Holidays & entertaining
Česnica
Česnica is a round, golden bread with a coin and small figurines hidden inside, baked for the Orthodox Christmas, the slava and the Christmas Eve dinner. Sharing it at the Christmas dinner is the centrepiece of the Serbian family celebration.
Ingredients
Ingredients
Décor
Spices & seasoning
Optional extras
Instructions
- Dissolve the yeast in the lukewarm milk with a spoonful of sugar and leave to rest for 10 minutes.
- Mix the flour, the remaining sugar and the salt, then add the eggs, the leavened milk and the lemon zest.
- Knead for 10 minutes until you have a smooth dough, gradually work in the softened butter, then knead for another 5 minutes.
- Leave to rise under a tea towel, away from draughts, until doubled in size, about 1 hour 30 minutes.
- Shape a large ball, press the wrapped coin into the dough, and place it on a baking sheet lined with baking paper.
- Decorate the top with small dough figurines, brush with egg yolk and let it rise again for 30 minutes.
- Bake at 180 °C for 40 minutes, until a deep golden colour and it sounds hollow when tapped underneath.
- Let it cool, then break the bread by hand and share it among the guests, the one who finds the coin being the lucky one.
Variations and tips
Version without yeast. Replace the yeast with 1 sachet of baking powder and reduce the baking time to 35 minutes.
With what you can find. The dough figurines can be replaced with whole walnuts or almonds placed on top.
More ideas
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Serbia
Serbia
Serbia
Serbia
Serbia
Serbia
Serbia
Serbia
Original Ecomely recipe.