Mucenici

For the recipe, the Mucenici ( pronounced like here https://www.howtopronounce.com/romanian/mucenici) are shaped like an 8 number. The mucenici are shaped like big 8 numbers and are made from a dough similar to the Romanian panettone, sprinkled with honey and walnuts.

Preparation time: 3 hours

Makes: 12 servings

Dough Ingredients:

    1 pound bread flour
    3 eggs
    3 teaspoons dry yeast
    1 cup milk
    5 oz (150 g) butter
    5 oz (150 g) sugar

Decoration Ingredients:

    9 oz (250 g) grounded walnuts
    honey
    1 egg

Syrup Ingredients:

    1 cup water
    5 oz (150 g) sugar
    grated lemon peel
    rum extract
    vanilla extract

Syrup Preparation:

    Boil the water with sugar, vanilla and rum extract. Simmer until it becomes thicker.
    Let it cool and add the grated lemon zest.

Preparation:

Prepare the syrup as a first step before proceeding to prepare the dough, so you can have it ready when the mucenici are out of the oven.

Prepare the dough

For preparing the dough you can either do it manually, or you can use a bread maker machine, that has the option to make dough. Using a bread machine makes the recipe a breeze. Even if do not own a bread machine, you can still make great mucenici, but with a bit more work to prepare the dough. Our recipe is very straightforward to follow and guarantees great results! Just make sure you use quality bread flour, so the dough will rise properly. We give below both the classic recipe and the more modern bread-making machine recipe.

 Mucenici - Classic Recipe

    For best results, all the ingredients must be kept at room temperature for at least 3 hours before preparing the mucenici dough.
    Beat 3 eggs + 3 yolks with sugar, salt. Add lemon zest, rum, and vanilla. Let it rest for 15-20 minutes.
    Mix the dry yeast with the flour.
    Pour luke-warm milk into the eggs' composition and then pour the resulting mixture over the flour mixed with the yeast.
    Add slowly the melted butter and knead the dough until it can easily separate from the hands. Add the raisins and knead some more.
    Cover and let it rest in a warm place until the size of the dough doubles.
    Divide the dough into 12 equal portions. Roll each portion into a small ball.
    Flour a table and roll every ball until becoming a string (thick as a finger). Make a circle and twist it into an eight-figure.
    Grease a baking tray with butter and flour the surface.
    Put the mucenici on the tray and let them rise at warm for about 20 minutes.
    Prepare a beaten egg with some milk and brush over the top of mucenici.
    Preheat the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes at 350 F (until they become golden-brown).

Put the mucenici on a serving plate with higher borders and pour 2-3 tablespoons syrup on each of them. Spread honey on the top and sprinkle with finely chopped walnuts. Put enough syrup on the plate so the mucenici are soaked. Keep the plate cover to prevent them from drying

Mucenici - Bread Making Machine Recipe

     For making the dough using a bread machine, make sure that you verify the machine's capacity, and adjust the quantities accordingly. For my machine, I make 1 pound flour recipe. The way to verify is to match the quantity of flour in our recipe with the quantity of flour usually recommended in the bread recipes that come with the machine. The machines usually accept multiple sizes, mine has the Medium, Large, and Extra Large options. As the Large option corresponds to about 1 pound of flour in their recommended bread recipe, use this recipe and set your machine for the Large option.
    Add all the ingredients, except the dry yeast into the bread machine.
    The dry yeast should be added to the yeast dispenser.
    Select the "dough" option.
    Start the machine.
    When the machine beeps, your dough is ready.
    Remove the dough from the machine and divide into 12 equal portions. Roll each portion into a small ball.
    Flour a table and roll every ball until becoming a string (thick as a finger)). Make a circle and twist it into an eight-figure.
    Grease a baking tray with butter and flour the surface.
    Put the mucenici on the tray and let them rise at warm for about 20 minutes.
    Prepare a beaten egg with some milk and brush over the top of mucenici.
    Preheat the oven and bake for about 30-40 minutes at 350 F (until they become golden-brown).
    Put the mucenici on a serving plate with higher borders and pour 2-3 tablespoons syrup on each of them. Spread honey on the top and sprinkle with finely chopped walnuts. Put enough syrup on the plate so the mucenici are soaked. Keep the plate cover to prevent them from drying.