Sweet Easter Bread (Eastern European Style)

Anyone who's ever been to Eastern Europe can tell you one thing about the people who live there: they love their bread! Sweet or salty, stuffed with raisins and fruit or with meat and cheese - it doesn't matter! There is so much variety that it's really hard to choose which one to try first.

In this instructable, I'll show you how to make Bulgarian Easter Bread which is known as kozunak (koh-zoo-nak). There are many variations of it, and it can be plain or stuffed with raisins, nuts, or other sweets, so I'll walk you through the underlying recipe and share some of my favourite additions.

It's super easy to make and hopefully you'll treat yourself and your loved ones with it this spring!

Yields 2 big or 3 medium loaves.

For the dough:

• 3 1/2 cups flour, sifted
• 3 medium eggs
• 3/4 cups sugar
• 200 ml milk, lukewarm
• 2 1/4 tsp dry yeast
• 1 butter stick (100g), melted
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• a pinch of salt

For the glazing:

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 tbsp milk
• 1 tbsp sugar

Optional:

• Orange zest (highly recommended)
• Raisins, nuts, cranberries, other dried fruit - up to you!

• To get best results, sift the flour 2-3 times. It makes a huge difference because the bread will be less packed and very easy to tear.
• Lemon zest is an acceptable substitute for orange, but I strongly recommend not doing that. Not only does the orange add fantastic accents to the bread, but it also makes it smell so much better!
• Two hours are enough for the dough to rise. However, it is technically easier to braid the bread if you divide the dough into six balls and then let each one rise again for another 30 minutes. Since I had to preheat the oven anyway, I covered them up and let them rest for 10 minutes on top of the oven where it was a little warm, and that was sufficient.

In a medium size bowl, mix 150 ml of the milk with the yeast; add 1 tbsp of sugar and 2-3 tbsp flour. Make sure that the yeast has completely dissolved in the milk in order to activate.

Let it sit for 10-15 minutes or until it rises.

In another bowl, beat the eggs then slowly add the sugar. You can use an electric mixer but, if you skipped working out today, you can do it by hand as well. Add the remaining 50 ml of milk along with the orange zest, vanilla extract, salt, and oil, and continue mixing until everything is fully blended.

Edit (June 12, 2022): Added the salt.

In a large bowl, add the flour and make a well in the centre. Add the yeast and egg mixtures one at a time and mix until there are no lumps. The dough should be very sticky but not runny, so you might need to add more flour to achieve that consistency. Knead it on a lightly floured surface.

After making sure that there aren't any lumps of flour, add 1 tbsp of butter to the dough and knead it until it's absorbed.

Put the dough in a bowl, cover with a towel, and let it rest for 15 minutes to hydrate.

After the dough has rested, take it out and start adding the remaining melted butter, one spoonful at a time. Knead the dough well until all the butter has been absorbed. It is very important to not skip this step because you don't want the dough to be sticky at all.

Place the dough back in the bowl and let it rise for at least 2 hours (it should triple in size).

Divide the dough into two halves (for two big loaves). Make three equally-sized balls from each half and then roll and stretch each ball into a long cylindrical piece. These will make your braids.

If you want dried fruit or nuts to your sweet bread, you can fold them into each piece now. Braid the dough into a neat 3-strand braid (just like you might with hair).

Meanwhile, mix the yolk and milk for the glaze and set aside.

Set the two braided loaves in two 9 x 5 in bread pans (or a large enough pan to accommodate both loaves) and bake

them in a preheated oven for 35-40 minutes at 360 °F or about 180 °C.

Take them out halfway through and brush the glaze on top. Sprinkle sugar to your taste and finish baking the bread.

Kozunak is absolutely delightful with fresh coffee or herbal tea in the morning!