Sweet Bread Snowman

This Sweet Bread Snowman makes for a lovely pull-apart dessert to serve to your family and guests this holiday season. I posted the sweet bread recipe on my website a while ago. It was the traditional Romanian Cozonac, a sweet bread usually filled with nuts and/or Turkish delight. I’m using the same dough but I simplified the fillings for this snowman. I used a Nutella walnut filling for the snowman’s body and plain Nutella for the snowman’s hat. 

Ingredients

Dough:

• 500 ml milk
• 1 kg white flour
• 6 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp lemon zest (optional)
• 20 ml rum extract
• 3 eggs
• 150 g butter (at room temperature)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1.5 Tbsp active dry yeast (20 g)
• 1/2 Tbsp sugar
• 1 egg for brushing the top of the loaves

You will also need a pan / cookie sheet that’s 15” x 20” (38 cm x 50 cm) 

Fillings:

• for the snowman body: 600 g Nutella, 100 g ground walnuts, 20 ml rum extract 
• for the snowman hat: 150 g Nutella 

Other:

• 1 orange slice for the nose
• red/cherry liquorice ribbon for the scarf
• 1 Tbsp powdered sugar

Directions

Watch the video tutorial below to see how to make this Sweet Bread Snowman:

Making the Sweet Bread 

In a bowl, sift the flour and add the salt. Gently push the dry ingredients against the sides of the bowl to make a well.

Mix butter, milk and sugar in a saucepan and place it over medium heat until butter is melted. Let it cool until just warm.

Whisk the eggs and add them to the lukewarm milk mixture. Add rum extract and lemon zest (optional).

Pour the milk mixture over the flour. 

In a small bowl combine the dry yeast with 1 tablespoon of sugar and 5 tablespoons of milk. Mix for 1 minute to dissolve the yeast and let it rest for 5-7 minutes. 

Then, add the yeast over the flour and mix with a spoon to incorporate all ingredients. 

Knead with your hands for about 15 minutes until dough will not stick to your hands. Or use an electric stand mixer to knead it.

Place the dough in a large bowl, cover it with a clean towel and place in a warm spot. Allow the dough to rise until double in size.

You can find more step-by-step pictures of how to make the dough in this Romanian Cozonac post.

Making the Sweet Bread Snowman

Preheat the oven to 350ºF/180ºC.

After the dough has doubled in size, knead it a few times. 

Divide the dough into 5 pieces –  they will be unequal. The largest piece is about 1/3 of the dough and then each subsequent piece is smaller and smaller. 

For the body of the snowman we will use the 3 biggest pieces of dough. Roll out the first piece of dough into a rectangle.

Make vertical thin strips on the top 1/3 part of the rectangle. Spread Nutella mixed with ground walnuts and rum extract on the other 2/3 side.

Roll the dough from the bottom to the top part with the strips. Pinch the ends a bit and shape it like a doughnut. Repeat the steps for the other two dough pieces. Save 3 tablespoons of the Nutella walnut mixture to make the snowman eyes and buttons later. 

We’ll make the snowman hat out of the 2 smallest pieces of dough. Roll out the first piece of dough into a rectangle. Spread Nutella. 

Lift one side and place it over to make a semi-circle. Pinch the ends a bit. 

Use a knife to cut 1 inch-wide strips at the bottom (straight side), leaving aprox. 1/2 inch untouched at the top. 

Take a strip of dough and twist, forming a spiral with the filling peeking through. Set the twisted strip back down. Repeat with all of the strips of dough.

Roll it from the top to form a log. Repeat the steps for the 2nd piece of dough. 

Arrange everything on a 15” x 20” (38 cm x 50 cm) cookie sheet to make the snowman. Brush it lightly with a beaten egg. 

I placed small balls of leftover dough in the middle of each doughnut-shaped sweet bread. 

Bake for  25-30 minutes in the preheated oven, until golden brown. 

Sprinkle powdered sugar on the snowman’s body. 

Make a scarf out of red/cherry liquorice ribbon and the nose out of a slice of orange.

For the eyes and buttons, you can make small balls out of the leftover Nutella walnut mixture. Add more ground walnuts to it if it’s too soft and not easy to shape. If you want a smoother finish, pipe a bit of Nutella on each ball. I only had to make one button as the other two were made out of dough and I just had to pipe some Nutella on top of them.