The Fresh Loaf

A Community of Amateur Bakers and Artisan Bread Enthusiasts.

Merry Christmas!

codruta's picture
codruta

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas, dear TFL members, wherever you are!

 These are some romanian traditional sweet breads made for holidays "cozonac", usually made with a nuts or poppy seeds filling, but I made them with raisins and figs and candies orange peel.

And these two breads are San Francisco Sourdough, I'll post the formula next days. It is made in four days, from start to finish, but the result is amazing.

And last, but not least, 70% rye + 30% whole wheat, after Hansjoakim favorite.

 

It looks like angels are everywhere these days!

Best wishes to all of you, peace, health and happiness. Thank you all for your support and inspiration in 2011.

Codruta

Comments

ehanner's picture
ehanner

Lovely Christmas bake Codruta and I love the Angels!. The very best for the New Year to you and yours.

Eric

ananda's picture
ananda

Love the rye bread Codruta,

and look forward to reading up on the San Francisco Sourdough formula when you post it.

All good wishes for 2012

Andy

Mini Oven's picture
Mini Oven

The paper wrap gave me an idea...  folding parchment like origami boxes (or whatever) and letting dough rise in them...   without a form or tin.

Peace to you and your angels! 

PiPs's picture
PiPs

Merry Christmas Codruta,

Best wishes to you and your family over the holiday season. 

The breads look stunning ... looking forward to hearing more about them.

Cheers,
Phil 

Janetcook's picture
Janetcook

Codruta,

What lucky friends you have to receive these loaves.  All are so beautiful and I love the wrapping idea.  I will have to remember it for next year.

The raisin, fig and candied orange loaves look delicious.....My family loves that combination and I just made a batch of candied orange peel.....maybe I will try it out this year for New Years.....

Take Care,

Janet

hanseata's picture
hanseata

and would you mind sharing the recipe for the Romanian one? I made German poppy seed stollen today, and, also tried Hungarian Bejgli, it would be interesting to see the differences.

Merry Christmas,

Karin

Syd's picture
Syd

Lovely baking and merry Christmas to to you Codruta. :)

All the best,

Syd

varda's picture
varda

Beautiful!  -Varda

Mebake's picture
Mebake

Those collection of Breads, are amazing, Codruta!

Considering that Hans' Rye doesn't include Wholewheat, yours looks very good. I like the flour pattern on the Rye too. You sifted flour through a sieve, right? or was it a round cooling wire?

Lovely to see you posting again, and Merry Xmas to you.

lumos's picture
lumos

Merry Christmas to you , too, Codruta! 

Thank you for sharing your wonderful Christmas baking. Looking forward to savouring many of your beautiful creations in 2012, too. :)

love, lumos

codruta's picture
codruta

Eric, Andy, Mini, Phil, Janet, Karin, Syd, Varda, Khalid, Lumos, Thank you all for your thoughts!

Mini, you know that Susan from WildYeast used origami baskets for panettone. It's a great idea, easy to make and special for gifts. I used a round mold and it worked just fine. Maybe I'll try an origami basket next time.

Andy, the San Francisco formula is not my invention (thou I tweaked it a bit), but it's the only white bread I baked in the last few weeks, because is that good!

Janet, fruits soaked in rum and candied orange peel is a winner combination, isn't it?

Karin, answering to your question is not easy. Traditionally, cozonac  is a sweet dough with lots of yolks, sugar, and butter (or oil), lemon peel or orange peel, and vanilla. Depending on the region it may be filled with raisins/ or turkish delight/ or cacao filling/ or nuts filling/ or poppy seed filling. If that is what you're looking for, I can direct you to another english blogs where I found the recipe (there are a lot of recipes in the romanian blogs, but I don't know if you'll like the automatic translation). Take a look here, for english text: home cooking in montana or what liberty ate or ask georgie or roxy's kitchen. For cozonac with poppy seeds filling, I sugest you to take a look here (romanian text): maya culinar.ro or delicatesa.

I also made a version with natural leaven, I wrote about it on my romanian blog, link here. If you have more questions, I'm happy to help.

Khalid, I proofed the rye dough in a round banneton, and then I remove the excess flour with a brush before I put the bread in the oven. That is why the pattern looks the way it looks. :)

All the best, Codruta

 

hansjoakim's picture
hansjoakim

Great looking breads, all of them!

I hope you have a peaceful Christmas and a happy new year celebration in Timisoara!

breadsong's picture
breadsong

Hi codruta,
Happy holidays, and really enjoyed these Christmas photos - the oranges with their vibrant color, the Christmas decorations (the angels are adorable), the objects carefully placed in the background, and of course the breads,
so beautiful!
:^) from breadsong