Mucenici

How to make :

Ingredients : 500 gr flour,8 gr dried yeast,200 gr sugar,10 gr vanilla sugar,250 ml milk,100 ml oil,50 ml double cream,3 yolks,1 tsp salt,rum essence,vanilla essence,grated zest from 1 lemon.
In the bread-making machine,add the ingredients in this order: salt,sugar,vanilla sugar,milk,double cream,oil,yolks,lemon zest,flour and yeast and start the program (11/2 hour).
Glaze: 50 ml honey and 100 gr ground walnut.
After the dough was kneaded,put it on the oiled work-surface and dived in 12 equal parts .
Roll each part in the shape of the figure 8. Line with baking sheets,2 baking trays (30 cm x 20 cm),put the mucenicii and leave to rise for 20 - 30 mins.
Beat 1 yolk with 1 tbs milk,brush the mucenici,sprinkle over caster sugar and sesame seeds.
Preheat the oven to 150 C,bake for 25 - 30 mins.
Take out the mucenicii,brush with honey and sprinkle over ground walnut.

Mucenici is a Christian feast of the 40 Martyrs of Sebaste, a traditional holiday in Romania and Moldova. It coincides with the start of the agricultural year. Those who observe this holiday clean their households and light fire to garbage collected from their homes, to bring warmth outside.For the date of 9 March, every, year, there is a typical dessert with the same name, Mucenici. The desserts are made in the figure 8 to look like garlands. Others believe that the figure 8 denotes a stylized human form of the martyrs themselves.