4pure

Thursday, October 27, 2011

Daring Bakers challenge - Povotica




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!

A great recipe we've got from Jenni, also because we just had collected and dry our own grown walnuts for this season. And then this recipe came on just the right moment to do something with them. Jenni found out that the Povotica at the Farmer's Market she went to costed $25 dollars a bread. She was determined to find a recipe to make it.

After I made it, I can't say it's a sort of cake, nor a tart. It's a bit of a bread with filling. It looks great by the swirling. And it tasted wonderful.
The Povotica didn't last very long in my house. My eldest son eats everything with nuts. He's a big fan of them. My second doesn't like plain nuts, but did like this bread. My youngest, he's simple, he eats everything.

We had guests on the Sunday I made it and they loved the Povotica too. They asked for the recipe and I told them they had to wait until the 27th of October when the recipe will be revealed for the rest of the world at: www.thedaringkitchen.com. At that site you can also look at the creations of the other daring bakers, which appear in a slide show.



Ingredients (1 loaf):

To activate the Yeast:
- 1⁄2 Teaspoon (21⁄2 ml/21⁄4 gm) Sugar;
- 1⁄4 Teaspoon (11⁄4 ml/3⁄4 gm) All-Purpose (Plain) Flour;
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Warm Water;
- 11⁄2 Teaspoons (71⁄2 ml/31⁄2 gm/0.125 oz/1⁄2 sachet) Dry Yeast.

Dough:
- 1⁄2 Cup (120 ml) Whole Milk;
- 3 Tablespoons (45 ml/43 gm/11⁄2 oz) Sugar;
- 3⁄4 Teaspoon (33⁄4 ml/9 gm/0.17 oz) Table Salt;
- 1 Large Egg;
- 2 tablespoons (30 ml/30 gm/1⁄4 stick/1 oz) Unsalted Butter, melted;
- 2 cups (480 ml/280 gm/10 oz/0.62 lb) All-Purpose Flour, measure first then sift, divided.

Walnut Filling:
- 1 3⁄4 Cups (420 ml/280 gm/10 oz) Ground English Walnuts;
- 1⁄4 Cup (60 ml) Whole Milk;
- 1⁄4 Cup (60 ml/58 gm/1⁄2 stick/2 oz) Unsalted Butter;
- 1 Egg Yolk From A Large Egg, Beaten;
- 1⁄4 Teaspoon (11⁄4 ml) Pure Vanilla Extract;
- 1⁄2 Cup (120 ml/115 gm/4 oz) Sugar;
- 1⁄4 Teaspoon (11⁄4 ml/1 gm) Unsweetened Cocoa Powder;
- 1⁄4 Teaspoon (11⁄4 ml/3⁄4 gm) Cinnamon.

Topping:
- 2 Tablespoons (30 ml) Cold STRONG Coffee;
- 11⁄2 Teaspoons (71⁄2 ml/7 gm/1⁄4 oz) Granulated Sugar;
- Melted Butter.


Preparation:

To Activate Yeast: 
In a small bowl, stir 1/2 teaspoons sugar, 1/4 teaspoon flour, and the yeast into 2 tablesppoms warm water and cover with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 5 minutes

To Make the Dough:
In a medium 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. Allow to cool slightly, until it is about 110°F/43°C. In a large bowl, mix the scalded milk, 3 tablespoons (43 gm/ 1 1/2 oz) sugar, and the salt until combined.  Add the beaten egg, yeast mixture, melted butter, and 1/2 cup (120 ml/70 gm/2 1/2 oz) of flour.
Blend thoroughly and slowly add remaining flour, mixing well until the dough starts to clean the bowl. Turn dough out onto floured surface and knead, gradually adding flour a little at a time, until smooth and does not stick.
Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover loosely with a layer of plastic wrap and then a kitchen towel and let rise an hour and a half in a warm place, until doubled in size.

