Cozonac (Walnut and Raisin Easter Bread) Recipe (2024)

The recipe left out salt, which should be 10 - 12 grams (0.02 x 600 = 12)

This may be Romanian, but I am sad that I never, ever see my heritage represented at Easter or Christmas. I am Carpathian—people across a wide swath of Central and Eastern Europe who are forgotten because they never had a homeland. Our Eastern tradition is a paska — an egg bread something like challah but denser, traditionally baked in round pans and elaborately decorated with a braided cross and other embellishments. Just once, I wish I’d see a national publication recognize my heritage.

I have not tried this version which incorporates sour cream in the dough. It sounds like a great idea, I will try it this Easter. For Romanians there’s no Easter without Cozonac, lamb and Easter painted eggs. There’s also no Christmas without the tree, Cozonac, Sarmale (pork cabbage rolls) and all the other pork trimmings (for us, pork is the best vegetable). Lately it’s also said there’s no Christmas until Hans Gruber falls from the Nakatomi tower, but the jury is still out on this one.

A video showing the forming of the loaves would be helpful!

Matt, though oranges do grow on trees here in California, orange blossom water does not. I bought a bottle just last week through Amazon. It's commonly used in Lebanese cooking so if you have a specialty market near you, they might carry it. I hope that helps.

I've made many cozonaci but never with sour cream. This is an excellent recipe. A few tips. Make certain the flour is well incorporated after adding the egg-sugar mixture. After adding the butter, the dough may take some time to form a smooth ball (e.g., 20+ minutes with dough hook). Don't give up. My loaves with eggs and filling require as much as 45-50 minutes (internal temp about 200F). Skipped orange blossom water; added zest of lemon and rum extract.

Please see note about salt missing from recipe. I overlooked that helpful comment and have some regrets. Or use salted butter instead of unsalted butter.

I have such fond memories of my mother baking paska at Easter. I always get quizzical looks when I tell anyone I am Carpatho-Russyn on my mother's side (which is how my mother identified her background). Curiously, she did not even know what to call her background until well into her adulthood when she and my dad went to a geneology talk about the Carpatho-Russyn people. I agree with you, I too would like to see some recognition for our heritage.

My family were Ruthenians, from the Carpathian region. Baba made paska every Easter, I can't seem to find a recipe for it, and ones that come close are for 4 loaves. It's frustrating

To the commenters who wrote about their Carpathian, Ruthenian, or Carpatho-Russyn backgrounds, I would suggest that your families all came from areas that are now within the territory of Ukraine. So if you want to find recipes that reflect your heritage, look for Paskas (or babkas) using Ukrainian recipes.

We made Ko's lemon blueberry muffins and love, love, loved them so decided to explore her other recipes. This Easter Bread looks great but we don't have orange blossom water and our tiny NYC kitchen storage is already spilling out into the hallway. Can we use orange zest or boil some peel? I checked the Internets and they were not helpful. Please?

Thanks to others for the helpful tips about adding salt and making an X for shaping into a twist. I didn’t have orange blossom water so used an equivalent amount of orange extract and it was just perfect in the filling. My loaves got too brown on the bottoms so next time I’ll put them on the next higher oven rack and see if that solves the issue. Fun bread to make.

Problems!!I'm an experienced bread maker, having made jelly roll style and challah bread many times. I used the dough hook for 12-13 minutes. No one mentioned this but, for me, the dough was extremely sticky, more of a blob than dough. After the rising, I had to knead in lots of extra flour just to divide the blob into 4 parts. Gave up on a log. No way to 'roll' each rectangle, just stretched it.What did I do wrong?

Delicious. Moist and very tasty. The familu loved it as part of our Easter fare.It does, as another baker noted, take a good amount of time being kneaded with the dough hook to incorporate the butter. The results are worth it.

I should have read the remarks before making! Yes, recipe left out salt, which I made a note of. Also, the instructions for forming the loaves is not specific enough. Other instructions I found on line have you take the filled logs and form an “X”, then overlap each end of the dough thereby intertwining the 2 pieces together.

Agree w @Christine that a how-to video or photos would be very helpful to achieve the proper twist! I twisted lengthwise (tough with all the filling and damp dough) and the result was a diagonally split top with mounds at opposite corners. Not terribly aesthetic. Should have made the sign of the cross!

While researching my family roots I found out that my great grandmother Etelka Liber Krbekne wrote a best selling cook book Cukrászát és széníjb násték (Brassó, 1920) celebrating Transylvania Hungarian cooking.

Please see note about salt missing from recipe. I overlooked that helpful comment and have some regrets. Or use salted butter instead of unsalted butter.

Definitely need salt. The texture was very nice. The eggs whites pretty much deflated when folded with the walnut raisin mixture, but worked fine. It was delicious, but considering adding 10 grams or so of fine sea salt to the dough, and a big pinch to the filling.

Incredibly easy and so delicious. I even let the dough over-rise on the first rise, then had to put it in the fridge overnight before next steps (making, filling and baking loaves) and it came out perfect. Followed all instruction except (1) picked up on Ivan’s note that salt was missing (thank you Ivan) and (2) didn’t have orange blossom water so subbed in 1/2 tbsn orange extract 1/2 tbsn water. Also, had to tent bread early on to prevent over browning.

Anyone know any reason why I couldn't substitute orange zest or juice for the orange blossom water in the filling?

I don’t have a stand mixer, only a small portable, almost-antique one. I also have an old Cuisinart food processor which includes a dough blade. Is there a way to make this bread with those tools ?

So, orange blossom water? In some parts of the United States I am sure it grows on trees. Where does one obtain it in the chilly Northeast?

This may be Romanian, but I am sad that I never, ever see my heritage represented at Easter or Christmas. I am Carpathian—people across a wide swath of Central and Eastern Europe who are forgotten because they never had a homeland. Our Eastern tradition is a paska — an egg bread something like challah but denser, traditionally baked in round pans and elaborately decorated with a braided cross and other embellishments. Just once, I wish I’d see a national publication recognize my heritage.