Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts

This year I thought of making fluffy Moldavian mucenici with a delicious surprise inside - just like the store bought pretzels filled with chocolate, walnuts, apples. They were delicious, I don't even want to cook them in a different way from now. Besides that they are made from the same fluffy pastry as the traditional Moldavian mucenici, the walnut filling gives them a cozonac-like taste, which makes it very hard to stop eating!

From the below quantities, I made 12 big Moldavian mucenici, they were enough for everybody. You can make them smaller and more or you can double the amounts.

If you don't want too much trouble, I recommend the fluffy mucenici recipe with walnuts and cinnamon.

Ingredients
Milk
225 ml
Sugar
350 g
plus another 75g for the syrup, if you like them sticky
Bakers yeast
25 g
or 10g dried yeast
Eggs
1 piece
Egg yolks
2 pieces
for brushing the top
Melted butter
80 g
Salt
1.5 tsp
White flour
600 g
Chopped walnuts
500 g
whichever you have and like
Cacao
1 tbsp
Cinnamon powder
1 tsp
Vanilla Extract
1 tbsp
Step by step
Step 1

In a bowl, pour 125ml warm milk and 125ml warm water. Add in 1 tbsp sugar and 25g fresh yeast, stir well and let sit until foam starts to form.

By the way, you can make the dough in the breadmaker - find the directions in the traditional Moldavian mucenici recipe.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 1
Step 2

Add in 1 egg, 80g melted and cooled butter, 150g sugar, vanilla extract, 1 tsp salt, mix well.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 2
Step 3

Mix in 500g flour, stir with a spatula. If you notice the dough is too soft and sticky, add some more flour little by little.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 3
Step 4

Continue kneading with your hands on a work space. This way, you can feel the texture better and you have enough space to work on.

The dough is supposed to be firm and not sticky. If it's not, add a little more flour and knead until it is so.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 4
Step 5

When it's ready, return dough to the bowl, cover with a kitchen towel and let rise for 1 hour at room temperature.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 5
Step 6

While dough is resting, you have time to prepare the walnut filling.

Place in a bowl the chopped walnuts (in the food processor or with the blender), add 200g sugar, 1 tbsp cocoa, 1 tsp cinnamon, 0.5 tsp salt and stir well.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 6
Step 7

Pour over 100ml cold milk and mix everything with a spoon.

The mixture should be slightly moist, a bit gluey and not too runny!

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 7
Step 8

Divide the risen dough into 2 equal parts and shape into balls.

Let rest on the table for 10 minutes.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 8
Step 9

In turn, with the rolling pin, roll out each ball into a large sheet, 36cm wide and 50cm long.

Dust the table with flour if needed while rolling it out, to make the sheet smooth and elastic.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 9
Step 10

Then cut into 6 strips, 6cm wide and 50cm long.

In other words, we will divide the 36 (the width) by 6. You can use a ruler or a measuring tape for more accuracy. This way, at the end, you will have perfect and even mucenici.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 10
Step 11

Spoon out the walnut mixture onto each strip of dough, use a teaspoon for this. Try to stick only in the middle, without touching the edges.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 11
Step 12

Then pinch the edges up and together to seal.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 12
Step 13

Turn this roll seam side down, work it a bit with your hands to make it evenly thick.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 13
Step 14

Shape this roll into an 8, the classic mucenici shape. Hide the ends in the middle, underneath the place where the 2 circles meet.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 14
Step 15

Repeat the procedure for all the mucenici, transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment and let rise for 20-30 minutes.

Then brush the tops with raw egg yolk (can be mixed with 1-2 tbsp milk) and bake in the preheated oven to 180 degrees C for 20-25 minutes.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 15
Step 16

Right after you remove from the oven and while they are still very hot, you can drizzle with sugar syrup. When they cool down, the syrup will crystallise and turn into a sort of icing, but it's possible that the mucenici will be sticky. Feel free to try and see if you like it.

For the syrup: boil 100ml water and 75g sugar for 1-2 minutes in a small pot - you can add also vanilla and rum flavours.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 16
Step 17

While the syrup hasn't turned into icing yet, you can sprinkle with ground walnut on top.

It needs to be finely ground in order to stick properly.

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 17
Step 18

Let cool for at least 1-2 hours before serving, allow the icing to harden. 

Warm or cold, they are delicious and wonderful!

Enjoy!

Mucenici - Moldavian Pastries Filled With Walnuts - Step 18
Quantity: 12 pcs ()
Prep time:
120 min
Difficulty: intermediate
Ready in: 180 min