It's hard to describe how wonderful this is, the traditional sweet holiday (and every day there's a good excuse) bread of Romania: Spend Ten Minutes to Learn to Make Perfect Cozonac... with step by step pictures and mixing videos! (will be posted on website). This recipe makes four loaves, but can be halved for two loaves. Or just make the four loaves and give some away, or freeze a couple for later. COZONAC Dough 10 eggs, separated 1 liter milk 2 c sugar 100 grams yeast 1 t sugar 1/2 t salt 1/2 kg butter or good margarine (two 250-gram packets) 2 kg flour, plus a little more -- use only good flour, like Titan grade 000 1 lemon, zest only (vanilla optional) Heat milk with 2 c sugar in saucepan until warm but not hot. Break up yeast and mix with 1 t sugar and 1/2 t salt. Spoon some of the warmed milk onto yeast, not using more than 1 cup. Add a few spoonfuls of flour and stir yeast mixture well. Set in a warm place covered with a napkin to let it grow, about ten minutes. Melt butter or good margarine in a small saucepan. (It will separate and you will not use the watery part left in the bottom of the pan.) Grate zest from one lemon (use less if you are using vanilla) Mix egg yolks in bowl with 1 t salt, add lemon zest and warmed milk-sugar mixture. Pour 1 kg flour into large bowl. Then while the yeast is growing, you can pat the flour, wash the dishes, clean the grater, check the yeast now and then, and watch a little television. Pour all the egg-milk mixture into the flour at once (check to be sure it's not too hot). Mix well with your clean hands, 15 minutes or more. Be sure the batter is very smooth, then whip using your two hands as beaters, rolling them over each other rapidly. Because you do this well now there won't be any kneading later. You'll know when it's ready because it starts falling off your hands instead of sticking. Add the melted butter or margarine, checking first to be sure it's not too hot... spoon off all the solids into your dough, but discard the watery remains in the bottom of the pan, or give it to the cat. Gently fold the fat in with your hand-mixers, then speed up when it is well mixed in. Dump in the second kg of flour and keep blending. When it seems almost ready, add up to another cup of flour to finish the soft dough. Roll it over in the bowl and let rise about an hour in front of the warm oven, covered. It doesn't matter if a little flour remains in the bottom of the bowl. While the dough rises, prepare the nut filling. Filling 1 1/2 kg walnuts, shelled, and don't skimp! (you might save a few to garnish the tops of the loaves before baking) Rum flavoring (1 1/2 small bottles) 1 1/2 c sugar Finely grate the nuts with food processor. Sift with fingers to find any shell pieces. Mix ground nuts with sugar and rum flavoring. Whip egg whites vigorously with a fork, and skim foam off into nut mixture, folding in gently. Repeat whipping egg white and skimming off foam until most of the whites are in the nut mixture. Don't break the bubbles by stirring too vigorously. Save some egg white for brushing on top of the loaves before baking (for this use only the liquid at the bottom, not any foam still remaining on top). It helps to flatten the nut mixture somewhat and score the top into double the number of loaves you are making, like pie slices (that is, two sections for each loaf). Oil your work surface well and with oiled hands divide the risen dough into eight equal balls. Judge by weight to make them even, not by size. Flatten each ball with oiled hands into rectangle roughly 8" x 12" and spread 1/8th of nut mixture on the top. Carefully roll from the long side. Each time you finish two, twist them together and put in well greased loaf pan. Brush loaf tops with unfoamy egg white and sprinkle with sugar. Garnish with walnut halves. It is not necessary to let dough rise again. Bake in moderate oven (350 degrees F) for 45 minutes. It works well to bake two right away and keep the other two in a cool place to bake the next morning (traditionally Christmas morning!). If you do bake later, don't brush the tops until just before baking.