Baked Cream (Pregreta smetana)

Baked cream is a result of keeping fresh milk stand overnight in a ceramic pan, baking it (traditionally, in a wood fired oven) and then whisking off the caramelized cream that forms on the top.

It is popular in the northeastern and eastern part of Slovenia and is used as a filling for potica, štruklji or savory rolls.

In Slovenian it is called pregreta smetana or škrlupec. There does not seem to be a standard English translation for it — it is called either scalded cream, browned cream or baked cream, depending on where you look.

 

Recipe

Ingredients to make 500 g of baked cream:

  • 7 l of fresh or non-homogenized full fat milk (and unpasteurized, if possible- if the milk is pasteurized, it will take longer for the cream to form on top)

Instructions:

  1. Take 7 liters of fresh or non-homogenized full fat milk and put it into a deep baking pan (or multiple pans). In Slovenia, ceramic pans called latvice (for pictures follow this link) are used for this purpose.

  2. Refrigerate for at least 12 hours until a thick layer of cream forms on the top.

  3. Heat the oven to 180C and once heated put the baking pan with milk into the oven for 10-15 minutes so that the cream that formed on the milk caramelizes and gets a thin unevenly brownish crust.

  4. Collect the baked cream from the surface and use for fillings for potica, štruklji, etc.

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Marinated Fried Sardines (Sardine v Šavorju)