Brighten your holidays with apple potica like we do it in the Kendov Dvorec kitchen.              

Easter: We bake potica!

Text: Helena Pregelj Tušar
Photo: Robert Zabukovec, Dean Dubokovič

At Easter the Slovenian table is loaded with good things to eat, such as ham, coloured decorated eggs pirhi, horseradish, lamb and roll cake potica without which we cannot imagine holidays. The most famous sorts of Easter potica are walnut and tarragon. But maybe this year you can try to bake apple potica like we do it in the kitchen at Kendov Dvorec? It will certainly brighten your holidays by its delicious taste and juiciness.

In Kendov Dvorec it usually smells of freshly baked potica already in the morning. Salted sorts of potica: ocvirkovca with cracklings, zeljševka with fresh herbs, salted potica with onion and walnut filling or small potica habanca are faithful companions of soups from our kitchen. On holidays we also prepare sweet sorts of potica, among which a special place belongs to the apple one. We find apples for filling on an old apple tree in our garden, flour in the nearby Karlovski mill and butter on Bogataj farm in Poljanska valley.

Zeljševka from the Kendov Dvorec kitchen

Did you know that first sorts of Slovenian potica were fruit ones, with fillings of dried pears, apples and prunes? Once fruits were dried in the oven, ground into flour in mortars and sweetened with honey.

Franci Pivk, chef at Kendov dvorec during the potica baking course at Kendov Dvorec

A lot of people think that preparation of potica is too demanding. After more than twenty-five years in the Kendov Dvorec kitchen, chef  Franci Pivk has long ago lost track of the number of potica he has prepared for guests from all over the world. “It is important that potica does not “catch cold”. The room in which we prepare potica must be warm and without draught,” he advises to all of you who will give it a try during holidays.

APPLE POTICA RECIPE

To prepare three medium size apple poticas we need:

1. Dough:

  • 1 kg flour
  • 100 g butter
  • 50 g yeast
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 yolks
  • 250 ml cream
  • 3 tbsp sour cream
  • 3 tbsp sugar
  • 2 tbsp rum
  • lemon peel
  • 200 ml milk
  • 100 ml oil
  • salt

2. Filling:

  • 10 apples
  • 150 g raisins
  • 50 g butter
  • 4 tbsp sugar
  • 1 vanilla sugar
  • 2 tbsp rum
  • cinnamon

Method:

1. Preparation of dough

Sift flour into a bowl. Make a small pit in the middle and pour into it yeast dissolved in warm milk mixed with a little flour. Wait to rise. Add into flour on the side: salt, eggs, yolks, sugar, oil, dissolved butter, rum, lemon peel and warmed sour and sweet cream. Slowly pour in warm milk and knead dough. Continue to knead until the dough becomes smooth. Cover and let it rise in a warm room.

2. Preparation of filling

Fry washed, peeled and sliced apples and add to them sugar, cinnamon, raisins, vanilla sugar and rum.

3. Making potica

Roll out risen dough. Spread it with apple filling and roll up. Put the rolled potica into a greased round baking pan. Prick potica several times with a long needle, cover it and let it rise.

3. Baking potica

Heat oven to 150 ºC while potica is rising. Immediately before baking brush it with sour cream. Bake it approximately one hour. When potica is baked, leave it for some time in the baking pan, then turn it out on the board and coat it with sugar powder.

Bon appétit and happy Easter!