinnamon. [By dividing the dough into 4 pieces, we added cinnamon to only 2 pieces and sprinkled cinnamon on top of the gingerbread baked out of one of the two pieces.] You may add nutmeg and ginger if you wish.

Wrap the dough into a plastic film and let it sit in the fridge for half an hour.

When the time is up, divide the dough into the 4 pieces mentioned above, add only a little bit of flour and roll one piece out (you should get a thickness of approx. 1-1.5 cm) and then cut out the gingerbread cookies and place them into a baking pan lined with baking parchment.

Bake the gingerbread in the preheated oven, at 160°C, for 10-12 minutes.

We didn’t want to decorate our gingerbread cookies, but they turned out great – much like our baking collaboration! ♥

They were even tastier the next day!