Povitica





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A Croation/Polish Sweet

Bread


Continuing with the theme of what customers are doing with their Oklahoma Pasty Cloths™, we have some great pictures to share. Facebook fan, Kathleen Szewc, ordered one of our very large Oklahoma Pastry Cloths™, sized 48″ x 48″ and my curiosity got the best of me. I had to know what in the world she was making that required such a large pastry cloth. She cheerfully informed me that she and a group of ladies would be making Povitica, a traditional bread of Croation and Polish origin. Families have their recipes that have been handed down for generations and understandingly, Kathleen’s recipe is top secret! She was very kind to send pictures and so I found a recipe to go with the pictures, posted by Roberta and Krystal Dent of Salina, KS, which won second place at the Kansas State Fair! I am itching to try my hand at this bread because it looks and sounds absolutely scrumptious – and sinfully good!!!


Sweet Dough:
•1-1/2 cup lukewarm milk
•1/2 cup sugar
•2 teaspoons salt
•2 eggs
•1/4 cup soft butter
•2 packages Fleischmann’s Active Dry Yeast
•1/2 cup warm water
•7-1/2 to 8 cups flour

Filling
•1 can evaporated milk
•1 heaping cup sugar
•2 sticks margarine
•1-1/2 pounds pecans or walnuts (ground fine)
•4 eggs
•Pinch salt
•1 teaspoon cocoa
•1 teaspoon cinnamon

Directions:
Sweet Dough preparation:
Combine warm milk, sugar, salt, softened butter, and beaten eggs. Dissolvyeast in warm water and add to other ingredients. Add half of flour, mix well until smooth. Add flour to handle easily. Knead dough on lightly floured board. Put dough in greased bowl, cover and place in warm, draft free place until doubled in size. Punch down and let double again. Divide dough in three parts. Roll each part until very thin in rectangular shape. Spread filling, roll and twist in circular shape like a snail or cinnamon roll. Place in greased 8-inch or 9-inch cake pans. Cover, put in warm place and let rise. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 to 45 minutes.


Filling preparation:
In a heavy pan, over medium heat, combine sugar, evaporated milk, and margarine and heat. Add pecans, then beaten eggs, and mix well. Boil one minutes stirring constantly. Remove from heat, add pinch of salt, cocoa, and cinnamon and mix well. Let cool till just warm enough to spread.


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The dough was kneaded and divided. It appears the ladies used a counter top, but the pastry cloth can be great for this part of the process too. I noticed in the recipes that the less flour used in the dough the better, especially during kneading and rolling, because the dough must be light. The pastry cloth makes that easy.


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They rolled the dough on the Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ and then stretched the dough using their fists to make a really thin dough.


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Rolling the dough really thin is easy on the Oklahoma Pastry Cloth™ because it doesn’t stick. Kathleen said that they stretched the dough and then laid it back onto the pastry cloth, added the filling and then, by lifting the edge of the cloth easily rolled the dough onto itself like a jelly roll. See? No sticking!!





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The long “jelly roll” is snaked into a loaf pan to rise. Isn’t that cool? Then it is baked


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Aren’t those spectacular? I want to dive right in. Thank you so much, Kathleen, for sharing this unique experience and for giving me a new challenge!



Happy Baking!



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2 Responses to “



Povitica

  1. Candy C. says:

    Cool! That looks like a great reason to get a group of ladies together to bake!! 🙂

  2. It sure does, Candy and I think I’m gonna do it!