Winter holidays are greeted worldwide with laid tables, incredibly delicious dishes, traditional cakes, authentic potions crowning the Christmas atmosphere with an aura of wellbeing and love. The same happens in the Balkans. At iELM headquarters, where clothes for children are created, the talk about the delicacies to be prepared for the coming white season holidays has intensified. The housewives know ancient recipes handed down from generation to generation that never fail and whose flavour remain incredible over time!
Now we shall share with you, our dear readers, the sweet walnut bread recipe, Turkish delight and cocoa. It will be served at the table in the dessert or tasty dinner category accompanied by a glass of warm milk with cinnamon, especially during major holidays.
First, regarding the sweet walnut bread dough, you will need 1 kg of flour, 500 ml milk, 4 eggs, 250 g sugar, 50 g butter, 50 ml oil, 50 g fresh yeast, lemon peel, orange peel and very little salt. Continuing with the sweet walnut bread filling, you will need 250 g diced Turkish delight, 3 tablespoons of cocoa, 1 rum ampoule, 4 egg whites, 250 gr ground nut, 100 gr raisins and 150 gr sugar. Here and there, you can adjust the recipe according to your own tastes for sweet / salty.
How does magic occur? At least one day before cooking, all ingredients shall be left to stay at room temperature. Knead a dough using the yeast, 1 teaspoon of flour and 100 ml of warm milk, which you leave to rise in a warm place until it doubles in volume. Then separate the egg whites from yolks; mix the yolks with the sugar and a dash of salt until they become white. Add hot milk over the egg yolks and mix very well, adding the rum, lemon, and orange peel. The flour is sieved several times and then added in a large bowl. Make a small cavity in the middle and add both the dough and the milk, kneading until all the milk is absorbed – here we may throw in a few raisins soaked in rum. Pour the hot oil and butter over the dough until incorporated and no longer sticky. Cover the dough and allow it to rise 45 minutes in a warm place.
The next step is to mix the egg whites with sugar, further adding also the cocoa spoons and the ground walnuts, homogenizing from bottom up.
The risen dough will be divided in two. One portion of the dough shall be in its turn divided in half. Sprinkle on both the mixture of cocoa and nut plus the Turkish delight. Roll and entwine both rolls. Apply the same process to the remaining dough. Then, put the rolls in the cake tray lined with parchment paper and leave it to rise for another half an hour. In the end, the risen dough is rubbed with an egg, sprinkle some sugar above and cook in the oven for about 45 minutes until lightly browned. In the first half hour, do not open the oven door.
This was the sweet walnut bread recipe. We know it sounds complicated, but we, at iELM, guarantee that the result is delicious and your thought will always fly to this sweet festive bread that melts on the palate!
