Chestnut Potica

Chestnuts carry a legacy that stretches back thousands of years. Native to Europe, Asia, and North America, chestnuts were a culinary staple across various cultures and were prized for their high fiber content, beneficial fats, and wealth of essential vitamins and minerals.

In Slovenia, as in much of Europe, chestnuts were an important food source before potatoes became widespread. With the introduction of potatoes their role began to diminish. However, chestnut picking remains a popular family tradition to this day and groups of friends and co-workers often gather for `chestnut picnics’ to roast and enjoy freshly roasted chestnuts.

In the recipe below, chestnuts make their way into Slovenia's most popular dessert, potica, where they serve as a delicious, nutty filling. For more about potica, see Is it pizza? No, it’s potica!.

Recipe

Ingredients for a potica baked in a potičnik of diameter around 24 cm:

Dough

• 400 g flour

• 7 g instant yeast

• 80 g butter

• 60 g sugar

• 2 egg yolks

• 170 ml warm milk

• 1 tbsp rum

• zest of 1 lemon

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

• a pinch of salt

• 1 egg for the egg wash

Filling

• 400 g cooked peeled chestnuts

• 50 g almond flour

• 100 g sugar

• 15 g vanilla sugar

• 1 tbsp sour cream

• 25 g butter

• 1 egg yolk + 3 egg whites

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 2 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, grind the chestnuts and mix them with almond flour, sugar, vanilla sugar, sour cream, 1 egg yolk and melted butter.

2. Beat the 3 egg whites to stiff peaks. Slowly fold the whipped egg whites into the chestnut mixture.

Making potica

1. Heat the oven to 180C (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. Roll the dough into a 40 cm x 35 cm rectangle (depending on the size of your pan) about 0.5 cm thick. Spread the chestnut-filling in an even layer over the dough.

The pictures depict the steps in the preparation of poppy seed potica. They are the same in the case of chestnut potica, only the filling looks different.

4. Roll up the dough by hand, stretching it slightly with each roll. Seal the ends securely by gently pulling dough down to cover ends.
5. 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).
6. Prick the potica with a toothpick to eliminate air pockets and let rise in a warm place for about 30 minutes.
7. Gently brush the potica with an egg wash.
8. Bake for an hour. After 30 minutes cover the potica with aluminum foil, so that the top won't brown too much.
9. Leave potica in the mold to cool down before taking it out.
10. Sprinkle with powdered sugar and serve!