It's Christmas Time = POTICA Time!!

What is Potica???

Mom tells me the recipe she has followed for over 50+ years is Croatian derived. 

sticky sticky dough

The sweet dough is spread so thin you could read a newspaper through it.  

The filling consists of walnuts, graham cracker, honey, egg and milk. 

The rolling of the dough is very tricky, generally rolled out on a sheet.. she grabs the edge of the sheet lifts and it starts to roll. 

Once rolled,ends are tucked and it gets transferred to a cookie sheet and shaped into a slight "C". 

When the Potica is baked and pulled from the oven, she brushes butter on top of the warm bread. For me, it has been one of the constants of Christmas. I can't remember a time when it hasn't been on the table. Along with nutbread. She used to use a meat grinder attached to the table to grind all of the nuts and graham crackers, which now is done by the Cuisinart Food Processor.

 Mom grew up in Hibbing, MN, an Iron range town which has a recognizably Italian, Slavic, and Scandinavian heritage. Much of my favorite dishes she has handed down have these cultural accents to them.

POTICA

Bread recipe:

5 to 6 cups flour

1 Cup Milk, scalded (heat on low until milk is scalded)

3/4 Cup lukewarm water

3 packets yeast (small)

1 cup sugar

2 tsp. salt

3 eggs, lightly beaten

1/2 cup butter, melted

Sprinkle yeast into water and add a pinch of salt; stir with a wooden spoon until dissolved.  5 - 10 min until it bubbles.  Combine lukewarm milk, salt and sugar in a large bowl, add yeast mixture, melted butter and eggs.  Mix with wooden spoon.  Add 1/2 of the flour - mix well, slowly.  Add rest of flour.  Kneed dough until heavy and sticky.  Cover and let rise for 1/2 hour. (Make filling while dough is rising)  Sprinkle flour on a table cloth.  Put sleeve on rolling pin and sprinkle lots of flour on it.  Divide dough into 4 parts.  Roll out dough until very thin.  Go slowly, this is the hardest part!!

Filling:

2 lbs walnuts, coarsely ground 

12-14 graham crackers, finely crushed

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1 cup honey

2 eggs

1 Tbl butter

1 Cup milk

3/4 Cup sugar

Mix everything together, should be very thick.  Divide into 4 parts.  Spread onto rolled out dough up to the edges. (Be very careful, this is where you could rip the dough) Grasp edge of table cloth and lift (watch video for directions) doing this will roll up your dough and filling very easily and evenly.  Very carefully, transfer to a cookie sheet, bend the roll into a shape that will fit on the cookie sheet.  It will look like a big smile shape.  Tuck the ends of the roll in.  Bake at 300° for 1 hour, check often.  Take out when brown. Brush immediately with butter.  When cooled, wrap in foil and let sit two days or three... the flavors will be wonderfully married. Or cut and eat with a glop of butter and enjoy!