Hazelnut Potica

In this potica recipe, the filling is made from hazelnuts. Corylus avellana or the common hazel, is the most common type of hazel shrub that grows in Slovenia. The hazel tree is also considered one of the nut trees that has been present on the territory of modern day Slovenia the longest (in addition to the walnut and chestnut). To learn more about potica, read Is it pizza? No, it’s potica!.

Recipe

Ingredients for a potica baked in a potičnik of diameter around 28 cm:

Dough

• 600 g flour

• 14 g instant yeast

• 120 g butter

• 90 g sugar

• 3 egg yolks

• 250 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

Hazelnut Filling

• 500 g ground halzenuts

• 125 ml heavy whipping cream

• 60 g butter

• 200 g sugar

• 1 tsp rum

• 1 tsp vanilla essence or vanilla paste

• 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 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, bring cream, butter and sugar to a simmer in a sauce pan.

2. Pour the milk mixture over the ground hazelnuts.

3. Add rum and vanilla essence, and mix well.

4. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. Slowly fold the whipped egg whites into the hazelnut mixture.

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. Roll the dough into a rectangle 90 cm x 35 cm (depending on the size of your pan) about 0.5 cm thick. Spread the hazelnut filling in an even layer over the dough.

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, slice and serve!