Potica

Thin leavened dough and filling are rolled up in many layers, and cutting through the ring reveals a fine spiral. Potica, a festive sweet from Slovenia, is made by spreading dough out into a rectangle, rolling it up and baking it. The ring-shaped walnut version is the best known, but both the ingredients and the shapes vary widely: sweet fillings made with tarragon, savory fillings made with meat, doughs made with other flours, straight shapes and more. What is spread on the dough, and what kind of pan it is rolled up and fitted into, also preserve differences between households and between the places people emigrated to.

Making a soft leavened dough that can be rolled out large

The dough uses wheat flour, yeast, milk, egg yolks, butter, sugar and other ingredients. It is kneaded until it is smooth and elastic and comes away from the bowl, then covered and left to rest. Because it will later be rolled out large, it is important to bring it to a state in which it is neither too stiff nor prone to tearing.

Besides letting the dough rise before rolling it out, there is also a method in which the dough rests only briefly before the filling is spread on, and then rises during proofing after it has been rolled up. The dough is rolled out into a large rectangle, the filling is spread as evenly as possible right to the edges, and the dough is rolled up firmly from one end.

Walnuts moistened with milk, and ground walnuts scattered on afterward

The walnut filling is made by adding warmed milk to ground walnuts and combining them with sugar or honey, cinnamon, rum and other ingredients. In one method, the milk-soaked walnuts are cooled before eggs are mixed in; in another, egg whites are whipped and added. If the filling spreads smoothly, it keeps the dough from being pulled and torn while the filling is spread.

There is also a method in which the filling is not all mixed at once and some of the ground walnuts are held back. Half is combined with milk, honey, eggs, flavorings and so on and spread on the dough, and the remaining walnuts are scattered over it. Layering the moistened portion and the dry granules places walnuts in different states within the rolled layers.

The dough and filling are brought to similar temperatures before rolling. Rather than suddenly placing warm filling onto cold dough, keeping both at a temperature that is easy to work with allows the dough to be rolled up evenly.

In a recipe by the Japanese pastry researcher Yuko Kumagai, walnut and almond flours are combined with milk, eggs, sugar, rum and other ingredients and spread on the dough, then chopped almonds, hazelnuts, walnuts and chocolate are scattered over it before rolling. This method separates the finely ground filling that is spread from the ingredients that are scattered with their pieces left intact, putting nuts of different sizes into the same spiral.

Fitting the rolled dough into a pan with a central core

The pan in which the rolled dough is baked is called a potičnik or potičnica. It is a round vessel with a conical core in the center; when the long roll is bent and fitted into it, a hole remains in the center of the baked cake. Pans made of ceramic, metal and other materials are used.

The dough is left to rise once more in the pan, and holes are pricked in several places through the surface. When brushing it thinly with egg or milk, care is taken not to fill the holes. This step keeps the outer crust from separating from the interior and shapes the rolled layers so that the filling continues without breaks.

After baking, the potica is left to rest briefly in the pan; once it has settled, it is turned over, removed and cooled. Some are finished with a dusting of powdered sugar. Until it is removed from the pan, the risen roll is handled without letting it break apart.

Sweet and savory fillings, and differences in flours and shapes

Potica fillings are not limited to walnuts. Some use poppy seeds, hazelnuts, raisins, cheese, honey and more. An especially Slovenian combination is a sweet filling with tarragon added.

In one example using tarragon, breadcrumbs fried in butter are cooled, combined with cream, sugar and eggs and spread on the dough, and chopped leaves are scattered over it. There are also versions made mainly with butter and egg yolks, and versions that combine tarragon with fresh cheese; the fragrance of the leaves is added to the flavors of the dairy and eggs.

Potica in the broad sense also includes savory relatives made with pork cracklings, bacon, chives and so on. The flours used include not only wheat but also buckwheat, corn, rye and others. Besides the ring shape, spirals without a central hole and straight rolls are also baked, and these forms have been handed down as well.

A name derived from “rolling,” and the history of fillings and baking pans

The name developed from older forms such as “povitica,” which are connected to wrapping and rolling. It appears in the work of Primož Trubar in the 16th century, in Valvasor’s account of 1689, and in a Slovene-language cookbook from 1799. Honey is one of the old fillings listed in the Ministry of Culture’s registration document. According to a cultural website presenting the research of the ethnologist Janez Bogataj, early fillings were made of finely chopped dried pears, apples and plums sweetened with honey, and in 1689 walnuts and honey were used, along with cheese in some regions.

In the same presentation of the research, the cored potičnik is linked to the influence of kougelhopf-type pans from the German-speaking world in the early 19th century. Even before then, pans and hearths were used, and besides joining the ends of a long roll, there was also a method of cutting a round of dough into four triangles and rolling them up to form a ring. There is a gap between the age of the name and the establishment of today’s tool, and straight rolls and spirals without a hole survive to this day.

In households it is also made for Easter, Christmas, the New Year, births, weddings, funerals and milestones in farm work, and it became a taste of home for emigrants abroad. In 2021, the knowledge and skills of baking it were entered in Slovenia’s Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage.

Putizza, made in the border region

In Trieste and Gorizia, the name putizza is used, which is connected to the same Slovene word for “rolling.” A regional food document describes a three-stage kneading method: a leavened starter, an intermediate dough to which half of the ingredients are added, and a final dough to which the rest are added. A rich filling combining not only raisins and nuts but also apricot jam, cocoa or chocolate, rum and more is rolled up in a thin leavened dough and baked. It belongs to a family of sweets that crosses today’s borders, but it does not fall within the same scope as the five fillings of the protected Slovenska potica.

In Trieste there is also a legend that it was first served in 1864, at a banquet at Miramare Castle, to Maximilian of the Austrian imperial family and his wife Charlotte. This story, which local producers also tell, links a rolled sweet that already existed to the castle’s splendid table.

Communal baking handed down in American mining towns

On the Iron Range in Minnesota, in the United States, the food cultures of immigrants who came to work in the mines intermingled. In an oral history recorded by the state historical society, potica is counted, along with Cornish pasties and Italian porchetta, among the “three P’s” that symbolize the region. BJ Carpenter, a cook who grew up in Hibbing, recalls spreading a cloth over the table, several people stretching the dough until it was thin enough to see through, spreading a filling of walnuts, honey, brown sugar, butter and cinnamon, and lifting the cloth to roll it up. The method of cutting a straight roll into pieces before baking, and memories of church bazaars, suggest that in the places they emigrated to, people also made it together, in a form different from the ring-shaped sweet that represents Slovenia.

“Slovenska potica,” defined by five fillings and its shape

In 2021, “Slovenska potica” was registered in the EU as a Traditional Speciality Guaranteed name. The scheme does not restrict production to a particular place; as long as the specification is followed and certification is obtained, it can be made in other regions as well.

The protection covers five fillings: walnut, walnut and raisin, raisin, tarragon, and tarragon and cheese. There are also conditions on shape, such as using a pan with a central core, a base diameter of at least 14 centimeters, and a cross-section showing 3–4 or more turns of the roll.

The general name “potica” and this certified name differ in scope. In Austria, sweets with names corresponding to Potize and Putize are also made, and the scope of protection was defined so that those names can continue to be used.

Glossary