Christmas Bread Poprtnik
Poprtnik, poprtnjak or podprtnik are only a few terms used in reference to a Slovenian ceremonial Christmas bread. The name comes from the Slovenian word prt or tablecloth and indicates that this bread was covered by a tablecloth until it was shared among the family and livestock on Epiphany (January 6). In the past everyone who visited a Slovenian home around Christmas was served poprtnik. Young single men took advantage of that and made rounds around the neighborhood since it was believed that anyone trying 9 different poprtnik would be married in the coming year. Poprtnik was also used for fortune telling: the side of the bread, where the crust cracked indicated the direction from which the future groom would enter the house. The size of the slice a child received prophesied how much he or she would grow in the coming year. In certain households poprtnik was kept beyond Epiphany and given to livestock in case of sickness. Crumbs of poprtnik spread across a field made the land more fertile, and crumbs thrown into a well prevented drought. All of these indicate that poprtnik was considered to have had healing and even magical powers.
According to popular belief, poprtnik dates all the way back to the pre-Christian period. The first official record of poprtnik dates back to 1592 and is due to the scholar Hieronymus Megiser. The next mention came about a century later, in 1689, when the polymath Janez Vajkard Valvasor described Christmas traditions in his book The Glory of the Duchy of Carniola. A part of these traditions was also poprtnik.
Most households would bake anywhere from one to three Christmas breads. When three were prepared, one was eaten on Christmas, one on New Years and one on Epiphany. They were also each made from a different type of flour- wheat, rye, and buckwheat. The loaves were usually richly decorated with ornaments made of dough (braids, birds, stars, donkeys, the Holy Family, etc) and the housewives sometimes added walnuts, raisins or herbs. According to one belief, there must be one bird for each child on poprtnik.
After World War II poprtnik was slowly replaced by potica. At the end of the 20th century, the tradition of making poprtnik was revived and in 2013 it was entered in the Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage by the Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Slovenia. To keep the tradition alive, the Parnas Institute from Velike Lašče organizes regular workshops, but they also shot a 10-minute movie Preparation of Christmas Bread.
Bogataj, Janez. Taste Slovenia. Ljubljana: Rokus Gifts & National Geographic, 2007.
Recipe
Ingredients:
1000 g flour
20 g instant yeast
30 g salt
160 g butter at room temperature
500 ml warm milk
2 eggs
50 g sugar
grated lemon zest of 1 lemon
1 egg for the egg wash
Instructions:
Dough
In a bowl, combine flour and yeast.
Heat the milk, sugar, and butter in a sauce pan until butter is melted.
Add lemon zest to the milk mixture and stir well.
Once the milk mixture is sufficiently cool, add the eggs and mix.
Add the milk mixture to the flour mixture and knead a little. Add the salt and continue kneading 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).
Making poprtnik
Heat the oven to 180 C (355 F).
Put a third of the dough on the side for decorations. Shape the remaining 2/3 into a ball.
Let the ball rest, and in the meantime prepare the decorations for the poprtnik. The typical decorations are braids, birds, and stars. See the pictures above to see how to shape a bird. For some shapes, like stars, you can use cookie cutters.
- Let rise in a warm place.
- Mix egg in a cup and gently brush the bread with it.
- Bake for about 50 minutes. Cover with aluminum foil after about 10-15 minutes so that the decorations do not brown too much. I usually first cover the birds and then after about 30 min the entire poprtnik.
- Slice and serve.