Croatian bread


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Posted by sherry on November 10, 2001 at 20:10:28:

In Reply to: iso a bread machine recipe for POVITICA posted by Pat on November 10, 2001 at 18:18:46:

NOTES : We have heard this Croatian bread called Potica (pronounced
Po-tee-sa, and also called Kolachi, Povitica, Nutbread, Orahnjaca or
Povanica. But in the village that Emily and my family come from,
Gerovo, in Gorski Kotar, we call it Povitica. There is even a
commercial baker in Kansas City that markets the bread as "Strawberry
Hill Povitica". (Strawberry Hill being the region where our ancestors
settled at the turn of the century.) What do you call it where your
ancestors came from? What is the origin of the word Povitica? Call me
at 913/384-9653 .
Let me just add that this is not a bread but a cake. In fact it's
a Croatian walnut roll.

Don Wolf

Article contributed by:
Date: Sat, 12 Jul 1997 12:22:01 -0600
Subject: Croatian Cakes
From: "Barry S. Marjanovich"
Newsgroups: soc.

* Exported from MasterCook *

Christmas Bread - Potica

Recipe By : Diana's Kitchen

Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Bread Breakfast

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
3 eggs -- beaten until lemon
colored
1 cup milk -- boiled and cooled
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon salt
1 teaspoon lemon extract
3 cakes yeast
7 cups plus 2 tablespoon flour
1/2 pound butter -- melted
--Filling:--
1 1/4 pounds ground walnuts
1/4 cube butter -- melted
2 eggs -- beaten
2 cups sugar
1 pound raisins or dates -- ground

Combine 1/4 cup water, yeast and 2 tablespoons flour; let rise for
10 minutes. Mix eggs, 1 cup water, milk, sugar, salt and extract
together; add yeast mixture. Add remaining flour until damp; add
butter. Knead until smooth. Let rise until doubled in bulk. Roll out
dough. Spread Filling on dough; roll up like jelly roll. Let rise for
30 minutes. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour. Cool before slicing.
Keeps well. Combine all ingredients; mix well.

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* Exported from MasterCook *

Slovenian Nut Potica

Recipe By : ak399@cleveland.Freenet.Edu (Carole A. Resnick)
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories :
Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
--Dough:--
2 cakes compressed yeast
1/2 cup lukewarm milk
1 tbsp sugar
6 3/4 cups sifted all purpose flour -- 6 1/2 to 7
3/4 cup sugar
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup milk -- scalded and slightly
cooled
4 beaten egg yolks
2 beaten whole eggs
1/2 cup sweet butter -- softened
--Filling: --
1/2 pint sweet cream
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup honey
2 pounds ground walnuts
1 teaspoon grated lemon peel
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
2 egg yolks
2 egg whites -- stiffly beaten
1 3/4 cups sugar

Dough Preparation:
Crumble yeast into lukewarm milk; add 1 tablespoon sugar, stir and
set aside till foamy. Sift flour, sugar and salt into a large bowl;
make well in center. Add cooled scalded milk, beaten egg yolks and
eggs, butter and yeast. Mix thoroughly . Knead until no longer sticky
(about 10 minutes). Form into soft ball and place in greased bowl.
Cover and put in warm place till double, about 1 1/2 hour.
Filling Preparation:
Scald sweet cream, butter, and honey together; pour over ground
nuts. Add lemon peel, vanilla and salt; mix. Fold in egg yolks, sour
cream and stiffly beaten egg whites. Blend in sugar. Set aside. Punch
down risen dough. Divide into 4 parts. Place 1 section of dough on
floured board. Roll to about ¼-inch thickness to about 9" x 22".
Spread nut filling on top of dough, leaving 1/2 inch plain dough on each
side. Roll up as a jelly roll. Pinch seam of dough closed. Place seam
side down in 9 x 5 x 3-inch greased bread pan. Repeat with other 3
sections of dough. Prick dough on top to prevent bubbles. Cover with
cloth and allow to raise for 45 minutes. Brush tops with melted
butter. Bake in preheated oven for about 45 minutes to 1 hour. Let
stand in pans for 10--15 minutes. Remove to cooling racks and allow to
cool completely.

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NOTES : © Shona A. Ward

* Exported from MasterCook *

POTICA (Traditional Slovenian Holiday Cake)

Recipe By : Copyright 1992 - 1995 by Weyand Associates, Inc.
Serving Size : 1 Preparation Time :0:00
Categories : Bread Breakfast

Amount Measure Ingredient -- Preparation Method
-------- ------------ --------------------------------
--YEAST:--
2 pkgs. dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
1/4 cup warm water
--DOUGH:--
5 cups flour -- (4 cups to start,
adding additional flour as needed)
1 1/4 cups warm milk
1/2 cup softened butter or margarine
3 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
2 tablespoons dark rum -- (or vanilla)
1 grated peel of lemon
1 Pinch salt
--FILLING:--
6 cups finely ground walnuts -- (approx. 1-1/2 to
1-3/4 lb.)
1 cup finely ground golden raisins
1/2 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons dry bread crumbs
1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
1/2 cup honey
3/4 cup thick cream -- (or 1/2 and 1/2)
1/2 cup butter -- (or margarine)
3 egg whites -- beaten stiff

