Cozonac (gluten free)
Have you ever heard about cozonac? It is is a special sweet leavened bread, traditional to Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia. I have come to know it when I came to live in Romania during my Erasmus: becasue it is super popular during the holidays, I saw cozonaci literally everywhere as Christmas started approaching!
So, as we said, it a sweet leavened bread and traditionally it is far from vegan, being heavy in eggs, butter/lard and milk. I still wanted to taste this special dessert so I adapted the recipe to make it plant based and, to give me an ever harder time, I even made it gluten free 😂
I looked at the recipe for a gluten free cozonac from the Romanian youtuber Aby Blajan and then I went ahead and veganized it.
It is really good, I don't know if it tastes like the "real" cozonac (since I never tried it) but, Romanain people who tasted it said it was really close! If you decide to make it not gluten free it is probably going to be even closer in taste and in texture (fluffier and softer).
Ingredients
First dough
| Fresh baker's yeast* | 30 g |
| Gluten free flour ** | 100 g |
| Soy milk *** | 100 mL |
| Honey **** | 1 Tbsp |
* or a pachet of dried yeast
** the one I tested is Mix B from Schar and it's my favourite so far
*** it is best to use soy because it is higher in proteins
**** honey is not vegan. I use it but if you don't want to, you can sub for any other liquid sweeteners (eg. agave/ maple syrup)
Second dough
| First dough | |
| Gluten free flour | 400 g |
| Soy milk | 150 mL |
| Sugar * | 150 g |
| Vegan butter/margarine | 60 g |
| flax eggs ** | 3 |
| vanilla essence | 1 Tbsp |
| salt | a pinch |
* I have used light brown cane sugar, I don't recommend to go "more unrefined" than this
** one vegan eggs = 1 Tbsp of milled flax + 2 Tbsp of water/soy milk
Filling
| Ground walnuts | 300 g |
| Soy milk | 200 mL |
| Cacao powder | 1 Tbsp |
| Honey | 2 Tbsp |
| Sugar | 100 g |
| Rum or rum essence | 1 Tbsp |
Method
- Mix all the ingredients from the first list in a bowl then, leave the dough to rest for 15 minutes after you cover it (with cling film or a wet towel). While you wait you can prepare the flax eggs and also leave them to thicken.
- Mix the first dough with the second ingredients list and knead this second dough for a few minutes. No specific order is important
- Cover the dough and let it rise until it is doubled in size; this will take a different amount ot time based on the room temperature but usually around 1 hour.
- Prepare the filling by adding all the dry ingredients to a pot and slowly stirring in the milk, the honey and the rum. Then turn on the cooker and let the mixture simmer until it thickens, finally leave it to cool down
- Preheat the oven to 180°C (static)
- When the dough has risen, divide it into two parts and roll it on a oiled surface in the shape of a rectangle, around 1/1.5 cm high. Spread the filling on its surface and roll it like you would for cinnamon rolls.
- Place the two rolls on a piece of parchement paper and "braid" them, placing one end on top of the other multiple times
- Lift the dough along with the parchement paper and place it in a rectangular oven pan (like the one you would use to make toast bread)
- Cook the cozonac for about 50 minute to 1 hour