Braided cake with cocoa

Twisted cocoa bread - a special recipe, perfect for holidays

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Rising time: 1 hour
Baking time: 40-45 minutes
Total: approximately 2 hours
Number of servings: 12

The twisted cocoa bread is a traditional Romanian dessert, full of flavor and fluffy texture, that will surely bring a touch of joy to holiday tables. This recipe combines the delicacy of the dough with a rich filling of cocoa, poppy seeds, and Turkish delight, resulting in a bread that not only looks spectacular but also tastes divine. Follow the steps below to achieve a perfect bread!

Ingredients for the dough:
- 1 kg wheat flour (choose flour with a high protein content for a fluffy dough)
- 200 g sugar
- 250 ml lukewarm milk
- 4 eggs
- 100 g melted butter
- 50 ml oil
- 30 g fresh yeast (or 10 g dry yeast)
- A pinch of salt
- Grated zest of 1 lemon (for a fresh aroma)

Ingredients for the filling:
- 200 g cocoa
- 150 g sugar
- 100 g ground poppy seeds
- 150 g diced Turkish delight
- 1 teaspoon vanilla essence

To start, we prepare the dough. In a large bowl, dissolve the yeast in lukewarm milk, adding a tablespoon of sugar and letting the mixture sit for 10 minutes until it becomes frothy. This is an important step that will ensure optimal rising of the dough.

In another bowl, add the eggs, remaining sugar, salt, melted butter, oil, and lemon zest. Mix well until you obtain a homogeneous composition. Add the yeast mixture and gradually start incorporating the flour. Knead the dough for about 10-15 minutes until it becomes elastic and no longer sticks to your hands. If necessary, add a little more flour.

Once the dough is ready, cover it with a damp towel and let it rise in a warm place for one hour, or until it doubles in volume.

Meanwhile, we prepare the filling. In a bowl, mix the cocoa with the sugar, poppy seeds, and vanilla essence. This will be the rich and aromatic filling of our bread.

Once the dough has risen, divide it into two equal parts. Roll each part out on a floured surface, forming a rectangle. Spread the filling evenly on each sheet of dough, adding the diced Turkish delight for an extra texture and flavor.

Roll each sheet of dough tightly and then braid them to form a beautiful bread. Place the bread in a baking tray lined with parchment paper or greased with butter and let it rise for another 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius and bake the bread for 40-45 minutes, or until it turns golden and, when you tap lightly on the bottom of the tray, it sounds hollow.

After baking, let the bread cool on a rack. Serve slices with a cup of coffee or tea, enjoying its rich flavors.

For a personal touch, you can add ground nuts or dark chocolate to the filling for a more intense taste. This twisted cocoa bread recipe will surely become a favorite in your family, bringing a touch of tradition and joy to every holiday!

From the quantities above, a large sweet bread results (my form is a larger size, measuring 36 cm in length). If you want two sweet breads, double the ingredients. 1. The milk, sugar, vanilla sugar, and a vanilla pod (which I used, but it’s not mandatory) are brought to a boil. Then cool the milk to about 40 degrees (I placed the pot in another one with cold water). 2. The egg yolks and the egg are beaten with a pinch of salt. 3. The butter is melted (without overheating). 4. I added the warm milk, the egg, and the beaten yolks, melted butter, and grated citrus peel into the bread machine. On top, I added the flour and the dehydrated yeast. 5. I set the machine to the kneading program for 15 minutes, and it did the work for me. If you use fresh yeast and/or work the dough by hand, first dissolve the yeast with a teaspoon of sugar in a little warm milk, add some flour, and wait for it to activate. When it bubbles, you can start kneading: in a large bowl, place the flour, make a well in the middle, add the boiled milk with sugar cooled to 40 degrees, mixed with the beaten egg and yolks with salt, flavors, and knead. And knead some more. Be careful, the dough is sticky and not easy to work with, like any sweet bread dough. Do not add more than 2, at most 3 tablespoons of flour, otherwise, the dough will lose its fineness. When both the dough and the kneader are sweating, start adding the melted butter, but not hot, little by little, until fully absorbed. 6. After a quarter of an hour, I took out the kneaded dough, which I divided into three. I kneaded one of the three parts a bit with a teaspoon of cocoa, then I greased all three pieces with oil and placed them in a greased bowl in a warm place to rise. 7. After about an hour and a half, during which the bowl with the dough sat warm in the microwave (turned off, of course), the dough more than doubled in volume, I turned it out onto an oiled work surface and proceeded as follows: - On one third, I placed Turkish delight and rolled it up. - On the cocoa side, I sprinkled raisins soaked in rum, well drained. - On the third part, I distributed 100 grams of ground poppy seeds, which had been scalded (and cooled already) with 50 ml of milk, one vanilla sugar, and 3 tablespoons of sugar. 8. The three filled and rolled parts were braided like a little basket. I placed the sweet bread in a baking dish lined with parchment paper and left it in a warm and draft-free place to rise some more. 9. When it reached almost the height of the mold, I brushed it with egg and sprinkled it with granulated sugar. 10. I placed it in the preheated oven at 200 degrees, and after 10 minutes, I reduced the heat to 180 degrees. Since the dough is sweet, plus it is also brushed with egg and sprinkled with sugar, it tends to burn quickly on top, so when I was satisfied with how browned it was, I covered the sweet bread with foil, continuing to bake for another 50 minutes, when I checked the bread by inserting a toothpick that came out clean, and I declared myself satisfied. (Be careful, if there are two sweet breads in the oven, the baking time may be extended!). Enjoy your meal! The Braided Sweet Bread recipe was proposed by lauralaurentiu on the recipe forum.

 Ingredients: 500 grams of good quality flour - plus 1-2 tablespoons in case the dough is not sufficiently bound (the quality of the flour matters a lot) 180 ml of milk 100 grams of sugar 3 egg yolks 1 whole egg 100 grams of melted butter 1 pinch of salt 7 grams of dehydrated yeast or 20 grams of fresh yeast flavors: lemon and/or orange zest, vanilla, rum, etc. - to everyone's taste Fillings: - whatever you like the most, I used poppy seeds boiled in milk, Turkish delight, and raisins soaked in rum, plus a teaspoon of cocoa that I mixed into a third of the dough.

 Tags:  christmas cookies recipes for sweet bread fluffy sweet bread poppy seed cake