Romanian desserts at a glance
Romanian desserts mix everyday, home-style sweets with festive baking tied to Easter and Christmas. Cottage cheese or fresh curd, semolina, walnuts, jam, cocoa and sweet yeast doughs show up again and again. Some desserts are quick enough for a Sunday afternoon, while others, like layered honey cake, are best made a day ahead.
The sections below group the most commonly mentioned Romanian sweets by type.
Papanasi
Papanași are probably the dessert most often named as Romania’s signature. They are fried rings of soft cheese dough, often topped with a small ball of dough that acts as a “hat”, and served warm with sour cream and fruit jam (sour cherry and blueberry are popular). Some versions are boiled rather than fried, and recipes differ in how much flour and semolina they use.
You will find a simple recipe below.
Cozonac and pasca
Cozonac is a sweet yeast bread, rolled up with a filling and baked as a loaf for Easter and Christmas. Common fillings include cocoa, ground walnuts and Turkish delight (rahat).
Pască is the traditional Easter cake: a sweet cheese filling baked inside a decorative enriched-dough crust, somewhat like a cheesecake in a brioche shell.
Both are enriched doughs, much like the yeast dough in our Italian baba rum cake, so a little patience pays off. Give the dough a full, unhurried rise in a warm (not hot) place, and keep the other ingredients at room temperature so the yeast works evenly.
Everyday favourites
- Rice with milk (orez cu lapte): a creamy rice pudding that many Romanians associate with childhood, finished with butter, cinnamon and a little nutmeg.
- Biscuit salami (salam de biscuiți): crushed biscuits mixed with cocoa, sugar, butter and sometimes raisins and a rum flavouring, rolled into a log and chilled, then sliced. It is a no-bake dessert, so it is a good option on warm days. If you like no-bake sweets, you may also like the Australian chocolate ripple cake.
- Plum dumplings (găluște cu prune): a potato dough wrapped around a whole pitted plum, boiled and rolled in buttered, toasted breadcrumbs, then sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar. They are strongly associated with Transylvania.
Cakes and pastries
- Amandină: a chocolate sponge cake soaked in syrup and layered with cocoa buttercream, with a glossy chocolate glaze. It is a classic bakery cake.
- Foi cu miere: honey cake made from thin baked layers, filled with a semolina or butter cream and sometimes apricot jam, then left to soften overnight.
- Lichiu: a Transylvanian sheet cake with a yeasted base, a lemony semolina layer and a crème fraîche and egg custard on top.
- Cornulețe: small crescent pastries filled with walnut paste, jam or Turkish delight and rolled in powdered sugar.
- Poale-n brâu (“waist up”): Moldavian yeast pastries with a sweet cheese filling, shaped so the corners fold up around it.
A simple papanasi recipe
Quantities and flour amounts vary from cook to cook, so judge by the dough: it should be soft and a little sticky, but firm enough to shape.
Ingredients
- 250 g (about 9 oz) cottage cheese or fresh curd, well drained
- 1 egg
- 1/2 teaspoon baking soda with 1 teaspoon vinegar or lemon juice
- About 100 g (3/4 cup) all-purpose flour, added gradually, plus extra for dusting
- Oil for frying
- Sour cream and jam, to serve
Method
- Beat the egg in a bowl. Stir in the baking soda mixed with the vinegar.
- Add the cheese and mix well. Add the flour a little at a time until a soft dough forms.
- On a floured surface, shape rings with a hole in the middle, and a small ball for each ring.
- Heat the oil in a deep pan to a moderate temperature. Fry the rings and balls until golden on both sides.
- Drain on paper towels. Top with sour cream and jam, and place the ball on top as a hat.
Serve right away, while the outsides are crisp. If the dough is too wet and spreads in the oil, add a spoonful more flour.
Is Romanian food Slavic?
Romanian is a Romance language, so Romanians are not usually described as Slavic. But Romania borders several Slavic-speaking countries, and the region shares ingredients and techniques with them, such as curd cheese pastries and poppy seed or walnut fillings (for more walnut and hazelnut baking, see our nut torte recipes). For comparison, see how our Slovenian desserts and recipes use similar nut and cheese fillings, or our vegan Russian desserts for a different Eastern European tradition.
Tips
- Drain cottage cheese well. Excess liquid makes dough sticky and frying messy.
- Keep frying oil at a steady moderate heat.
- Honey cakes and biscuit salami both improve when rested in the fridge for several hours.
FAQ
What are some traditional Romanian recipes?
Papanași, cozonac, pască, plum dumplings and amandină are among the most frequently mentioned.
What are Slavic desserts?
The term covers sweets from Slavic-speaking countries, such as Poland, Russia and Slovenia. Romania is not Slavic by language, though its cooking overlaps with neighbouring cuisines.
What are the 9 common desserts?
There is no fixed list. Common categories include cakes, pies, pastries, puddings, cookies, custards, frozen desserts, fruit desserts and candies.
What did colonists eat for dessert?
That depends on the region and period; this article focuses on Romanian sweets. For a look at older European desserts, see our guide to dessert recipes from the Renaissance.