Slovenian Potica (Traditional Nut Roll)
Potica is a traditional Slovenian festive cake that has become famous around the world. Poticas are baked in special cake tins, traditionally made of very ornate terracotta that are nowadays often used as decorations. These tins are usually round, with a tube in the middle. Baked poticas are mostly round, ring shaped cakes. There are at least fifty different kinds of poticas, differing in fillings. At first, fillings consisted of walnuts, hazelnuts, honey, mint, curd, cream, cracklings, bacon or dried fruits. In the past, sugar was usually not added because it was scarce in those days. Today, poticas are often made with cocoa, chocolate or carob fillings. The dough is made of wheat flour with yeast used as leaven. It is rolled out flat, spread with the filling, rolled up and placed in the tin. The ends of the roll are cut off and placed into separate small tins to make small buns.
The dough:
30 g yeast
300 ml milk
750 g flour
120 g sugar
120 g butter
3 egg yolks
lemon rind
1 tablespoon salt
Mix the yeast with lukewarm milk and flour and leave to prove; then knead the dough. Prepare the filling. Roll out the dough, cover with the filling and roll up. Place in a baking tin, add egg wash and bake at 225°C for an hour and a half.
Potica with walnut filling
70 g butter
3 egg yolks
200-250 g sugar
some cloves, cinnamon and lemon rind
500 g walnuts
2 beaten egg whites
Carefully mix the ingredients and cover the rolled dough.
Potica with poppy seed filling
300 g poppy seed
0.5 litre cream or milk
3 egg yolks
200-250 g vanilla flavoured sugar
1 tablespoon breadcrumbs
3 tablespoons fresh cream
70 g fresh butter
3 beaten egg whites
Cook poppy seed in milk or cream and leave to boil for an hour. Leave to cool, then add the other ingredients, folding in beaten egg whites at the end.
Potica with vanilla filling
5 egg yolks
230 g sugar
one vanilla stick
5 tablespoons cream
3 beaten egg whites
Potica with tarragon filling
1 tablespoon butter
5 tablespoons breadcrumbs
1 litre cream
3 tablespoons sugar
2 egg yolks
2 tablespoons ground tarragon (also peppermint)
Fry breadcrumbs in butter, add other ingredients.
Potica with cottage-cheese filling
500 g cottage cheese
125 ml cream
100 g butter
2 egg yolks
100 g sugar
lemon rind
2 beaten egg whites
Mix the ingredients and spread over the dough.
Potica with honey filling
250 g honey
300-400 g walnuts
2 tablespoons rum
250 g raisins
3 tablespoons cream
Mix the ingredients. Add some milk if the filling is too thick.