Yeast:
Sprinkle sugar over yeast and add warm water. Let it stand until
twice its original volume.
Dough:
Mix softened butter, sugar and egg yolks until the sugar is well
dissolved and mixture is frothy. Set aside. Warm up the milk, mix in
salt, lemon peel, and rum, and add to the butter mixture. Form the
dough out of the 4 cups of flour, yeast, and milk mixtures. The trick
is not to pour in all the milk mixture immediately; use about 3/4 to
start with, then add more as the dough forms.
Beat with electric mixer until smooth and elastic. Then keep
adding flour as needed, and mixing with a wooden spoon until of
consistency that dough can be handled without sticking. Place dough on
floured board and knead for about 15 minutes, adding flour as needed to
make a non-sticking dough. Place dough in a well-greased bowl; turn
dough upside down to grease top. Cover and let rise in warm place for
about 1-1/2 to 2 hours until double in bulk. While dough is rising,
prepare filling.
Filling:
Mix walnuts and raisins, and grind them together to keep raisins
from clumping. Combine all dry ingredients. Warm the cream and honey,
and melt the butter in this mixture. Add cream mixture to dry
ingredients and mix completely. Fold in beaten egg whites last. Let
filling cool as you roll out dough.
Assembly:
Roll out dough on table covered with a tablecloth well sprinkled
with flour. Roll out to 1/4" thick, 18" x 24" or bigger. Spread cooled
filling over entire dough evenly. Start rolling up dough by hand, jelly
roll fashion, stretching dough slightly with each roll. Start at an 18"
edge and roll in the 24" direction. Keep side edges as even as
possible. Continue to roll by raising the cloth edge slowly with both
hands so the dough rolls itself. Dust away any excess flour on the
outside of the dough with a pastry brush as you roll. Prick roll with a
toothpick as needed to eliminate air pockets.
With the edge of a spatula (pancake flipper) cut off each end of
roll to make it the length needed to fit around the inside of an angel
food cake pan. Place in well-greased angel food cake pan or Bundt cake
pan, being sure to arrange the seam where the roll ended against the
center. If you have a two-piece angel food cake pan, it is easiest to
roll the loaf onto and around the bottom plate of the pan, and then
lower this into the body of the pan. Cover with a cloth and let rise in
a warm place until double in volume. Bake about 1 hour at 325 degrees.
Put cut-off ends in greased loaf pans, cover with cloth and let
rise in a warm place until double in volume, then bake for 30 to 35
minutes at 325 degrees.
For a shiny crust, brush top before baking with 1 egg beaten with 1
Tablespoon milk, OR brush top with melted butter when taken from oven.
Let stand one hour before removing from pan. Loosen sides and
bottom with knife. Turn onto wire rack to remove, then turn over again
onto another wire rack to cool right-side up.
Once completely cool, turn upside-down on a cake plate and sprinkle
with powdered sugar.

Potica (paw tee' tzah) is a traditional Slovenian holiday cake.
Variations of it are also common in several other Eastern European
countries. When my Polish house cleaner saw it on the counter, she
said, 'Oh. Christmas Cake!'
Some of my fondest childhood memories are of being at my
grandmother's house and helping with the potica, and then enduring the
smell for hours before it was done and cool enough to eat. My
grandmother came over from the old country when she was twenty, and
lived in a Slovenian neighborhood in my hometown, and could she make a
tremendous potica! Well, my grandmother has been gone for twenty
years, but when I ran across a recipe for potica on the Slovenia home
page, I had to try it. And I was disappointed. It just wasn't the same
as my grandmother's.
So I challenged my mother to remember how her mother had made it.
And we looked up a dozen or more recipes in cookbooks and from other
family members and friends. And we made several poticas, refining the
recipe until we had it right. And now I can make potica as good as
grandma's.
The smell takes me back to my childhood and her kitchen, and so she
is with me still. And my child will take the smell with him, too, but
this time he will have the recipe!
One thing to note. Potica is supposed to rise very high, topping
out an angel food cake pan. In Slovenia they use special ceramic pans
which are higher still. To get the rise you should have, the
ingredients, the bowls, and the pans should all be warm, at least room
temperature, and the kitchen should best be very warm as well. This way
your potica won't catch a chill and fail to rise to expectations.
Measurements are all in English units, but the Slovenia home page
has conversions to metric and traditional Slovenian units.

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NOTES : Copyright 1992 - 1995 by Weyand Associates, Inc.
Last updated: December 4th, 1995
These pages maintained by: Richard F. Weyand
Please send all comments/problems to: weyand@mcs.com

* Exported from MasterCook *




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