Daring Baker's: Povitica

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!

This past month, I decided to be daring and brave and bold and... ok, ok. All I really did was join Daring Bakers. I'd heard about Daring Bakers at the beginning of 2011 from a friend, who at one time was an active member of the group. I kind of hemmed and hawed and put off any serious thought of joining until just recently, when I thought, hey, why not? I can always join, see if I like it, and stick around if I do. And I most definitely do.

The challenge this month totally threw me when I first saw it. Povitica? How do you say that? What is that?

I had some huge reservations at first. Mostly because of the walnut filling. You may have noticed, but I am not an overly huge fan of nuts. So I was a little downcast that my first challenge kind of centered around them. In addition, most of my interaction so far with yeast has involved a bread machine. Luckily, fond memories of a walnut dumpling from a trip to China this past summer popped into my head. Ok, I can handle this walnut business. Hopefully.

The recipe turned out to be fairly straightforward. The part I was most concerned about, making the dough, turned out to be a cinch. How did I not know it was this easy to make dough? Activating yeast? Combine, stir, and let sit. I can so do that. From there, mixing in the rest of the ingredients, kneading, and letting the dough rise flowed on by. I think the hardest part for me ended up being the transfer of the final log of dough/filling from counter to loaf pan. Though, with practice that would probably get easier as well.

The end result was decent, there were some nice swirls of walnut. I'll probably revisit this at some point. For me, there was too much walnut, or perhaps the swirls were just to thick. Admittedly, I did throw in the extra half cup or so of ground walnut I had into the filling. I mean, what was I going to do with leftover ground walnut? So next time I'll probably grind smaller batches of walnuts until I have an amount closer to what the recipe called for.

I'd also like to try other fillings, something more akin to cinnamon rolls. Or something involving cheese, because well, who doesn't love a nice cheesy piece of bread?

Povitica
makes one loaf

To activate the Yeast:
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp flour
2 tbsp warm water
1 1/2 tsp yeast

Stir sugar, flour and yeast into 1/2 cup warm water and cover with plastic wrap, let it stand for 5 minutes. I used a 1 cup liquid measuring cup for this and it was plenty big enough.

Dough:
1/2 cup whole milk
3 tbsp sugar
3/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1 tbsp unsalted butter - melted
2 cups flour

Heat the milk, stirring constantly. Let it go until just before it'll start to boil and then remove from the heat and let sit for just a bit.

Mix the milk, sugar, and salt. Add in the eggs, activated yeast, melted butter, and about half of the flour. Mix well, adding in flour just until the dough starts to form a ball.
Flour whatever surface you'll be kneading the dough on, and knead the dough. Slowly add in remaining flour until the dough is no longer sticking at all. I used all 2 cups, and maybe slightly more.

Oil a bowl and place the dough inside, covering with plastic wrap and a towel. Leave it in a warm place and let rise for an hour and a half.

This gets more appetizing, promise

Filling:

1 3/4 cups ground walnut

1/4 cup whole milk

1/4 cup unsalted butter

1 egg yolk

1/4 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 tsp cocoa powder

1/4 tsp cinnamon

Mix the ground walnuts, sugar, cinnamon and cocoa. Heat the milk and butter. Once it's boiling, pour over the walnut mixture. Add in the eggs and vanilla, and mix. If the filling thickens up too much stir in a bit of warm milk.

Assembling:

See-through dough!

Cover a table with an old (but clean!) sheet. Flour a good sized portion where you will be rolling out the dough. Don't skimp too much on this, my dough ended up sticking slightly at the beginning, so I had to scrape it away a bit and add more flour.

Use a rolling pin to roll out the dough. You'll want this to be super thin, don't be afraid to put a little muscle into it. When you get the dough about a foot in diameter brush a bit of melted butter over it and continue rolling it out. You will want to see the design on your sheet through the dough!

Once the dough is appropriately thin, carefully spread the filling out over the surface. Leave about half an inch clear around the edges too leave room for oozing when you roll the dough up into a log.

Pick up one edge and gently roll the dough, forming a log. Carefully lift and place the dough into a loaf pan. I would suggest folding the dough in half and placing this in the pan, leaving the ends hanging out. Then fold the ends over top.

Cover and let rest for about 15 minutes. During this time you can set your oven to 350. Uncover the loaf pan and let bake for 15 minutes. After that, turn the temperature down to 300 and let bake for another 45 minutes. Be careful to watch. If it looks like it'll get too dark before it's done baking you can cover with a bit of aluminum foil. I peaked in about every 15 minutes, mostly out of paranoia. 

Once it's done, let it cool in the loaf pan for a good 20 minutes or so before removing and letting cool the rest of the way.

I recommend toasting a slice and slathering with some butter, yum!