The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!
Povitica (poh-vee-TEET-sah) or Potica is a yeast based dough which is rolled around a variety of fillings, be in savoury or sweet.
It was my first encounter with such bread and reading through the Daring Kitchen forum got me excited thinking of the endless possibilities I could use as my filling. However when it came down to it, my creativity went straight out the window leaving me with only one option – chocolate.
It didn’t matter in the end for the loaf turned out beautiful, not only visually but taste-wise as well.
It was initially quite daunting to see pictures of perfectly rolled out dough from the other Daring Bakers, but my fear was unfounded as the dough was really easy to work with. There were a few tears in the dough along the way but I really think it’s the case of practice makes perfect!
I made a similar mistake, as I did for the Baklava challenge, of not spreading the filling to cover the entire surface of the dough which may have affected the pattern. Nevertheless I was pleased with the results, and even my parents commented on how nice the texture of the loaf was.
Povitica
Makes one loaf
Ingredients (Quarter Batch)
Yeast
½ teaspoon sugar
¼ teaspoon plain flour
2 tablespoons warm water
1.5 teaspoons dry yeast
Dough
½ cup milk
3 tablespoons sugar
¾ teaspoon salt
1 large egg
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted
2 cups plain flour, sifted.
Topping
2 tablespoons cold strong coffee
1.5 granulated sugar
1 tablespoon melted butter
Filling
¼ cup milk
¼ cup butter
1 egg yolk, beaten
¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
¼ teaspoon cinnamon
1.5 cup chocolate chips
Method
Making the dough and filling
- To activate the yeast, stir the sugar, flour and yeast into the warm water and leave to stand for 5 minutes.
- In a saucepan, heat the milk up to just below boiling (about 180°F/82°C), stirring constantly so that a film does not form on the top of the milk. You want it hot enough to scald you, but not boiling. Leave the milk to cool.
- Once cooled, mix the milk, salt and sugar until combined and add the egg, yeast mixture, butter and 1 cup of flour.
- Combine thoroughly and slowly add the remaining flour, mixing well until the dough starts pulling away from the edge of the bowl.
- Transfer the dough to a clean surface and start kneading, adding small amounts of flour until the dough takes on a smooth surface.
- Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and leave to rise until doubled in size.
- For the filling, mix the all the ingredients and heat until chocolate chips are partly melted. Set aside and leave to cool. The mixture has to take on a thick spreadable consistency. If it is too thick, add teaspoons of milk until desired consistency is achieved. If it is too runny, add more chocolate chips until it thickens up.
Assembling the dough
- Sprinkle surface with flour sporadically. * The recipe recommended using a sheet or cloth over your rolling surface to ease removal of the rolled out dough.
- Place dough on the floured surface and start rolling, using a rolling pin until the dough starts thinning. Ideally you want the dough to be thin enough to be able to see through to the surface. While doing this, spoon ½ teaspoons of melted butter on to the dough to keep the dough pliable and moist.
- Jenni suggests that when you think it the dough is thin enough, try to get it a little thinner. It should be so thin that you can see the colour and perhaps the pattern of the sheet underneath.
- Once ready, cover most of the surface of the dough with the filling, leaving 1 inch on all sides free from filling.
- Lift the edge of the dough gently and start rolling. Once the dough is rolled up into a rope, carefully lift it up and place it into a greased bread pan in the shape of a ‘U’, with the ends meeting in the middle. It is this coiling effect which gives the bread its distinguishing feature when sliced.
- Brush the top of the loaf with a mixture of cold strong coffee and sugar.
- Leave the dough to rest for 15 minutes prior to baking.
- Bake in a pre-heated oven at 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4.
- Bake for 15 minutes then turn down the oven temperature to 300°F/150°C/gas mark 2 and bake for an additional 45 minutes or until done.
- Remove bread from oven and brush with melted butter.
- As it is a heavy bread, it is recommended to leave the bread in the pan until cooled.
Assembly in pictures
