Easter Bread

Most countries, which celebrate Easter, have their versions of sweet Easter bread. In Bulgaria it is called kozunak and the recipes are probably as many as the households :) Over the years I've tried at least a dozen recipes, last year I even took pictures and planned a posting, but never came down to writing it.

Today I improvised with a recipe and a form and I am quite happy with the result, so I am writing it down to have it on the blog:

Ingredients:

• flour 300 g
• 6 g fresh yeast
• 1 egg
• 70 g water
• 90 g milk
• 30 g sugar + 20 g brown sugar for dusting
• 30 g olive oil or melted butter
• 100 g mixed dried tropical fruit

Preparation:

Prepare the dough as usual, this time I used my mixer. Leave it to rise covered in a warm place for an hour or so. Then divide the dough in four parts, spread each part, place your filling, roll and twist. Pleat the four pieces to form a round bread. Place in a baking form and leave to rest for an hour. 

Once the bread has rested and increased its volume, brush with egg-wash and dust with brown sugar. Bake for 35-40 min at 180C in a preheated oven.

This recipe is low on sugar and butter, as I've been trying to keep our consumption of processed sugar to a minimum, but it is still quite tasty and delicious. I intend to experiment further with proportions, so I envision a lot of Easter bread baking in our house :)

My husband eats kozunak with milk, but I love it with my morning coffee. Can't wait for morning to come and to have another piece of Easter bread with my hot coffee, while I do my Duolingo German lessons.

Vrana 2023

Probably the best of the Easter Holiday days, weather-wise, was the Saturday. 

Early in the morning I mixed and kneaded the dough for two loafs of normal bread and two other of Easter bread (kozunak), left them to rise and husband and I went for a walk in the Vrana museum park.

We love to visit the park every spring and it is always interesting to compare our impressions with previous years. This year the magnolias were early to bloom and were already withering mid-April, but the sakuras, the lilacs, the rhododendrons and rhubarb trees were far from blossoming. 

  :Although I enjoyed sewing my Queen's Gambit inspired dress, I actually never wear it. I opted to put it on as a sort of a farewell to it, as I don't think it suits my style and I don't feel particularly good in it. As much as I appreciate wearing the things I make, some (many?) of them were mistakes - style-wise / fabric-wise and there's nothing wrong in admitting it and discarding them to make room for better clothes.

:On the other hand, husband loves his new Houndstooth Hoodie and genuinely enjoys wearing it.

:We spent about two and a half hours, roaming the alleys of the park and then we returned home to Easter bread baking and egg coloring. I'm happy to report, my Easter breads this year were a huge success, I plan to write down the recipe in the blog for further reference, as it is a keeper.

:The giant magnolia trees, we found last year, were again in bloom

Easter Day on Kopitoto

This weekend was the long Easter Weekend in Bulgaria and we enjoyed the company of our grown daughter, visiting from Vienna. As is traditional for us, we celebrate Christmas and Ester hiking and picnicking in the mountains. This year the weather during the Easter holidays was quite unstable and rain and even thunderstorms were forecast for the Easter Sunday, so we planned a quick and short hike on Vitosha, from Zlatnite mostove to Kopitoto peak and then through Momina skala back to Zlatnite along a circular trail.

The weather was kind to us and it kept calm and without rain almost the whole day, so we were able to enjoy our hike thoroughly. 

:The forests at the mid-altitude are still in the early spring stage, with patches of snow here and there and early spring flowers in bloom.

Hike info:

Destination: peak Kopitoto (1345 m)

Mountain: Vitosha

Total length: 9 km

Elevation gain: 140 m

Total duration (plus picnic): 3 hours

Average difficulty: 2 / 10 

Me-made items, worn on this hike:

 

Husband: men's boxers, Knip Mode cargo pants, Houndstooth hoodie, orange hat

I: lingerie, Burda striped blouse, Houndstooth hoodie

Gaby: socks, CC copycat hat

:Peak Kamen del in the distance

:The Boyana river

:An interesting flowering shrub, Daphne mezereum. It is a poisonous plant with an amazing aroma

:A common finch on the path

 

:Momina skala meadow

Vrana 2022

This Sunday it was the Orthodox Easter and husband and I decided to replace our mountain hiking with a stroll (7.5 km, 2.5 hours) in Vrana park. Late April - early May is the best time to visit the park, but it is always different on a different year. This time the magnolias were in their prime and just about to wither, the rhododendrons were at least a couple of weeks from blooming and carob trees were on the verge of blossoming.

The day was very warm and sunny and we had an extremely pleasant walk. Luckily, though there were people at the park, it was not like everybody and his grandma had decided to be there on Easter, so it was actually pretty quiet and calm, especially along the less popular alleys.

:A song thrush

:The biggest magnolia tree I've ever seen in blossom

:Common finch

:Goldfinch

:An interesting grafted tree