Olga's Potica

Just like grandma used to make! This recipe is delicious but a lot of work, to roll that dough out so thin you can read the newspaper through it. But if you are Slovenian you owe it to your heritage to make this at least once a year!

We have our own family recipe. Potica has been passed down in my family for four generations. We do NOT use raisins, and always use walnuts NOT pecans. Either use a cheesecloth or flat sheet on your table for rolling out. Sometimes you have to pull the dough to strech it out. Then you can lift the sheet on the side to have the dough w/filling roll nicely.

I've made potica, or povitica as my Croatian Grandma would say, for several years but was never satisfied with the dough recipe until I tried this one. It is very easy to work with, light and delicious. I increase the amount of raisins and walnuts and grind them into a spreadable paste using a food processor. Also, I add between 1/4 - 1/2 cup sweet red wine to the filling recipe.

This is only one of the many varieties of this slovenian pastry dishes. As one of the reviewers said - do it once a year. It is traditionaally made for Christmass or Easter and is really hard to make it "just right". My mother has been making it for 10 years now and she still hasn't mastered it.

One of the best desserts ever!

I've made and eaten potica all my life. This filling appears harder than it should. I've never used raisins nor would I. Ground walnuts are best and most nut stores sell them already ground.

I decided I had enough practice in bread baking to take on one of the really difficult ones. I was right in thinking this bread would be a challenge. It's not a problem that potica takes some time to make--lots of breads take time, and this one does too. The challenge of this bread is rolling the dough out thin, yet not so thin that the filling seeps out. I did two loaves: one about 18 inches long and one about 14 inches long. The filling seeped out of the longer one (too thin layers) and the top layer of the fatter loaf split (otherwise it was fine). So, I'm going to keep practicing, because even though my loaves aren't as pretty as Olga's or Christine's, they tasted really good. Thanks Christine!

I have a similar recipe given to me by my MIL that has been passed down through her Slovanian family for years. We make a HUGE batch (5 loaves) and the easiest way to cut the loaves is to use unflavored dental floss. It also helps if you use a large cheese cloth to aid in rolling the dough..

Very delicious potica. I ommit the raisins. This recipe is better than the bread we get from our Slovenian baker!!!!

Just one comment: Preheat the oven 15 minutes before the end of the second rising otherwise you'll be heating your kitchen for 3 hours!

my croation grnadmother in southern illinois used to make this. i make it too when i have time. you come out with a 8x8 wad of dough, and it rolls out to a square yard of thin pastry you can see thru. best done on a small table , well-floured pastry cloth, that you can walk all the way around. roll patiently from the center out, or reach under with well-floured hands and stretch with the backs of your hands, knuckles slightly raised. lots of effort. no honey or raisins in my gram's- just walnuts, butter, white sugar, pinch nutmeg and lemon peel fine as you can chop it.

This was time-consuming but definitely worth the trouble! I had a lot of fun making this with my sister, and although it's not Christmas yet, we sampled it the following morning for breakfast; divine!! We quickly froze the rest of the loaves(we doubled the recipe) so we wouldn't eat it all before the holiday! The dough was easy to work with and rolled out just great; nice thin layers. Thank you for a terrific recipe:)

IM 3RD GENERATION, POTICA MAKER, NIETHER RECIPE TALKS ABOUT THE FILLING, OR THE SECOND RISE OF THE DOUGH IN THE BOWL, OR THE 3RD RISE OF THE LOAVES, A PRINTED LINEN TABLE CLOTH TAPED TIGHTLY TO A TABLE TOP 36"X 30" OR LARGER, AND FLOURED , IS THE BEST PLACE TO ROLL OUT THE DOUGHT, ROLL IT SO THIN YOU CAN SEE THE PATERN OF THE TABLE CLOTH THROUGH THE DOUGH,UN TAPE THE TABLE CLOTH AND PULL SLOWLY TO ROLL I, THEN CUT IN TO LOAVES. TIP , ADD 1 CAN DRAINED CRUSHED PINAPPLE TO THE FILLING, AND YOU WILL NEVER HAVE DRY POTICA AGAIN, CANT TELLL THERE THERE, ALSO WHITE RAISENS ARE BEST IF YOU WANT TO ADD THEM, SPRINKLE ON THE DOUGH PRIOR TO ROLLING , AMOUNT IS UP TO YOU . MY FREIND BORN I SLOVIENIA , SAYS HE ALLWAYS HAD RAISENS GROWING UP , FIRST TIME WITHOUT WAS HERE IN THE STATES. I WILL TRY TO CONVINCE MY WIFE TO LET THE FAMILY RECIPE OUT OF THE BOX, DONT BE FOOLED THERE IS NO EASY WAY TO MAKE THIS, BUT THE EFFORTS ARE WAY WOTRH THE RESULTS, ITS MORE TIME THEN LABOR , EXCEPT FOR THE 20 MIN, CONTINUIOUS NEADING, WE TAG TEAM 5 MIN PER TURN.

The recipe that has been passed down in our family is different in a couple ways, one being we only use walnuts. Another way is that my Grandma would mix powdered sugar with the ground walnuts. My mother changed that part and mixes maple syrup in with the ground walnuts. I sometimes do both or just use maple syrup and we do not roll the dough out so thin and don't have as many rolls. The upside to that is that I have never had any problems with the rolling of the dough and so forth. We only make it for Christmas and Pascha (Easter). It is nice to see so many other people with the same tradition of Potica.

the filling i usually make and has been made like this for generations is ground walnuts, sugar and raisins soaked in rum. i omit the honey because i think it overwhelms the aroma of walnuts..but that's just me. an interesting twist is making potica with tarragon and cottage/cream cheese, it's really yummy and fragrant :)

The Croatian recipe is called Gibinitca (pronounced gib-e-ni-tza) andI grew up helping my grandmother make it every Easter and Christmas. The dough recipe she used was her bread dough with just a bit of sugar. Instead of rolling the dough, she used her fingers and stretched it from the center, outward, making it "thin enough for light to shine through but no holes!" She made some with walnut filling, some with pecan filling and some using Solo poppy seed as filling, no additional sugar, no raisins (I don't think Grandpa like raisins) but with the honey alone for sweetener. When she was done rolling the dough/filling, she had a very long "snake" (the length of our kitchen table) and wound it into a cake pan with only a small space for rising. When it rose, it filled the pan to the top and slightly over. She also basted the top with egg whites to make it shiny. I've made it several times and although I do roll it out, I've never gotten it quite as thin and delicate as Grandma did.