The secrets of the fluffy cozonac, the recipe that beginners can try. Attention to the amount of yeast

The fluffy cozonac recipe is easy to put into practice and guarantees an extraordinary result even to beginners, if they are attentive to details.

The recipe does not require special skills but only a little attention photo: Cătălin Mitrache

Kneaded at the robot or manual, with filling according to their own preferences, the traditional coconut is the sweet that is rarely missing from the table of Romanians. The fluffy cozonac recipe that we give below was explained in detail, for “Adevărul”, by Cătălin Mitrache.

For two cozonacs of about 1 kg each need the following ingredients:

For dough:

– 1 kg flour;

– 350 ml of milk;

– 100 ml of oil;

– 8 yolks;

– 100 grams butter;

– 200 g cream (15-20% fat);

– 20 grams of dry yeast, or 50 grams of fresh yeast. Be careful if you use dry yeast, not to be confused with instant yeast. If you use instant yeast, the required amount is 14 grams (7 g instant yeast/or 10 g dry yeast/or 25 grams fresh yeast for a coconut);

– lemon peel, orange peel, vanilla essence or other preferred flavors.

For filling:

– 8 whites;

– 500 g of nut;

– 100-150 g sugar;

– 50 g cocoa.

In the filling we can add anything else we prefer. Chocolate cream can also be used, in which case we will have to seal the cakes at the ends if we do not use a special cocoa cream for cakes. Also, the filling layer does not have to be very thick, so that the cake “works”.

All the ingredients, except for milk, must be at room temperature.

How we proceed

We will start first by preparing a maia. For this we use about 50 ml milk (from the quantity initially mentioned in the ingredients), which must be warm, add two or three tablespoons of flour and the entire amount of yeast. We also add a little sugar (3-4 tablespoons) to stimulate growth. We mix very well and set aside a quarter of an hour, until it begins to grow.

We put the rest of the ingredients for the dough – except the melted oil and butter – in the kitchen robot (if the kneading is to be done at the robot) or in the vessel we are going to knead. We actually start the kneading. After the flour has been well incorporated, we begin to add the melted (but not hot butter, not to “scrape” flour) and oil.

“It is added gradually, as we knead, after the flour has been incorporated. And a little molk, but very tied will come out. Leave it in the kneading vessel for one hour, at a temperature somewhere at 30-35 degrees Celsius. Run and braid two by two ”, explained the pastry. For the filling we beat the eight whites with the sugar, then incorporate the rest of the chosen toilets (walnut, raisins, shit, etc.).

We can, in addition, for better aeration of the dough, beat the coca for five minutes, hitting it with the worktop, before dividing it into the four pieces.

We put the cozonac in the tray and keep them for an hour (we can even put them in the set in no more than 40-50 degrees Celsius), to avoid the dough from cracking. We can grease them with beaten egg, over which we add sesame, poppy etc. After the hour has passed, and the cozonacs reached the tray, we put them to 160-170 degrees Celsius. We will keep them in the oven for about 50 minutes, and it should be mentioned that in the first 30 minutes the oven door should not be opened. To check if they have been baked we do the toothpick test (if the dough is baked, the toothpick with which we pierce the cozonac we will remove it without traces).

Although it is a preparation that requires more work time, somewhere between four and five hours, the satisfaction of preparing a coconut using exactly the favorite ingredients will be a special one.