To Make the Filling
In a large bowl mix together the ground walnuts, sugar, cinnamon and cocoa. Heat the milk and butter to boiling. Pour the liquid over the nut/sugar mixture. Add the egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Allow to stand at room temperature until ready to be spread on the dough. If the mixture thickens, add a small amount of warm milk.

To Roll and Assemble the Dough:
Spread a clean sheet or cloth over your entire table so that it is covered. Sprinkle with a couple of tablespoons to a handful of flour (use flour sparingly) Place the dough on the sheet and roll the dough out with a rolling pin, starting in the middle and working your way out, until it measures roughly 10-12 inches (251⁄2 cm by 301⁄2 cm) in diameter. Spoon 1 to 1.5 teaspoons (5ml to 7 1⁄2 ml/4 gm to 7 gm) of melted butter on top. Using the tops of your hands, stretch dough out from the center until the dough is thin and
uniformly opaque. You can also use your rolling pin, if you prefer. As you work, continually pick up the dough from the table, not only to help in stretching it out, but also to make sure that it isn’t sticking.
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 color and perhaps the pattern of the sheet underneath. Spoon filling (see below for recipe) evenly over dough until covered. Lift the edge of the cloth and gently roll the dough like a jelly roll.
Once the dough is rolled up into a rope, gently lift it up and place it into a greased loaf pan in the shape of a “U”, with the ends meeting in the middle. You want to coil the dough around itself, as this will give the dough its characteristic look when sliced. Brush the top of the loaf with a mixture of 2 tablespoons (30 ml) of cold STRONG coffee and 1 1/2 teaspoons of sugar. If you prefer, you can also use egg whites in place of this.Cover the pan lightly will plastic wrap and allow to rest for approximately 15 minutes.
Preheat oven to moderate 350°F/180°C/gas mark 4. Remove plastic wrap from dough and place
into the preheated oven and bake for approximately 15 minutes. Turn down the oven temperature to slow
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. Check the bread every 30 minutes to ensure that the bread is not getting too brown. You may cover the loaves with a sheet of aluminum foil if you need to. Remove from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes. It is recommended that the best way to cut Povitica loaves into slices is by turning the loaf upside down and slicing with a serrated knife.


16 comments:

shelley c. said...

Home grown walnuts. Wow. I can only imagine how much more fun (and tasty) those made this challenge!! Beautiful work.

ceecee said...

Great job on this challenge!
ceecee

Ruth Ellis said...

Looks delicious! Beautiful swirls :o)

Renata said...

The Povitica is already such a special treat, and you made it with your home picked walnuts! How cool is that! It looks amazing! Lucky guests :)

Cookie Kelly said...

That's great that you grow some of your ingredients, but I bet it took awhile to shell all those walnuts! Must've made your loaves extra delicious though. Looks wonderful!

Cher said...

This bread is absolutely a work of art. Beautiful

Korena said...

Made with home grown walnuts - fantastic!

Sawsan@chef in disguise said...

Fresh walnuts!
that must have made the povitica even more special!
amazing job on the challenge this month

The Betz Family said...

Yum, fresh walnuts! Sounds delicious, and great looking bread. Nice job on the challenge!

Rajani said...

Povitica looks great. And homegrown walnuts!? That's a real WOW!

Anonymous said...

Can I come live with you? I don't think I have ever heard of anyone with their own walnut tree. So envious!!!!

kouky said...

so beautiful and amaizing job!!thank you for your visit and your nice comment!

Kris' Kitchen said...

This looks wonderful. We adopted to older children from an Eastern European orphanage and I'm always looking for delicious recipes to let the try...since they were so poor and never had the good foods from their country. I want to try this recipe...your is beautiful.

Cakelaw said...

Your povitica looks fabulous - I adored this recipe and want to make it again soon.

Anonymous said...

Lovely job and great photos!

Anonymous said...

YUM your povitica looks sooooooo appetising! This was such a fun recipe, I can't wait to make another one.