I remember hearing about this dessert many years ago on a show that I loved called Food Finds. It was one of the first groundbreaking shows on the Food Network that created opportunities for so many shows that came after it. I never understood why they took the show off the air, but I guess they call that progress…
In one of their episodes, they talked about a dessert in the Croatian culture called Povitica (pronounced poh-vee-tee-tsa). In other cultures around the world it is known as Potica (poh-tee-tsa). This wildly popular nut roll also has roots in so many eastern European countries and is known by many different names, but the look is unmistakably the same. The lightly leavened dough is filled with a variety of different fillings and then rolled up. Once it is sliced, it reveals swirls of delicate, thin dough and gooey filling. Some of the more traditional fillings are raisin poppy seed and honey walnut cream. Today anything goes, and you can find stores that have long lists of unique flavor offerings.
The key to making a great Povitica lies in having a great recipe for the dough. It doesn’t hurt to also have a few different fillings that hold up well during baking and remain moist after the cake is baked. I came across this recipe on a site called Cake Walk, and the recipe she used was shared in a Daring Bakers challenge. The recipe looked easy enough, but there were a few things that I needed to change right off the bat. One of the things they suggested to do was to add some flour, water and sugar to the yeast to activate it prior to incorporating it in with the other ingredients. I see this often on many sites and it is really not necessary to do these days. The yeast that is commercially available has been developed to proof relatively quickly, so this step is no longer necessary. Another reason why this step is not needed, especially for this product, is that this dough does not need to rise a great deal. The layers are very thin, and the yeast is only added as a tenderizer and conditioner, mostly to keep it light and to help create pockets of air so that the thin layers of dough lined with the rich filling bake up correctly. It is not added to leaven the dough in the true sense of bread baking…it’s not supposed to rise at all…
I also changed out the melted butter to oil instead…again to keep the dough moist and tender. If you have walnut oil on hand, it would add great flavor instead of vegetable oil…but if vegetable oil is all you have, then use that. When adding butter to dough, it should never be melted unless you are adding ghee…this is another error that I find many people make in dough recipes. Butter is comprised of fat and water that separates once it is melted. When adding melted butter, you add a small, unknown quantity of fat that remains in the bread along with a lot of water that evaporates during baking. This is why many cakes or breads made with butter tend to dry quicker…keep in mind that with butter, it’s hard to regulate the correct amount of fat. If you are using butter for flavor, it is better to use half the quantity of butter and half either oil or shortening to retain the necessary moisture.
I also changed a few things in the filling. In the original recipe, the recipe called for milk and melted butter. Instead of adding both of these, I added heavy cream instead. I also doubled the quantity of cocoa powder and added some instant coffee for more flavor. For added sweetness, moisture and gooeyness, I drizzled ½ cup of honey over the filling before I rolled it up. The resulting product is so moist and tender and the filling is simply scrumptious. It is not difficult to make at all, it just looks like it took you hours to make. I have never made povitica before, but this was such a hit that I will definitely be making it again and again.
Povitica (Potica) Dough (Makes 2 large Rolls)
1 cup milk, warm
2 teaspoons yeast
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons salt
2 eggs, room temperature
¼ cup oil
4 cups flour
Add the yeast to the bowl of your stand mixer and add in the warm milk. Use a whisk to dissolve the yeast, then add in the egg and whisk until it is incorporated. Add in the flour, sugar, salt and oil and use either your paddle or dough hook to beat the dough together for about 5 minutes until it begins to pull away from the bowl. If it needs a little help, add a little flour, but not too much.
The dough should still be a little sticky. At this point, place the dough into a well oiled bowl, and let it rest for about 30 minutes. It will not rise very much, but after the requisite waiting period, the dough will feel tender and easy to work with. The important part of making povitica is to use either a sheet or a large piece of parchment to help your roll up the dough. I used a large piece of parchment paper, and it worked fine. Place the dough ball on the lightly floured parchment sheet and use a large rolling pin to roll out the dough as thin as possible.
Add half of the filling onto the dough and use an offset spatula to spread thinly all over the dough.
Then drizzle the honey over the filling and use either the sheet or the parchment paper to help you roll up the dough.
Once rolled, you can cut sections of the roll and place them into small, pre-oiled loaf pans, or you can form one large ‘S’ shape in a larger loaf pan. Brush with some egg wash and bake at 350°F for about 30 minutes until golden brown.
Allow this to cool completely before slicing so that the filling can set. This will last for 1 week covered well at room temperature, 2 weeks when wrapped well in the refrigerator or up to 3 months in the freezer…but I guarantee you they will never last that long.
Traditional Povitica (Potica) Walnut Filling (enough filling for 2 rolls)
2 cups walnut
½ cup heavy cream
1 egg
1 tablespoon vanilla
½ cup sugar
2 teaspoons cocoa
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon instant coffee
½ cup honey** ¼ cup for each roll, add last before rolling
Egg wash (egg plus water)
Add the nuts, sugar, cocoa, ground cinnamon and coffee to the bowl of your food processor and finely chop the nuts until it looks like this…
Place the egg, the cream and the vanilla together in a small cup and add it to the nut mixture until it creates a thick paste like this…then set aside until the dough is ready…
Leave a Reply