Ho, Ho, Ho! Merry Christmas, everyone! 🎅

Hope you got the best out of it, whether you spent it on your own or with friends, family, or loved ones. We’re getting so close to taking our first steps into 2026, so things should naturally slow down for all of us during this time of the year.

Personally, I got to spend the Christmas holidays with my family in a chalet we rented nearby, enjoying a bit of snow even though it only lasted a couple of hours. It felt great to be disconnected from daily routines, yet still connected with loved ones.

Around Christmas, it’s also an unwritten tradition to focus on the sweet side of food, which includes desserts, snacks, and the sweet bread called "cozonaci" in Romania, which is incredibly popular and never missing during the holidays.

Actually, the more traditional cozonaci are the ones with nuts, cocoa, Turkish delight, and raisins, which often spark some debate since not everyone agrees on them. Anyway, I’ve always enjoyed adapting my cooking style to modern times while still respecting culinary traditions. So, today’s sweet bread recipe(s) might not be the most popular, but they were definitely a success... so much so that we all wanted another slice!

Ingredients used for dough:

• 1,5 kg flour
• 500 ml milk
• 250 g sugar
• 200 g butter (melted and cooled to room temperature)
• 20 g dry yeast
• 8 yolks
• the juice and peel of 2 oranges
• the juice and peel of 2 lemons
• vanilla essence
• rum essence
• a bit of salt

Ingredients used for filling:

• 100 g white chocolate chunks
• 100 g milk chocolate chunks
• 200 g pistachio cream
• 200 g strawberry jam
• 200 g ground walnuts

First things first, make sure all the ingredients are at room temperature (including the egg yolks). Then, in a bowl, combine the warm milk, dry yeast, and 2 teaspoons of sugar. Mix everything, and once the yeast and sugar are fully dissolved, transfer the mixture to a large bowl or to the bowl of a kitchen mixer, if you have one.

On top of the previous mixture, add the remaining ingredients in this order: flour, sugar, egg yolks, orange and lemon peel, rum and vanilla extracts, orange and lemon juice, and a pinch of salt. The only ingredient left should be the butter, which will be added a bit later.

Once everything is in the bowl, start mixing until you get a cohesive dough that’s very elastic and slightly sticky. For this step, I used a kitchen mixer, which combined all the ingredients in about 7 minutes at 2/5 speed.

As soon as the dough reaches a smooth and elastic texture, gradually add the melted butter and continue mixing until it’s fully incorporated. I used the kitchen mixer for this step as well, which took about 4 minutes at 1/5 speed.

The next step is the waiting game. Transfer the dough to a larger bowl and let it rest in a warm place for at least one hour. I usually cover the bowl with cling film or a towel to help the process.

After the dough has doubled in size, take it out of the bowl and place it on the table, then divide it into four equal parts.

Take each part individually and roll it out with a rolling pin, then spread on top whatever filling you want for your sweet bread. For my four parts, I used:

1. 100g ground walnuts + 100g of white chocolate chunks
2. 100g ground walnuts + 100g of milk chocolate chunks
3. 200g pistachio cream
4. 200g strawberry jam

The first two parts were used to make the first sweet bread recipe, and the last two for the second one. Take each pair of parts and braid them together, then place them in baking trays.

Let the braided dough rest for about 30 more minutes, or until it has doubled in size again, then, brush the tops with a beaten egg.

Place the trays in a well-preheated oven at 155°C, on the second rack, with heat from both the top and bottom but with the fan turned off and bake for 50–60 minutes.

After 50 minutes, my sweet breads were ready, but just to be sure, I used a toothpick to test the dough. If the dough sticks to the toothpick, it means it’s not fully cooked yet.

Important NOTE: Don’t open the oven during the first 30 minutes, as this is the most important part of the process and it’s when the dough reaches its maximum size and develops a well-mixed texture. If the oven’s top heat is too strong, place some foil over the sweet breads or put a tray on the rack above to block the heat and prevent them from burning.

Once they’re done, remove the sweet breads from the oven but let them rest in their trays for the first 15 minutes. Then, transfer them to the oven rack for another 15 minutes to allow air to circulate and cool them slowly, without losing their shape or causing condensation on the bottom.

A completely optional step, but one I never skip when baking sweet breads, is to add a glaze on top. For these, I used salted caramel and ground walnuts for the first one, and pistachio cream with coconut flakes for the second. After resting for at least two hours, they’re ready to be sliced and enjoyed. Yummy! 😋

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Other food recipes:

1. Pasta with sauce, ham and cheese
2. Babka Sweet Bread
3. Rainbow Painted Eggs
4. Omelette with vegetables and cheese
5. Homemade Hamburgers
6. Smoothie with fruits and cereals
7. Tiramisu Cake Recipe
8. Elderflower Cocktail
9. Homemade Doner Kebab
10. Simple Homemade Rice Milk
11. Banana Oatmeal Crumb Cake
12. Chocolate Profiterole Cake
13. Vegetarian Hamburger
14. Traditional Turkish Dish with Mushrooms
15. Protean American Pancakes
16. Baked Muffins with Protein
17. Healthy Cake Recipe
18. Romanian Sweet Breads (two recipes)

^{Gabriela Travels is the FOUNDER of "Festival Mania" who started this community from the passion of attending various festivals and with the purpose of encouraging more people to explore festivals all around the world and share their experiences.
At the same time, Gabriela is an independent Graphic Design Freelancer since 2019 completing over 600+ orders in this time and collaborating with various businesses and people from all over the globe.
Additionally, Gabriela has her own corner on the internet since 2017 where she writes various articles for her blog, the most popular being the travel ones (300+ articles written on this field), but also approaching other topics as well, like game and book reviews, lets plays, movie and series reviews, photography posts, cooking recipes and more, boosting the total number of articles written to 750+ blog posts.
Gabriela is also a gamer since she was 11 years old and gaming remains one of her biggest passions along with traveling, owning a YouTube channel for each of the two.}

~ @GabrielaTravels ~