Povotica

Submitted by Stella Mae

"This eastern European Croatian sweet bread or coffee cake is enjoyed during Christmas and Easter. Povotica (Povo-teets-a) is out of this world delicious, no other way to describe it. My cousin makes this bread every Christmas, and I like it for a coffee or tea party."

 

• Ready In: 46mins
• Ingredients: 15
• Yields: 1 loaf

ingredients

• The Bread

• 1⁄4 cup water
• 3 compressed yeast cakes
• 7 cups flour, plus
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 3 eggs, beaten until lemon colored
• 1 cup boiled and cooled whole milk
• 1 1⁄2 cups sugar
• 1 tablespoon salt
• 1 teaspoon lemon extract
• 1⁄4 cup melted butter

• The Filling

• 1⁄2 cup melted butter
• 20 ounces ground walnuts
• 2 beaten eggs
• 2 cups white sugar
• 16 ounces raisins or 16 ounces ground dates

directions

1. Combine 1/4 cup water, yeast and 2 tablespoons of the flour; cover with a cloth and let rise in a warm place for 10 minutes.
2. Mix eggs, water, milk, sugar, salt and lemon extract together; add yeast mixture.
3. Add remaining flour until damp; add butter.
4. Knead until smooth.
5. Cover with a cloth, set in warm place, let rise until doubled in bulk.
6. Roll out dough.
7. Spread filling on dough; roll up like a jelly roll.
8. Lightly grease a large, oblong baking pan-- a jellyroll pan or sheet cake pan that is 10"x15" or 9"x13" in size.
9. "Snake"this long, jellyroll around and around the pan beginning in the center and working outward.
10. Cover with a cloth and let rise for 30 minutes.
11. Bake at 350F for 1 hour-- test for doneness by sticking a table knife deep into the center of the loaf.
12. When the knife comes out clean, the bread is ready.
13. Be careful not to overbake!
14. Cool on a cake rack before slicing.
15. Keeps well in a covered container in the fridge.

Reviews

[mianbao]

This sweet bread is fantastic! It went too quickly to get a picture this time around, but there will be other times. I divided the recipe in half because I have a small oven. The dough of half of the recipe came to 1130 grams. I halved that again, rolled each half into a 16 x 9-inch rectangle, spread them with the filling, rolled them up and placed them in 9-inch round cake pans, curving from the middle. The bread rose beautifully and was so soft. Oh, I have to admit - I used all ingredients, but I substituted dried cherries for the raisins or dates, and also used only about 2 tablespoons melted butter in the filling for the halved recipe. I'm looking forward to trying this again with the raisins called for, as well as trying other nuts and dried fruit combinations. Thank you so much for posting this recipe. It's a jewel.