Pies and cakes

Sweet bread

Recipe collected from
Horlești

Making sweet bread may seem simple, but, as Adriana Balaboi from the village of Horlești says, words are easy – cooking is a delicate matter. The main ingredient, not only for cozonac but for any recipe, seems to be love. Because, as Mrs. Adriana adds, without love, you can’t make anything. Her sayings fit perfectly with the Moldovan cozonac recipe.

She made sweet bread for the first time when she was 15 years old. She learned the recipe from her mother and grandmother. Adriana was a student at the Food High School and she wrote down in a notebook what she saw in the village and what she learned at school. The village recipes seemed to have special ingredients. It’s all about the love for cooking and traditions. The first sweet bread she kneaded was at the age of 15. Since then, almost half a century has passed, during which Adriana Balaboi has taught other generations of girls what she learned from her mother and grandmother.

Ingredients:

– 1 kg flour,
– 5 egg yolks,
– 40 g yeast,
– 200 ml buttermilk,
– 100 ml oil,
– 1 teaspoon salt,
– 250 g sugar,
– 300 ml milk,
– 300 g walnut kernels,
– 30 g cocoa.

Preparation:

Beat the egg yolks with a little salt and place them in the refrigerator. The next day, sift the flour, dissolve the yeast in milk. Add the ingredients one by one and let the dough rise. There is a superstition that a sweet bread is like a person and should not be rushed or stressed; everything grows at its own pace. The oven should be heated but not too hot.

The cozonacs must be placed in the oven with care, the homemaker makes the sign of the cross, and when they are taken out, they are placed on their side to rest. In Moldovan sweet bread, love, traditions, and superstitions give the flavor, alongside the ingredients.

To top