Cozonac is a sweet bread baked for Christmas and Easter in Romania, Bulgaria and Albania - and it is exactly what the Balkans does differently from Western Europe: sweet dough with a filling, packed with walnut, cocoa, Turkish delight or raisins, scented with rum and orange zest. It is essentially a cousin of Italian panettone - but denser, more loaded, more Balkan.

The classic walnut-and-cocoa cozonac is the most widespread version: two egg whites whipped to stiff peaks, folded with 150 grams of finely chopped walnuts, three tablespoons of cocoa and 100 grams of brown sugar. The dough - made from 400 grams of flour, three egg yolks, 150 ml lukewarm milk, 60 grams of sugar, 80 grams of butter and yeast - is kneaded intensely, left to rise for 50 minutes, then rolled out, spread with the filling and braided. Oven: 170°C, 40 minutes.

Expert tips: ingredients must be at room temperature, the kneading should be long and intense for elasticity, and the rise needs a warm spot. If the top starts to brown too fast near the end - cover it with foil.

There are also versions with Turkish delight, with fresh cheese and with rum-soaked raisins. But the starting point is walnut and cocoa - classic, recognisable, and in flavour closer to our pirek or strudel than to anything baked in the West.