Potica — Print Recipe — The Culinary Codex

A festive rolled pastry with a rich walnut filling, spiraled into a beautiful pattern. Slovenia's most beloved celebration bread.

Ingredients

For dough: 500 g bread flour, 200 ml warm milk, 100 g softened butter, 3 egg yolks, 50 g sugar, 7 g instant yeast, 1 tsp salt, zest of 1 lemon
For filling: 400 g walnuts, finely ground, 150 g sugar, 100 ml warm cream, 3 tbsp honey, 2 egg whites, 1 tsp cinnamon, 1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg beaten with 1 tbsp milk for egg wash
Butter for greasing the pan

1 Combine the warm milk, yeast, and a pinch of sugar in a bowl and let it sit for five minutes until frothy, then mix in the flour, softened butter, egg yolks, sugar, salt, and lemon zest, kneading for ten minutes until a smooth, elastic dough forms.
2 Cover the dough with a damp towel and let it rise in a warm place for one hour until doubled in size, then punch it down gently and let it rest for another ten minutes to relax the gluten before rolling.
3 Prepare the filling by combining the ground walnuts, sugar, warm cream, honey, cinnamon, and vanilla in a bowl, then beat the egg whites to stiff peaks and fold them gently into the walnut mixture for a lighter, more spreadable consistency.
4 Roll the dough out on a large floured cloth or tablecloth into a very thin rectangle approximately sixty by forty centimeters, stretching carefully with your hands from underneath until the dough is almost translucent without tearing.
5 Spread the walnut filling evenly over the entire surface of the stretched dough, leaving a one-centimeter border along the edges, then roll it up tightly from the long side using the cloth to help guide and support the roll.
6 Carefully coil the rolled dough into a well-greased bundt pan or tube pan, seam-side down, brush the top with egg wash, and let it rise for thirty minutes, then bake at 170 degrees Celsius for fifty to fifty-five minutes until the top is deep golden brown and sounds hollow when tapped.