Ice Box Potica

from amethyst

My potica recipe (pronounced puhteetsa). It's a fussy recipe but truly the best sweet bread you'll ever have.

Dough:
1 oz. cake yeast or two pkgs. dry yeast
¼ cup very warm water
1 tsp. sugar
3 TB sugar
1-1/2 tsp salt
4 cups Sapphire flour (1 lb. 2-1/2 oz)
½ cup room-temp unsalted butter
3 egg yolks room-temp (use whites for filling)
1 cup room-temp sour cream

In small bowl, dissolve yeast in ¼ cup very warm water (but not hot or it will kill yeast); add 1 tsp. sugar, mix, and let set until mixture rises and foams.

Put remaining ingredients in Kitchen-Aid bowl, add yeast mixture; put in dough hooks and use lowest speed to knead for approx. 10 mins. until smooth and elastic.

 Place in greased bowl, grease top of dough to prevent from rising too much; put in fridge overnight.

Filling: 

1-¼ lb. ground walnuts (put through nut grinder twice, don’t use food processor);

½ cup unsalted butter softened

4 egg whites stiffly beaten

1 scant cup boiling milk

¾ cups sugar

Pour scalded milk (milk won’t actually boil, but will get a skim cover over it when near boiling) over ground nuts; add butter and stir until melted; stir in sugar; fold in egg whites.

Divide filling into three (approx. 13 oz. per loaf). Let filling sit on counter for awhile until it is “firm” and not runny and sloppy. If you make filling ahead of time, let it sit out for awhile until it is totally room temp and not at all cold.

Remove dough two hours before rolling; divide into three (12.5 oz. each); dough should not be cold at all but totally room temp.

On counter or wooden board, sprinkle surface with one TB sugar and one TB flour.

Roll dough into rectangles (don’t roll too thin or too wide, dough should feel somewhat “thick” to the touch).

Spread with filling leaving ½” around edge of rectangle; roll up dough, pricking across top of surface as you go (I use a knife and stab it); this prevents separation. Don’t prick the final top of the loaf that’s going to show

 Pinch ends closed as best you can and shape the loaves to fit into well-greased pans (grease bottom and 1” up sides with Crisco).

Put dough in the pans, pat like a baby’s behind to shape it and fit it into pan. Make sure the dough flap is on the bottom, 2/3rds over, or when it rises, the flap will show too much.

Cover the three bread pans with clean towel and let rise 1-1/2 hours in a warm place (on top of T.V., in warm kitchen, or I use a large heating pad on low).

Preheat oven to 325F

Use one egg yolk and 1 tsp. water combined per loaf; brush mixture on top and sides of each loaf.

Bake all three loaves for approx. 1 hour and five minutes depending on oven (less in electric oven); make sure pans are not touching each other or touching the oven walls. Turn loaves halfway through cooking time to cook evenly; you may need to cover loaves loosely with foil if they’re getting too brown before time is up (15 mins. before done).

 

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