This sweet, enriched yeast bread owes much of its deliciousness to its swirls of bittersweet walnut and rum filling, one of the most popular across Romania. The dough is rich with butter, milk, and eggs, and perfumed with lemon zest and vanilla. It resembles golden silk as it’s mixed, and fills every house and bakery…

In Bucovina of northeastern Romania, alongside the traditional rectangular cozonac, people also bake a round braided or swirled loaf. This celebratory bread is called colac, meaning “round.” The filled dough is rolled and coiled onto itself like a giant seashell, perhaps a symbol of the sun or the cyclical nature of life.  My friend and…

One version of Romanian cozonac replaces the traditional walnut and rum filling with bits of Turkish delight—enticingly gooey and light, with a hue of the Middle East, my auntie’s favorite cozonac. Another adds smantana, sour cream, for a delightfully soft crumb. The resulting bread needs no filling—it is left plain, simply brushed with a bit…