Vanocka - Christmas special Bread

  Vanocka is a sweetened braided bread, with full of flavors from Czech Republic and Slovakia.  Apart from sugar, this bread also has loads of almonds and raisin to give a  sweet hint and has aroma  from nutmeg and lemon zest. 

This bread involves braiding in three batches, and stacking them all up.  They have to be pinned through toothpicks or grill sticks so that the layer don't collapse.  The real trick is to equally divide the dough into nine counterparts for braiding, which can be efficiently done through weighing machine. 

After baking this yeast-raised bread, there was an strong hint of aroma around my home, resembling the plum cake. Each slice was a bit dense yet sweetened with a lemony flavor.   We ended up devouring this beautiful braided bread.  Merry Christmas to all, and thanks to Swathi Iyer for suggesting such a exotic bake. 

Koffiebroodges or Coffee rolls

Koffiebroodges or coffee rolls are from Dutch.  They are glazed, with custard filled rolls which find great company with Coffee.  They also make an great party-time snack.  Great to taste and easy to make, this is sure to please everybody at home.  Thanks to Swathi Iyer and Kaveri for introducing this sweet rolls to us.

Back at home,  I made them at two batches, we all relished.  My daughter, who just woke from her noon-nap, landed straight near oven and demanded them.  I, handed her some and she finished them in seconds, burping out loudly.  :P  These buns were too appealing since they had an shiny, pale red glaze.  This was  due to brushing of jam over the top of baked roll.  According to source,  powdered sugar is also added as glaze.