Bulgarian Festive Bread Kneaded and Beaten by Hand

This is a Bulgarian recipe for old-school tear and share bread, kneaded and beaten by hand. No electric mixer is used at any step. Dough is enriched with milk and eggs. The exact method of kneading includes a step, commonly known as the ‘French method of kneading bread’, which requires some more efforts than the traditional kneading way. 

The bread produced this way is heavier, has a denser texture and a ticker crust.

Bulgarian Sarmi with Minced Meat and Sauerkraut

Bulgarian Sarmi are the small cabbage or vine leaves stuffed with delicious mixture of mince, rice and spices (for meat lovers) or just with rice and spices, for vegetarians. During summer when there are a lot of fresh vine leaves (Bulgaria is a famous wine producing country), the stuffed vine leaves are prepared widely. Here are the recipes for the meat-including and vegetarian version. If you visit Bulgaria in summer, I highly recommend you to try them. Every winter there are a lot of sauerkraut heads sold on every farmer’s market and this is the time for the sauerkraut sarmi (Sarmi s kisselo zele), which meat versions are with chopped meat (recipe here) or minced meat (today's recipe).

This dish is very traditional for the Christmas eve and for the New Year’s menu. 

Happy New Year!