Being originally Bulgarian and living in the UK, I celebrate Easter twice a year. Western and Orthodox Easter rarely fall on the same date. More fun for me! This year for the first time I tried to make this traditional Bulgarian Easter Sweet Bread called Kozunak and, to my surprise, and considering that I am not much of a baker, it turned out alright. If you have a good recipe even a novice in baking can make good food!

WHAT IS BULGARIAN KOZUNAK?

Kozunak is a festive sweet bread that resembles the French brioche in taste and has an airy and layered texture. Like any festive bread, Kozunak contains a considerable amount of fats and sugars and is made with fine white wheat flour. It is often decorated with dried fruits, such as raisins, candied nuts and other delights.

HISTORY OF THE FESTIVE SWEET BREAD.

The practice of creating sweet bread for religious holiday celebrations dates back many centuries. Sweetbreads are popular in many parts of the world, including the Mediterranean, Russia, France, Israel and even the UK, where we have the hot cross buns.

In the Balkans, sweet beads are traditionally made during the Easter and New Year holidays. The traditional Easter sweet bread in Greece is called Tsureki and in Croatia, it is Pinça. In Romania, there are two names for Easter sweet bread. The first one sounds pretty much like the Bulgarian sweet bread but is spelt differently, Cosonac, and the second one, Pască, is a Ukrainian Easter bread. In Serbia, by tradition festive sweet bread is made for New Year’s celebrations and it’s called Cestnitsa.

In Bulgaria, Kozunak is prepared for Easter and it’s meant to celebrate the end of the fast and the new farming season.

HOW TO MAKE BULGARIAN EASTER BREAD?

📋 INGREDIENTS IN MY EASTER KOZUNAK

Flour: The traditional Kozunak is always made with white light flour.

Fat: This recipe calls for a combination of butter and lard to be used, but you can substitute the lard with the same amount of butter if you do not want to use lard. Yet, keep in mind that lard gives more flavour to the bread. It also has larger fat crystals than butter and when they melt they create layers in the bread and make it airier.

Sugar: I really like this recipe because some of the sugar is replaced with Stevia leaf granule sweetener and the bread contains fewer calories. If you do not want to use sweetener, substitute it with sugar accordingly.

Dry fruit: Add dry fruit to the dough to make the bread even more special. Raisins and dried cranberries are great in sweet bread

Sugared nuts: Decorate the sweet bread with sugared nuts pinned into the dough. The most commonly used nuts in sweet bread are walnuts, almonds and pecans. They also taste so good! When I was a child, I used to go for the sugar nuts first before eating my piece of bread. They were my favourite part of the kozunak.

📖 STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

The most challenging part of this recipe is to achieve the airy layered texture in the bread. That is done by pulling, pressing and twisting the dough and adding small amounts of fats to enrich it.

Step 1: Get ALL elements for the Kozunak dough ready

Activate the yeast: Pour 100ml of full-fat milk into a microwave-safe bowl and heat the milk in the microwave for a few seconds to lukewarm. You can also warm the milk in a saucepan on your hob. Make sure the milk is not too hot, otherwise, it will kill the yeast. Stir the yeast with the lukewarm milk to combine. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar and 2-3 tablespoons of sieved flour. If your yeast is healthy, it will start feeding on the sugar and flour. Leave the yeast mixture aside for 10-15 minutes until the yeast is active and forms froth.

Prepare the flour: Sieve the flour first, then place it in a warm oven for 10 minutes to get a bit warm, but not overly hot. 

Make sugared milk: Place the rest of the milk, sugar and sweetener in a small saucepan. Heat the milk-sugar mixture on the hob. Stir until the sugar dissolves completely.

Whisk the eggs: Beat the eggs in a small bowl for a couple of minutes until froth forms on the surface.

Melt the butter and lard: You can melt the fats in a bowl in the microwave or in a saucepan on the hob. 

Step 2: Make the dough for the Kozunak

Pour the beaten eggs into the bowl with the active yeast. Whisk the mixture for a few seconds to blend well. Next, add the milk and sugar mixture and the vanilla and orange essences. Continue whisking until all the ingredients are combined.

Add half of the warmed flour to your mixing bowl and pour half of the melted butter and lard. Stir to integrate the ingredients.

