Easter Brioche (Kozunak) is traditional Bulgarian recipe for the Easter day. The secret is the knitting and the time for the dough to rise. Take your time with this recipe and enjoy the final product.

Recipe: (makes two)

125ml warm milk

8g instant yeast

125g sugar

3 eggs (plus one more for the egg wash at the end)

100g melted butter

500g white flour (substituting for other flours will not give you the same results!)

pinch salt

Zest of one lemon and orange

Optional: nuts, Turkish delight, marmalade or chocolate

Method:

In a big bowl or a stand mixer mix everything starting with the wet ingredients and adding the dry ingredients gradually. If you knead by hand you will need to so so until the dough is no longer sticky. It might go for over 30 mins but it’s ok to rest in between (just cover with foil to avoid drying). If you use stand mixer mix until the dough holds together and it’s stretchy.

Cover the dough with cling film and let rise at room temperature until it triple or even quadruple in size. In my kitchen this took 4 hours.

After the first rise, deflate the dough by kneading for a minute. Cut into 6 small balls, and let them rest on the kitchen counter for ten minutes covered with cling film.

Prepare your baking trays by lightly grease them and layer with baking paper. Roll each dough ball into a long string. Take three of them and plait. Tuck the edges and place in your baking tray. Repeat with the other three balls of dough. Now you will have two breads ready to proof again. Cover with cling film and let rise again. In my kitchen this took 3.5 hours.

Once ready give the breads an egg wash and sprinkle sugar. Bake in preheated at 180 degrees oven for 30 minutes or until golden brown.

See below some plaiting ideas:

Method 1

Method 2