Potica

December 1, 2011 in breakfast, spon

Can we talk about how excited I am to share this recipe? Up until I teamed up with Red Star Yeast, I had never heard of potica but I have made this recipe three (3!!) times since then. That good.

I did some research on potica before I made one and learned that it’s sometimes called a Nut Roll. Traditionally, it’s a sweet yeast dough that’s filled with a paste of ground nuts and brown sugar (and sometimes even dried fruit) and then rolled up, cinnamon roll-style. It’s not sliced like a cinnamon roll, but instead, it’s shaped into a horseshoe, a snail, or just left as a log, and then baked until golden brown.

To me, it’s like a yeasted coffee cake. But better. It’s almost like a strudel with all of it’s layers! Looking at it, you’d think it was just a cinnamon roll but it’s pretty different in taste. I don’t know if it’s the ground nuts or the sour cream in the dough or all the thin layers but it’s so delicious.

The dough is very easy to work with and the recipe even includes instructions for making it in the bread machine (which is what I did). I found the dough so easy to work with that I accidentally rolled it out too thin the first time I made it and some of my filling oozed out. Don’t worry though, I picked all the caramelized sugar off the parchment paper – nothing went to waste. ;) So watch that when you make it. You want it to be thin but not so thin that you can see the ground nut paste through the dough.

Some of our friends from home have threatened graciously offered to visit us over Christmas and this will definitely be on our table when they’re here!

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Potica

Ingredients

For the dough:
¼ cup water
½ cup sour cream
¼ cup butter
1 egg, room temperature
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
2¾ cup bread flour
2¼ teaspoon yeast
For the filling:
2 cups walnuts, ground
¼ cup packed ground sugar
¼ cup sugar
2 tablespoons half and half
¼ cup softened butter
1 egg
½ teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

    Bread Machine Method
  1. Place room temperature ingredients into pan in the order listed. Have water at 80°F. Select DOUGH setting. Check dough consistency after 5 minutes of kneading. The dough should be in a soft, tacky ball. If it is dry and stiff, add water, ½ to 1 TBSP at a time. If it is too wet and sticky, add 1 TBSP of flour at a time. See our Bread Machine section for more helpful tips and information. When cycle is complete, remove dough from pan. Continue with Shaping, Rising and Baking directions below.
    2. Traditional Method:
  2. Combine yeast, 1+1/2 cups flour, sugar and salt. Heat water, sour cream and butter to 120-130F. Add to flour mixture; blend on low speed. Add egg; beat 2 to 3 minutes on medium speed. By hand, stir in enough remaining flour to make a soft dough. Knead on lightly floured surface 5 to 7 minutes until smooth and elastic. Place dough in lightly oiled bowl; turn to grease top. Cover; let rise until dough tests ripe.
    3. To make the filling:
  3. In a small bowl combine filling ingredients and blend until smooth.
    4. Shaping, Rising, and Baking:
  4. Turn dough onto lightly floured surface; punch down to remove air bubbles. Divide into 2 parts. On lightly floured surface, roll each half to 15 x 12- inch rectangle. Spread with half of FILLING. Starting with longer side, roll dough tightly. Pinch edges to seal. Place roll seam-side down on greased cookie sheet. Loosely coil foil to form a snail shape. Cover; let rise until indentation remains after lightly touching side of loaf. Bake in preheated 350F oven 20 to 25 minutes until golden brown; cool on rack. If desired, sift powdered sugar over top before serving.
http://fakeginger.com/2011/12/01/potica/

Full disclosure: I was compensated for making (and enjoying!) this recipe by Red Star Yeast. All opinions are my own.
This post submitted to YeastSpotting. 

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