I am always keen on learning anything new and baking is my current passion. So what better way to roll up my sleeves and get all set to bake a challenging recipe. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat.
Povitica (poh-vee-TEET-sah ) is sweat or savory yeast bread of Croatian origin. It is typically served at special occasions like weddings, birthdays and holidays.
A sweetened dough is made which is rolled paper thin and slathered with a filling and then rolled again and baked.
Although walnut is the most traditional filling, other fillings can also be used like peaches, apple, apple and raisins, chocolate, strawberry jam etc. The end result is beautifully patterned slices when cut.
The original recipe made 4 loaves of bread, but as I was baking it for the first time, I was a little apprehensive. But Jenni was very generous to provide a halved recipe and even a quartered recipe.
Quartered recipe made one loaf , so I was a happy girl. Even if something goes wrong with the first loaf, i’ll still have my chance. This is definitely a beautifully baked loaf with a surprise inside.
When the slices of this loaf were cut, there were beautiful patterns inside. The bread was very soft to eat and the flavor of the filling was phenomenal.
Recipe Card
Povitica
Ingredients
To activate the yeast
- ½ teaspoon Sugar
- ¼ teaspoon All purpose flour
- 2 tablespoon Warm water
- 1 & ½ teaspoon Dry yeast
For the dough
- ½ cup Whole milk
- 3 tablespoon Sugar
- 1 Egg
- ¾ teaspoon Salt
- 1 tablespoon Unsalted butter (melted)
- 2 cups All purpose flour (sifted)
For Topping
- 2 tablespoon Milk
Filling ingredients
- 1 & ¾ cups Walnuts (ground)
- ¼ cup Whole milk
- ¼ cup Unsalted butter
- 1 Egg yolk (beaten)
- ¼ teaspoon Vanilla extract
- ½ cup Sugar
- ¼ teaspoon Cocoa powder (Unsweetened)
- ¼ teaspoon Cinnamon powder
Instructions
To activate yeast
- In a small bowl, stir together sugar, flour and yeast into warm water and cover and keep aside for 5 minutes
To make the dough
- In a pan, heat the milk just below the boiling point
- Keep stirring
- Cool a bit
- In a bowl, mix milk with sugar and salt
- Add egg, yeast mixture, melted butter and ¼ cups of flour
- Mix nicely and continue adding flour till a soft dough is formed
- Turn the dough on a lightly floured surface and knead for 3-4 minutes
- Keep the dough in a covered oiled bowl for one and half hours in a warm place, till it doubles in size
To make the filling
- Ground the walnuts in a blender
- Mix , ground walnuts, sugar, cocoa powder and cinnamon powder
- Heat milk and butter to boiling
- Add in the walnut mixture
- Add the egg and vanilla and mix thoroughly
- To roll and assemble the dough
- Spread a plastic sheet on top of the working surface
- Sprinkle little flour on the sheet
- Roll the dough on this sheet, as thin as you can without tearing the dough {I teared mine at a few places 🙁 }
- Spread 1 tablespoon of butter on the rolled dough
- Spread the filling on the rolled dough evenly
- Lift the edge of the dough and roll it gently into a long roll
- Place the dough roll into the greased pan in the shape of a U
- Brush the top with milk
- Cover the pan with a plastic wrap and let the dough rest for 15 minutes
- Pre heat the oven to 350F
- After 15 minutes, remove the plastic wrap from the pan and bake the bread for 15 minutes at 350F
- Lower the oven temperature to 300F and bake for another 40-45 minutes
- Remove bread from the oven and brush with melted butter
- Let it rest in the pan for 20 minutes
- Remove from the pan and cool on a wire rack
sangee vijay
Congrats Neha..the way to go gal…keep rocking
povitica is new to me but looks so yummy and tempting…well done dear !!!
Just to let u know that my blog title was changed to “Spicy Treats” (before it was Typical Indian Cooking)
MyKitchen Flavors-BonAppetit!.
Povitika luks yum yum.Luv it.
Sanyukta Gour(Bayes)
Delicious dessert neha…lovely pics…
Looks absolute Mouthwatering …
Sanyukta
Reshmi Mahesh
Too good to look at…sure that it tasted wonderful….
Sumee
Wow.. What a beautiful creation Neha.! Kudos
R
looks extremely delicious, great job on ur first attempt!
Uma
This is really a good dessert. Looks wonderful.
Cheers,
Uma
cooking varieties (wan)
Hi neha, such a pretty looking bread dessert-would love to try this walnuts and cinnamon filling is very flavorful to me
Amina
wow… looks fabulous… never seen before… bookmarking it..
Nava.K
great outcome Neha though I am not sure I can make the same, the walnuts and cinnamon must be lovely and tasted fantastic one done with the baking.
Tina
looksss beautiful….Its new to me…
Love and other Spices
looks so yummy.would love to try it.
Padhu
Looks divine . Beautiful pics
Kaveri
Mmmm…A very new and interesting recipe…Love the pattered slices
Jay
excellent try dear…sounds scrumptiously tasty..
FiSh
it looks marvellous! i hope i have the talent to bake this 🙂
Amy
something new for me…looks perfect!!
Suja
Looks beautiful,chocolaty and yummy
Blackswan
Lovely looking bread & it looks so tasty, dear! Well done! Oh, don’t forget to pick up your award! Have a nice weekend!
Sobha Shyam
beautiful dessert bread, appreciate ur efforts dear, nice presentation..
anchan
Oh, that looks so delicious! So dangerous to have that bread in the house, I wouldn’t be able to resist going back for another slice! 😉
schmetterlingwords
Ooooh oooh oooh…. What a lovely roll… You have got it absolutely great Neha. The pics look adorable and I wish I was there to have at least two slices… Keep rocking with Daring bakers in future too 🙂
Jenni
Great job! Your povitica looks great, you got some beautiful swirls!!
Lecker and Yummy recipes
wow Neha, iam totally wowed with this bread ! well shaped, perfectly baked, wonderfully presented and stunningly photographed !! went thru ur collection of baked goodies….not exxagerating u see, to be a very good baker !!! love to follow ur recipes…..