Romanian traditional sweet bread with walnut and cocoa, made with a rich egg-yolk dough.
Ingredients (for 2 sweet breads)
Classic traditional sweet bread, rich in egg yolks, with a generous walnut and cocoa filling – a festive dessert that’s worth making even “for no special occasion”.
For the dough:
6 egg yolks
500 g flour
200 ml warm milk
150 g sugar
80–100 g melted butter
1 sachet dry yeast (or 25 g fresh yeast)
Grated lemon and orange zest
Rum and/or vanilla extract
a pinch of salt
For the filling:
200 g ground walnuts
3–4 tablespoons cocoa
100 g sugar
2 egg whites
rum extract
Steps
Activate the yeast
Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk with 1 teaspoon of sugar and leave it for 5–10 minutes.
Knead the dough
Mix the flour with the salt, the remaining sugar, the egg yolks, the citrus zest and the flavourings. Add the milk with yeast and knead, gradually incorporating the melted butter. Leave it to rise for 1–1.5 hours, until it doubles in volume.
Prepare the filling
Beat the egg whites until stiff, gradually add the sugar, then fold in the ground walnuts, cocoa and rum extract.
Roll the sweet breads
Divide the dough in two, roll each piece out into a rectangle, spread with filling and roll up tightly. Place the rolls in greased and lined tins.
Final proof and baking
Leave the loaves to rise in the tins for another 30–40 minutes. Brush them with beaten egg and bake for 35–45 minutes at 170–175 °C, until nicely browned.
