Tomorrow I leave for a new solo travel: one week in Slovenia.
Before leaving I am here reading and looking for some information on the Internet about the places to visit, how to move with the means of transport and obviously the local cooking!
I am not a good cook at all but I like eating and tasting new flavours. Therefore, every time I travel, I spend the most part of my time to taste the typical food of the place.
I like the idea of tasting the travel experience also through my taste buds.
This time I have already identified one of the dishes that I will absolutely look for. A dessert, the potica cake.
The potica is a dessert typically prepared for celebrations but, according to what I have been told – and I hope so…! – it became very popular, therefore it is possible to find it easily in most of the Slovenian restaurants, bakeries and cafés, especially in the capital city Ljubljana .
It is a so spread dessert on the territory, that it is presented in many different forms. It has even eighty different kinds of filling. I chose for you the recipe of the basic version, the simplest one, so that I let each one of you indulging yourself in adding some raisins, candied fruits, poppy-seeds or whatever you like.I will let you know how many slices I will have in Slovenia!
Ingredients for the dough
1,5 kg flour
170 g sugar
3 eggs
250 g whole-milk yogurt
125 ml lukewarm milk
125 g melted butter
60 g brewer’s yeast
1 tablespoon salt
Ingredients for the filling
375 g shelled hazelnut
300 g sugar
3 egg yolks
325 g honey
350 g cream
125 g butter
1 sachet of vanillin
1 teaspoon cinnamon powder
1 teaspoon cloves powder
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel
1 tablespoon grated orange peel
1 tablespoon brandy
Ingredients for the glaz
3 egg yolks
butter to taste.
Potica cake preparation
Warm the milk up until it is lukewarm. Add a teaspoon of sugar and the brewer’s yeast and melt them. Let rest at ambient temperature until bubbles start to come out.
Pour half flour in a bowl and add the remaining sugar, salt, melted butter, yogurt, eggs and milk, as just prepared. Mix all well.
Add the remaining flour and knead the dough for a long time. Let rise for about one hour.
Mix cream and butter and then add the hazelnut – previously grinded – sugar (keep a tablespoon to use it afterwards), honey, vanillin, all the flavourings and brandy. Keep mixing. Beat the egg whites and the remaining sugar into stiff peaks. Pour it in the mixture and let rest a little. Take the risen dough and roll it out until it is 5 mm high. Give it a squared shape. Spread the filling on the dough. Roll it all up and lie it on a battered baking pan. Let rise for another 45 minutes in a lukewarm place.
Brush the upper surface with the beaten egg yolks and cook it in a 160° warm oven for about one hour.
Serve the cake cold, cut in slices and…
SAVOUR IT ALL!
*cover picture by Tomaž Štolfa
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