![]() However, if the temperature is lower, like in my kitchen, where it is usually colder, around 66-67F/18-19C, it might take about 2-3 hours. If the temperature in your kitchen is 72F/22C, the dough will double in size in about 90 minutes. The dough needs time to rise, and the kitchen temperature is very important. There is nothing more frustrating than running around the kitchen while you bake, for little things, or discover that you do not have enough flour, butter, eggs to use in the recipe! Have them all prepared on the kitchen counter. As my grandmother used to do, having the eggs, butter, flour at room temperature is extremely important.Īlso, make sure you put together the ingredients before you start the recipe. That can ruin a very good recipe! Measure, measure, and measure again!īring the ingredients to room temperature. As I said many times, 500 g of flour is 500 g of flour, while the amount can vary tremendously in 2 cups of flour. Weight everything! A kitchen scale is very important, especially when you bake. While it is not mandatory to have organic ingredients, make sure you use the best ingredients you can afford. Living in the US, I like buying organic flour, organic eggs, organic milk. They also took pride in their work.Īlso, the quality of the ingredients matters. These women knew how the dough should look like to obtain a perfect final product. She made huge amounts of dough, and it was a real workout to make sure the gluten in that dough was developed correctly. My grandmother used to spend some time on that. I have a KitchenAid mixer that saved my life in the kitchen on many occasions. It is easy for me now because I don’t have to knead the dough by hand. One thing I learned over the years is that, indeed, it takes a little bit of time. I had this fear for many years, too, until I moved to the US and could not find the bread in the store, so I had to make it. ![]() I heard many Romanians complaining that this sweet bread (Cozonac) is hard to make. A Few observations regarding the process of making Cozonac: It always smelled so comforting in the kitchen with the aroma of orange/lemon peel, rum, butter, and finally baked bread. The only condition was to choose which side of the door we wanted to be, as remember, entering the kitchen door multiple times was frown upon. She did not have a KitchenAid!Įverything was done by hand, so watching my grandma “beat” the dough was very entertaining, and we loved being around! The other exhausting step was kneading and beating the dough. I am not sure if this was true, but my grandmother used to be very adamant about the matter. ![]() The drafts of cold air that might disturb the natural process of the rising dough were not allowed. The windows were foggy and we, as kids, we’re banned from getting in and out of the kitchen multiple times. She would gather together the ingredients for the dough and bring them to room temperature. Getting back to this traditional bread, I remember that my grandma’s kitchen, where the dough was supposed to rise, had to be very warm, so my maternal grandma would wake up very early in the morning and make the fire in that room. It was maybe a slice of this delicious bread, perhaps 4-5 stuffed cabbage rolls(very traditional on Christmas day), few meatballs, slices of Feta cheese, salami, fresh homemade sausages, slices of bread, cookies, or other desserts she had available.Ī glass of wine always accompanied the plates to celebrate the holidays. It was a wonderful way to make the holidays a little bit easier for these people. ![]() My grandmother would put together plates filled with food that she made for the holidays. This is done various times a year, but especially around the holidays, people would gift food to the less fortunate, who might not afford much around that time. In the Orthodox religion, people honor and remember ancestors by giving food away. This bread is very suitable for gifting, and this is what she used to do around the holidays. It was a ritual, and rules needed to be followed. My grandmother used to make multiple loaves of this slightly sweet bread for Christmas or Easter.
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