Leavened Wreath with Curd Cheese
Staying at home, cooking and baking 18

I’m already used to the fact that we celebrate Easter at our home twice. Part of my family belongs to the Orthodox Church, Easter usually falls on a different day than in the Catholic Church. It has already happened that the difference was a whole month or it was Easter at the beginning of May, which in my opinion can no longer be celebrated as a holiday of the coming spring…

In Bulgaria, Kozunak – a special sweet leavened bread – is baked for Easter. The main ingredients are milk, yeast, eggs, sugar and butter. So I thought that this year I will try to bake something similar. I always liked one recipe, I don’t even remember where I got it from, but I know that there was a beautiful baked wreath in the picture. Well, when you look at the photo of my experiment, it doesn’t look much like a wreath. Actually, to weave the two pieces of dough was a big challenge for me. If you decide to try it too, you will understand. However, I am sure that you will do it better! And what’s important, I am happy that everything was eaten and even tasted good. 🙂

Leavened Wreath with Curd Cheese

We need:

500 g of flour

230 ml of milk

80 g butter

20 g yeast

2 eggs

200 g of curd cheese

100 g of Philadelphia cream cheese

30 g of sugar

1 pack of vanilla sugar

20 g starch

20 g peeled chopped almonds

1 tsp of grated lemon peel

pinch of salt

chopped pistachios

lumpy sugar

Method:

Mix the yeast with 100 ml lukewarm milk and 10 g sugar. Melt the butter and let it cool. Mix the flour with salt, pour it on the work surface and pour the leavening mixture into the middle. Let it rest for 10 minutes. Mix butter, 120 ml milk and one egg with a mixer. Add to the flour and make a smooth dough. Cover and allow to rise for about 1 hour. In a bowl, mix curd and cream cheese, the rest of the sugar, vanilla sugar, 1 egg, starch, almonds and lemon zest. Knead the dough once more with your hands and roll it on a floured board into a rectangle, spread the cheese mixture evenly on the dough, leaving about 3 cm free on each edge. Wrap the dough and cut it lengthwise into two strips. Interweave the strips so that the filling is always on top (as I mentioned, it was not easy, but there is no need to give up 🙂 ). Press the ends together to create a wreath or something similar. Place on a baking sheet lined with baking paper and leave to rise for another 30 minutes. Mix the yolk with the rest of the milk and spread the wreath with the mixture. Bake in the preheated oven at 180°C for about 40-45 minutes. If the surface burns very quickly, cover it with baking paper. Before serving, sprinkle with lumpy sugar and pistachios.

Text: © Copyright Ingrid, Travelpotpourri
Fotos: © Copyright Ingrid, Travelpotpourri