Walnut cake - POTICA

One of the biggest Slovenian Christmas traditions is the baking of  POTICA. 

Slovenian potica consists of a rolled pastry made of leavened paper-thin dough filled with any of a great variety of fillings, but most often with walnut filling.

The most characteristic Slovenian poticas are made with ground walnut, tarragon, quark, hazelnut, pumpkin seed or poppy seed. It is a festive pastry and could be baked in two ways: in the oven or directly on the hearth, but original Slovenska potica is a ring-shaped pastry, baked always in the special shaped potica baking mould (ceramic, glass or tin one), called potičnik, which has a conical protrusion in the middle.

                                                          Potica

 

Dough:

• 1kg of smooth flour

• 450 ml of milk

• 100g of butter

• 100g of sugar

• 2 egg yolks

• A pinch of salt

• lemon peel

• 1 cube of yeast

Stuffing:

• 1 kg of ground walnuts

• 450 ml of milk

• 350 g of sugar

• 3 tablespoons honey

• 100 g of melted butter

• 2 proteins (egg white)

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• lemon peel 

The process of preparing the dough

1. Pour the flour into a bowl and add salt. Make a small hole in the flour in which you grind the yeast and add a little lukewarm milk, add a teaspoon of sugar. Stir and let the yeast rise. About 10 minutes.

2. Separate the yolks from the whites. Mix the yolks with the sugar. Add butter, lukewarm milk and grated lemon zest.

3. Add the resulting mixture to the yeast flour. Mix everything well and knead into a dough. Let rise for about 40 minutes.

The process of preparing the filling

1. Add sugar to the egg whites and beat them in the snow.

2. Pour the walnuts into a large bowl and pour boiling milk over them. Add melted butter, honey and cinnamon. Grate the lemon zest and add it to the mixture.

3. Mix everything well, add snow and mix lightly.

Assembling the incentive

1. Divide the dough into two parts. First roll out one and then the other half of the dough to a thickness of 4 mm. Coat the rolled dough with half of the filling.

2. Wrap the potica and place it in a baking dish lined with baking paper or coated with butter and sprinkled with flour. Pierce the rolled potica. Then rise covered for about 30 minutes.

3. Coat the potica with beaten egg. Place the pan in a preheated oven. Bake at 180 ° C for about 40 minutes until golden brown.

4. Turn the baked potica on a wooden base, cover it and leave it to cool.

We invite you to try to  bake a potica together with your students. In the attached video you can see how our students baked potica just for you during the household lessons.

We look forward to seeing your products.