Cozonac
Here, in Romania, we're making some bundles of enriched and fragrant dough filled with goodies - walnut+sugar+cocoa+rum; Turkish delight; raisins - sometimes all of them, and called them "cozonac". Our cozonac is more like a babka that a panettone, more like a brioche stuffed with precious sweet things.
After years of stopping making cozonac with commercial yeast, I've decided to give it another try with sourdough instead. It took two days (night not counting) from start to finish and it's a joy, a pride, and a treat. A winner.
Courtesy to Viviana, from https://deabrutaria.wordpress.com/
Recipe (for one large piece):
I used wheat flour with 11% protein, a 100% sourdough, and made a two-stage 60% levain to accommodate the recipe timing. The pre-fermented flour is 17% of all flour involved (451 g). I used vanilla extract for the dough (a homemade one) and a vial with rum essence for the filling. The required yolks came from 4 large eggs. Only two egg-whites was used in the filling, after beating them (I think more can go next time). All the sugar was brown.
Filling: 80 g egg-whites + 200 g walnuts + 20 g cocoa + 40 g sugar + rum essence
Timetable:
Thursday evening - first stage levain [ 2 g 100% sourdough + 9 g flour + 5 g water = 16 g levain 1] (22:30 PM till morning - temperature 25 C)
Friday
- the second-stage levain [first stage levain, all 16 g above + 66 g flour + 39 g water = 121 g levain 2] (08:00 --> 17:00 PM - temperature 25 C)
- mixing all ingredients [ 121 g levain 2 + 376 g flour + 233 g milk + 75 g butter + 75 g yolks ] but sugar and salt and leave approx 1 hour for autolyze (melted butter incorporated in yolks and warm milk)
- adding an incorporating sugar and salt, by hand.
- bulk fermentation for 5 hours with SF every hour (temperature 25 C)
- retarding in the fridge for the night
Saturday
- let the dough at room temperature to warm up while making the filling
- separating the dough in two, putting the filling, making two rolls and twisting them together
- final proofing in a kind of Pullman pan for about 2,5 hours at 25 C and one hour at 30-32 C.
- baking at 170 C for 45 minutes. Cooling for about 1 1/2 hour.
Enjoy!
| levain 1 (grams) | levain 2 (grams) | |
| ALL PURPOSE FLOUR | 9 | 66 |
| WATER | 5 | 39 |
| SOURDOUGH 100% | 2 | |
| LEVAIN 1 | 16 | |
| TOTAL | 121 |
| TOTAL % | TOTAL (grams) | |
| All-purpose four | 100% | 376 |
| Whole milk | 62% | 233 |
| Butter 82 fat | 20% | 75 |
| YOLKS | 20% | 75 |
| Levain 2 | 32% | 121 |
| Brown sugar | 33% | 124 |
| Salt | 1% | 3 |
| TOTAL | 1008 |
Comments
That looks delicious and reminds me of sweet breads I've had in Europe. I particularly like the poppy seed ones that we've had in the past. Thanks for posting a recipe using sourdough. I will definitely give this a try and might try a poppy seed version and see how it turns out. Are the levain 1/Thursday ingredients in the column above under 'levain 1 (grams)'? The eggs, milk and butter listed seem to be part of levain 2, or I'm just not able to read the table correctly. Thanks for any clarification you can provide!
It is delicios! Thanks for the comment and the interest.
Sorry about that table. I made some clarifications in the recipe also.
So, levain 1 is made from 2 g sourdough, 9 g flour, and 5 g water and proofs overnight - 10-12 hours.
Levain 2 is made from the levain 1, 66 g flour and 39 g water and proofs for about 9 hours. Levain 2 = 121 g, and is mixed with the rest of the ingredients for the final dough.
You can blend those two stages in one, as such: 14 g sourdough 100%, 70 g flour, 39 g water = 123 g levain. It will proof in about 9-12 hours depending on the temperature. A proofed levain looks like a dome, about to collapse in the middle.
Poppy makes a rich filling and it's a good option. I could find some recipes if you like.
Please let mine know it there's anything not quite clear and I'll be happy to clarify. :)