KOZINJAK WITH CHOCO CREAM

I made this one for Easter. It was my first time making kozinjak with choco cream, why eat only bread when you can put some filling inside right? Normally, it turned out great. I was afraid that the cream would leak when put in the oven, but it didn't. So, many people think that making kozinjak is hard and requires special knowledge. No. It just requires time. Knead the dough-10 minutes. Leave to rest-1-2 hours. Knead and make braid. Leave to rest again. It's a resting process as you can see, no work here :)



Ingredients:

• 20 g fresh yeast (half cube)
• 50 ml milk 
• 1 tbs flour
• 5 tbs sugar 

• 50 ml yogurt
• 50 ml oil
• 50 g butter
• 1 vanilla sugar (10 g)
• about 500 g flour a pinch of mahleb
• 2 eggs (1 for coating)
• choco cream or jam or just add raisins in the dough (optional filling)
  

Preparation:

1. Put yeast with the lukewarm milk, sugar and a little flour. Wait to activate. I use a coffee pot which I warm up a little on the hot stove and it activates in no time.
2. Pour flour in a plastic bowl, add the yogurt, the egg, activated yeast, vanilla sugar and oil and knead a soft dough.
3. Once dough is nicely kneaded, melt the butter and let cool a bit. Add a little to the dough while kneading, and add butter a little by little until all butter is spent.
4. Allow the dough to rest for approximately 1-2 hours on a warm place. It should double its size. Keep dough covered to keep it warm.
5. Put dough gently on an oiled desk and divide into 3 parts from which you'll later form braid. Stretch each part a little in a rectangular long shape and add filling. Then roll it. Repeat the procedure with the other 2 parts. Then form a braid from the 3 parts.
   
6. Put braid into oiled mold, wrap in a bag and put in the oven for about 30 minutes at 25-30 C degrees. Once arrived, braid is coated with beaten egg with a little milk and sprinkled with crystalline sugar or sesame seeds.
   
7. Bake at 180 degrees. Once you get a nice color, cover with aluminum foil and return to oven. Total baking time should be around 1 hour.
8. Coat baked kozinjak with butter and cover with kitchen towel.
9. Try it, I guarantee you'll love it. This is the recipe that you were searching for a long time.
10. Enjoy!