Tarragon-Ricotta Potica (Pehtranova potica s skuto)

Tarragon is one of the most popular potica fillings in Slovenia. In contrast to many other cuisines, in Slovenia tarragon is mostly used in sweet dishes. Tarragon potica with farmer's cheese was one of the five flavors of potica to receive protection with the traditional specialities guaranteed label (TSG) at the EU level in 2021. Here is a recipe for either one large potica or three smaller ones (a great idea for a home-baked gift). To learn more about potica, read Is it pizza? No, it’s potica!.

Recipe

Ingredients for 3 small potice baked in a potičnik of diameter 20 cm or 1 large potica baked in a potičnik of diameter of about 28 cm:

Dough

• 600 g flour

• 11 g instant yeast

• 120 g butter

• 90 g sugar

• 3 egg yolks

• 250 ml warm milk

• 1 tbsp rum

• zest of 1 lemon

• 1.5 tsp vanilla paste (can be substituted with vanilla essence)

• a pinch of salt

• 1 egg for the egg wash

Tarragon & Farmer's Cheese Filling

• 50 g butter at room temperature

• 500 g farmer's cheese or ricotta

• 100 g sour cream

• 100 g sugar

• 30 g cookie crumbs

• 100 g chopped fresh tarragon

• 1 egg white

Instructions:

Dough

1. In a bowl, combine flour and yeast.

2. Heat the milk, sugar, and butter in a sauce pan until butter is melted.

3. Add lemon zest, rum and vanilla to the milk mixture and stir well.

4. Once the milk mixture is sufficiently cool, add the egg yolks and mix.

5. Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and knead by hand or using a mixer until the dough is soft and elastic. It should not stick to your hands. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in a warm place until the dough has doubled in size (about 60 minutes).

Filling

1. For the filling, mix sour cream, farmer's cheese, sugar, and cookie crumbs.

2. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Slowly fold the whipped egg white into the farmer's cheese mixture. If the filling is too runny, add more cookie crumbs (see the pictures below to get an idea of what the consistency should be).

Making potica

1. Heat the oven to 180 C (360 F). Traditionally, potica is baked in a ceramic pan called potičnica. If you have it, fill it up with water and place it into the oven until the water is boiling (this way potica does not dry up too much during baking). If you do not have it, you can use a bundt cake pan. Butter potičnica or a standard bundt cake pan well.

2. Dust the working area with flour. I usually roll out the dough on a tablecloth so it does not cool down too much during rolling.

3. If you will make three small potice, split the dough into three and roll each into a 30 x 30 cm rectangle. If you will make one large potica, roll the dough into a 90 cm x 35 cm rectangle about 0.5 cm thick.

4. Spread the butter in an even layer over the dough.

5. Spread the filling in an even layer over the buttered dough.

6. Sprinkle the chopped tarragon over the filling.

7. Roll up the dough by hand, stretching it slightly with each roll. Seal the ends securely by gently pulling dough down to cover ends.
8. Transfer the potica roll to the prepared pan so that the seam is looking upward (this way it will not be visible once potica is taken out of the pan).
9. Prick the potica with a toothpick to eliminate air pockets and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.
10. Gently brush the potica with an egg wash.

11. Bake each small potica for about 40 minutes, a large potica for an hour. After 30 minutes cover the potica with aluminum foil, so that the top won't brown too much.
12. Leave potica in the mold to cool down before taking it out.
13. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve!