Povitica Beginnings

This was a challenge that was put forth to me by lokified of CoverVersions. He had come across a recipe from Not Quite Nigella and had wanted me to test out a recipe. It turns out it was last month's baking challenge which I have now signed up for and am going to attempt to participate in every month. Now, the images I'm going to have below all have timestamps, this comes from a habit of mine to timestamp everything just in case I decide to scrapbook photos later and I forget dates so from now on after this I'm going to try and make a bigger effort to turn off the timestamping on my camera before I start taking all these photos.

I made my very first batch of Povitica (pronounced poh-vah-tee-sah). The recipe was taken from The Daring Kitchen and I participated this challenge very late so I'm not going to be posting in regards to their regulations for this one but I will from now on. The piece you see on the right is following their walnut recipe and the piece you see on the left is the one I overloaded with apple and tried to see just how much filling a loaf will hold and still stay together. The end result is...a lot but the recipe I'm posting below has the amount of apple cut back so it should be just perfect for a loaf.

I'm going to serve that apple loaf that I made here warmed up and with a side of custard, it will be more like an apple pudding than the loaf of bread that it should be but still just as tasty.

Povitica - makes three loaves, two with a walnut filling and one with an apple cinnamon filling.

To Activate the Yeast
7g Sugar
3g plain flour
90ml water
11g dry yeast

Dough
360ml milk
128g sugar
18g table salt
3 large eggs
90g unsalted butter
840g to 1kg flour (the amount of flour will vary)

1. To activate the yeast, combine all of the above ingredients into a bowl and cover with cling wrap. Stand while you weigh up the rest of the ingredients.

2. In a medium saucepan, heat up the milk to just below boiling point (about 82C) stirring constantly so that a film does not form on the surface. Then allow to cool slightly (to about 43C) while you measure out the rest of the ingredients.

3. In a large bowl, mix the scalded milk, sugar and salt until it's well combined.

4. Add the beaten eggs, activated yeast, melted butter (allow it to cool before you pour it in otherwise it'll burn everything else) and about 1/4 of the flour.

5. Blend thoroughly and slowly add the remaining flour just enough so that the mixture comes off the side of the bowl.

6. Pour the dough mixture out onto the bench and knead while adding the rest of the flour. This is where the flour will vary. The amount of flour you use will be dependent on a few things such as the temperature of the room around you, the warmth of your hands (if the rumors I hear are correct and my hands are very very warm), the type of flour you use and other factors. Just keep mixing flour in small amounts until the dough is no longer very sticky, it will still be a little bit sticky but not so sticky that it smooshes to everything. A scraper is very handy in this step as well.

7. When you've reached a point where it's kneadable without it being too sticky, just keep kneading until the transparent window test tells you to stop. What I mean by this is, you should be able to gently spread the dough between your fingers so that it's almost transparent and you can see the lines of gluten form.

It's a little hard to take a picture of it with one hand but that's kind of what you're looking for. You should be able to just see the surface behind it and if you pull a little bit more you'll be able to see strands in the dough.

8. Divide the dough into three pieces and place onto a kitchen bench with a very lightly dampened towel over it. Leave for about one and a half to three hours (depending on the temp of where you've left it) until it has risen to twice its size.

While you're waiting for the dough to proof, you can make the fillings from the recipes below. 

9. The next step is to roll out the dough. Use flour very sparingly in this step. The aim is to roll the dough out as thinly as possible without tearing it. After you've managed to roll it out, brush a little bit of melted butter over the top and spread the fillings over.

What you see here is my overloading my bread dough with an apple filling. It should roughly be just a little over half this amount. The recipe that you have at the bottom is the adjusted amount so you don't have to worry so much about this. Some tips in regards to this would be to cut the apple up into really small pieces or to puree the mixture. The next time I try this recipe out I'm going to try it out with an apple puree to see if I can get a smoother pattern. After I spread the apply out on the dough, I covered it with some cinnamon and brown sugar. The image that you see below is the walnut filling spread out on the dough and the end of the rolling up process. 

10. When you've finally finished rolling it up you'll get a long tube kind of like if you've rolled up a roll of sushi. You just coil it up and place it into some well oiled bread tins at this point. 

I do agree, they look very disturbing when they're in the bread tins like that. I try really hard not to think about what they look like, I'd rather not think about it. But let them sit in the bread tins for about an hour or two so that they have time to proof again and rise a bit more. You want it to have this final proof so that the bread comes out really nice and fluffy. 

11. Brush the tops of the bread with a beaten egg and then pop it into the oven at 180C for about 15 minutes. Then turn the oven down to 150C and bake for a further 30 minutes. At this point check the tops, if it's really golden then you should cover the pans with aluminum foil or turn off the top element of your oven. Then bake for a further 15 minutes. 

12. Remove from oven and leave in the tins for another half to an hour so they cool slightly and then turn out the loaves and let them cool completely before slicing into them.

And such you have your beautiful walnut povitica. The apple one didn't turn out quite as pretty because I definitely overloaded it with a lot of apple. To get the swirl pattern a lot neater, I would suggest dicing up the walnut a bit finer than I did. 

You can see here that the apple was definitely overloaded. It did really turn out to taste more like a baked apple pudding even though you could slice it like a bread. It still turned out really tasty however, despite it's pudding type texture. 

And now for the filling recipes. The apple recipe here has been adjusted so that it's less of an overkill like my loaf was. 

Walnut filling - suitable for two loaves

560g walnuts

120ml milk

115g butter

1 large egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

225g sugar

1 tsp cocoa powder

1 tsp cinnamon 

1. Mix together the walnuts, sugar, cinnamon and cocoa.

2. Heat up the milk and butter until the butter has completely melted and the mixture is beginning to boil.

3. Pour the liquid over the nut and sugar mix and combine.

4. Add the eggs and vanilla to the mixture and mix thoroughly.

5. Allow to stand at room temperature, if the mixture becomes too thick you can thin it back out with a small amount of warm milk.

Apple Filling - enough for one loaf.

4 large apples 

3tbs flour

150g butter

1. Cook all of the above ingredients in a large pan until the apple is softened and the mixture thickens.

2. Stir in 3tsp ground nutmeg into the mixture.

3. After spreading onto the dough, scatter a layer of cinnamon and brown sugar over the top for extra tasties.

That is my first adventure into povitica. I hope you have enjoyed it just as much as I have!