Masnitza

This was my grandmother's recipe. It's a walnut filled yeast bread that we used to have every year for Christmas. I inherited her recipe box but this was missing. At a recent family gathering my Aunt said she had a copy of the recipe and mailed it to me. I'm putting it here for safekeeping. I love this and am so glad it won't get lost through the years like so many family recipes can be. NOTE: I know that the directions call for egg that is not listed in the ingredients. I'm trying the recipe with one egg to start with and will update with the results from that run-through. UPDATE: The one egg worked fine, I can't imagine that adding more would make it any better so I'm changing the ingredient list to reflect the one egg. :)

• Ready In: 3 hrs 40 mins
• Serves: 8-10
• Yields: 1 loaf

Ingredients

• Dough

• 1 (1/4ounce) package  yeast
• 1⁄4 cup warm water
• 3⁄4 cup  warm milk
• 1⁄4 cup sugar
• 1  teaspoon salt
• 1⁄4 cup  melted butter
• 3 1⁄2-3 3⁄4 cups flour
• 1  egg

• Filling

• 4 (10 ounce) packages english walnuts, finely ground
• 2  cups sugar
• 2  cups water
• 1  lemon, juice of

Directions

1. For the Filling:
2. Combine the nuts, sugar and water and cook for 20 minutes.
3. Add the lemon juice and let cool.
4. For the Dough:
5. Dissolve the yeast in water.
6. Stir in the milk, sugar, salt, egg and butter.
7. Mix in flour until dough is easy to handle.
8. Turn out onto lightly floured board; let stand 10 minutes.
9. Knead until smooth and elastic.
10. Round up into greased bowl and turn to coat.
11. Cover with damp cloth and let rise until double in size, about 2 hours.
12. Punch down, round up on board and let rest 15 minutes.
13. Roll dough out paper thin on a floured cloth into a rectangle approximately 20x30 inches.
14. Spread filling over dough. Starting at wide side, lift cloth and let dough roll up like a jelly-roll. Seal edges. Roll like a snail. Place on greased oblong cookie sheet and let rise for 1 hour. Bake at 325°F for 40-45 minutes. Let cool before slicing.