Potica (Slovenian Rolled Nut Pie) 🥮

Name: Potica (Slovenian Rolled Nut Pie)
Prep time: 60 min
Cook time: 90 min
Total time: 150 min
Yield: 2-4 servings
Cuisine: Slovenian
Ingredients: Dough: 500 g plain flour, 25 g fresh yeast, 120 g butter, 2 eggs, 250 ml warm milk, 60 g sugar, pinch of salt; Walnut filling: 250 g ground walnuts; 150 g honey or sugar; 150 ml milk; 30 g butter; 1 egg yolk; lemon zest; a pinch of cinnamon and rum (optional); For brushing: melted butter; pan: potica horseshoe mould or a loaf tin

The nation's Sunday loaf, and a marriage-market résumé item: every Slovenian grandmother keeps forty potica recipes and swears by one. A soft enriched dough is rolled paper-thin, painted with a filling — ground walnuts with honey, milk and butter being the queen of them all — then wound into a tight spiral in a horseshoe pan so each slice shows the dark swirl. The walnut version is called orehova and rules Christmas tables; tarragon, banana, pork crackling and even buckwheat fillings all carry the name too. The dish is old enough that it was once the test of a good bride, and young enough that it still survives every wedding, funeral and Easter in the country.

Central Slovenia Slovenian ⏱ 150 min Medium

Method

1

Dissolve the yeast with sugar in warm milk; combine with flour, eggs, soft butter and salt and knead until smooth and elastic. Rest covered until doubled, about 45 minutes.
2

Heat milk with honey and butter, pour over the ground walnuts, stir to a thick fragrant paste and cool; enrich with yolk, zest, cinnamon and rum.
3

Roll the dough into a paper-thin rectangle — you should almost read a newspaper through it. Butter the sheet, leaving a border.
4

Spread the walnut paste to the edges and roll from the long side like a tight carpet; pinch the seam shut.
5

Curve the roll into the horseshoe mould (or lay it coiled in a loaf tin), brush with butter, proof 20 more minutes, then bake 180°C for ~40 minutes until mahogany. Brush with milk right out of the oven, cool under a towel, and slice with the swirl facing up.

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Potica (Slovenian Rolled Nut Pie) 🥮

Method

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