Hand building the holidays
Dec. 18th, 2018 10:37 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
offcntrI do a lot of slab work in the studio, sculpting mostly. This time of year, the skills carry over into the kitchen: it's time to make my Christmas potica!
Potica is the traditional Slovenian holiday nut bread. The dough is rich with butter and egg yolks; the filling is even richer. Ground walnut meats, honey, butter, cream, brown sugar, whipped egg whites. Then the whole thing rolled up, raised, and baked.
I got my recipe from my mother, who got it from Grandma Gosar. I had to tweak it a little--store-bought eggs aren't quite as big as farm-grown, so I have to add a little extra liquid to the dough. And since I'm not making it for a family of nine, I cut the recipe in half, which is just the size to fit in one of my small squared bakers. (Required pottery content.)
I set the dough up the night before, overnighting in the fridge. I let it warm up during breakfast, then set it aside while I make the filling. Then it's time to assemble: roll out your slab, er, dough on a floured cloth, as thin as you can make it. Spread out the filling, licking fingers liberally. Roll it up ("Like jelly roll," all the recipes say), bend into a spiral and transfer to the greased square baker.
My mom claims her potica takes an hour to raise. My kitchen must be super cold, because mine takes more like four hours, and that's sitting on top of a heating pad. At which point, it's time to poke a few holes to let out any air bubbles, egg wash, and pop into a 325° oven for about an hour.
The result is gorgeous. Also delicious.
Potica is the traditional Slovenian holiday nut bread. The dough is rich with butter and egg yolks; the filling is even richer. Ground walnut meats, honey, butter, cream, brown sugar, whipped egg whites. Then the whole thing rolled up, raised, and baked.
I got my recipe from my mother, who got it from Grandma Gosar. I had to tweak it a little--store-bought eggs aren't quite as big as farm-grown, so I have to add a little extra liquid to the dough. And since I'm not making it for a family of nine, I cut the recipe in half, which is just the size to fit in one of my small squared bakers. (Required pottery content.)
I set the dough up the night before, overnighting in the fridge. I let it warm up during breakfast, then set it aside while I make the filling. Then it's time to assemble: roll out your slab, er, dough on a floured cloth, as thin as you can make it. Spread out the filling, licking fingers liberally. Roll it up ("Like jelly roll," all the recipes say), bend into a spiral and transfer to the greased square baker.
My mom claims her potica takes an hour to raise. My kitchen must be super cold, because mine takes more like four hours, and that's sitting on top of a heating pad. At which point, it's time to poke a few holes to let out any air bubbles, egg wash, and pop into a 325° oven for about an hour.
The result is gorgeous. Also delicious.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-20 01:31 pm (UTC)