Step 3: Knead the dough for the Kozunak

How to make the Kozunak dough by hand?

Gradually add more flour until a soft dough is formed. Knead the dough and add more splashes of melted butter and lard as soon as the fats are absorbed into the dough.

Start kneading the dough with pulling, pressing and twisting motions. Continue doing so until you have used all the melted fats.

Do the kneading with well-oiled hands. Pull, twist and press the dough until air bubbles start forming on the surface and the dough is no longer sticky and becomes soft, elastic, airy and light in texture.

Shape the dough into a large ball. Place it in the mixing bowl, cover with cling film and leave it to rest in a warm place for 60 minutes or until it doubles in size.

How to make the Kozunak dough with a dough mixer?

Transfer half of the warm flour to the mixer bowl. Next, add the blended sugar, egg and yeast to the flour and half of the melted butter and lard. Turn the mixer to setting number 1 and let it mix the ingredients until they are combined.

Then start kneading the dough in the mixer at a low speed. Add the rest of the fats gradually by pouring splashes of melted butter and lard into the mixing bowl as soon as the fats are absorbed in the dough. Use all melted fats and knead at setting 1 until the dough becomes elastic and is no longer sticky.

Take the dough out of the mixer and start pulling, twisting and pressing it with well-oiled hands. Knead the dough in that manner for about 5 minutes.

Place the dough back in the mixer and knead it for 15 minutes at low speed.

Take the dough out of the mixer and start pulling, twisting and pressing it again with well-oiled hands for 10 minutes.

Shape the dough into a ball. Place the dough bowl into the mixing bowl, cover it with plastic wrap and leave it to rest in a warm place for 60 minutes, or until the dough doubles in size.

For best results, rest the dough in a cold oven, with a large bowl of hot water placed in the bottom of the oven.

Step 4: Shape the Easter bread

Braid the dough is not difficult. First, prepare your bread baking tin/s. I used two 2lb (900g) bread tins and made two small loaves, but you can use one large round or square baking tin and make a larger bread with the dough. Line your baking tin with parchment paper and brush the paper with oil.

To shape the bread, divide the dough into three equal-sized balls. Make long and even ropes with each dough ball by rolling the dough on your working surface with your palms. Pinch the top ends of the dough ropes together and plait them all the way to the bottom ends, then pinch the bottom ends together. Place the shaped dough in the lined baking tin.

Step 5: ADD SUGARED NUTS OR DRIED FRIUD to the DOUGH

How to prepare the SUGARED nuts FOR THE KOZUNAK?

Pour 50 ml of rum or cognac into a bowl, add the raisins and let them absorb the flavours of the alcohol for 15 minutes. Then push them gently with the top of your finger into the braided dough.

Alternatively, instead of using dried fruit, you can pin small pieces of chocolate or Turkish Delight into the dough. Be careful not to press the dough too much at that stage.

How to prepare the DRIED fruit FOR THE KOZUNAK?

Soak the nuts in hot water for 15 minutes or place them in a microwave-safe bowl with water for 20 seconds in the microwave. Then, roll them in crystal sugar. Push the sugared nuts gently into the braided dough.

Step 6: Bake the Easter bread

Leave the shaped dough in the baking tin to rise for 30-60 minutes in a warm place before baking it.

Brush the bread with sugared water.

Although some recipes recommend brushing the dough with egg wash, I prefer to use sweetened water. The first time I made this Easter bread, I brushed it with yolk and yoghurt wash and the baked bread became too brown on top, even though it was covered with foil during baking. The second time around, I used sugar water and the bread baked to a lovely golden colour. When evaporated, the water left beautiful sugar crystals on the surface of the bread.

To make sugared water, dilute 2 tablespoons of sugar in one cup of lukewarm water and brush the braided dough with it.

Preheat the oven to 220°C/420°F. 

Cover the bread tin with the dough with foil and place it in the lower part of the oven.

As soon as the bread is in the hot oven, reduce the temperature to 170°C/338°F.

Bake the Kozunak for 60 minutes or until it’s cooked inside.

When the bread is ready, take it out of the oven, drizzle a little water on top and cover it with a clean tea towel. Let it rest for a little while.

Bon Appétit! 👨‍🍳👨‍🍳👨‍🍳