This Einkorn Povitica Potica Sweet Bread utilizes an enriched dough that is rolled out or stretched really thin and then spread with ground nuts, cocoa, cinnamon sugar, and a hint of ground coffee for added flavor. Before baking, it is brushed with melted butter and sprinkled with a blend of ground coffee, cinnamon, and sugar.
Potica or Povitica is the bread of the month for the Bread Baking Babes. The recipe is adapted from Bake Street (https://bake-street.com/en/potica-povitica/).
This delicious bread can be spread with a savory or sweet filling. In Slovenia, it is known as potica and povitica in Croatia. In Poland, it is known as Makowiec, and the dough is spread with s poppyseed filling instead of the typical walnut filling.
For my dough, I used a blend of all-purpose and wholegrain einkorn flour milled on the pastry setting and some brewed coffee (in addition to the milk).
My inspiration for adding the coffee came from the Pan de Café {Coffee Bread} from Bryan Ford’s book New World Sourdough. I fell in love with his coffee bread and have been making it about once a week for several weeks. I even made it for my youngest son’s birthday. It has coffee in the dough and is spread and swirled with a blend of cinnamon, sugar and ground coffee.
I enjoyed the coffee bread so much that I thought the same flavors would go well in the Povitica. I didn’t include as much brewed coffee in this bread as the coffee bread has, just enough to give it a little boost in flavor.
I was pleased with the flavor, texture, and extensibility of the dough. Einkorn flour works nicely in this bread due to its softer protein.
When it came to rolling out the dough, for some reason, I got fixated on rolling it out to the dimensions provided in the recipe instead of focusing on rolling out the dough to fit my 9×5-inch pan. As a result, I rolled it out longer than it needed to be for the pan and had to sort of fenagle (stuff) it into the pan.
Moving onto the filling.
In a perfect world, I would’ve made a lovely filling that spread evenly over the dough. However, due to unforeseen circumstances (with a pipeline and gas), I didn’t want to take any unnecessary trips to the store.
I didn’t have enough of any one nut to use for the filling so I ground a mix of walnuts, pecans, and cashews. I only had one egg so it went in the dough. Instead of using an egg in the filling, I added some ground flaxseed. In hindsight, I should’ve added extra water or coffee to compensate for the missing egg, but I didn’t.
The filling didn’t quite cover the dough so I ended up with more dough than filling. I made up for this by brushing the top of the loaf with melted butter before baking and sprinkling a blend of coffee grounds and cinnamon sugar to create a delicious crunch.
Interestingly enough, in the New World Sourdough book, there is a quote I find very apropos:
As a baker, remember how important it is to use what you have and appreciate it!”
Bryan Ford, New World Sourdough
Although the argument could be made that I should’ve had my mise en place so as not to be in this predicament, I prefer to stick with my story of using what I had on hand and appreciating it.
One more thing to note is the baking time. I baked the loaf for the suggested amount of time (1 hour), but my bread turned out a little bit dry. Some of the dryness is due to not using an egg or extra water in the filling for hydration. However, I don’t think it needed to be baked as long as the recipe indicated, especially since I didn’t have the extra egg. I think 35-40 minutes would’ve worked better than baking it the entire hour even with turning the oven down after fifteen minutes.
I will say that even with the lack of filling and the bread being a little dry, it still has a wonderful flavor. The povitica tastes great warmed gently in the microwave and served with a steamy cup of coffee.
Einkorn Povitica | Potica Sweet Bread
- Yield: 1 loaf 1x
Description
This Einkorn Povitica Potica Sweet Bread utilizes an enriched dough that is rolled out or stretched really thin and then spread with ground nuts, cocoa, cinnamon sugar and a hint of ground coffee for added flavor. Prior to baking, it is brushed with melted butter and then sprinkled with a blend of ground coffee, cinnamon and sugar.
Ingredients
Dough:
- 200 grams all-purpose einkorn flour
- 85 grams whole grain einkorn flour milled on the pastry setting
- 1/4 tsp instant dry yeast
- 100 grams milk (I used almond milk)
- 35 grams brewed coffee, chilled
- 5 grams salt
- 1 large egg (60 g)
- 50 grams sugar, divided (I used organic)
- 22 grams unsalted butter melted and cooled, divided
Filling:
- 280 grams walnuts, pecans, cashews (or nuts of your choice)
- 95 grams sugar
- 1/2 Tbsp. unsweetened cocoa powder
- 4 grams cinnamon powder
- 4 grams ground coffee
- pinch of salt
- 1 1/2 tsp ground flaxseed meal
- 58 grams unsalted butter
- 60 grams milk (I used almond milk)
- 1 large egg yolk (I omitted this)
- 1/4 tsp vanilla extract
For Topping:
- 25 grams unsalted butter melted and cooled
- Blend of ground coffee, sugar, cinnamon sprinkled on top before baking
Instructions
First, make the dough.
- In a mixing bowl or stand mixer, whisk together the flours and dry yeast. Then add the milk, water, brewed coffee, egg and salt.
- Mix the ingredients in the bowl until a fairly smooth and homogeneous dough is obtained.
- Add the sugar in two additions, kneading each time until it is fully integrated.
- Knead the dough until it is smooth and silky with at least a medium gluten development. Work in the butter in about three additions until smooth again.
- Knead for about 12-15 minutes to develop the gluten well and obtain an elastic, soft, and well-developed dough. It may be slightly sticky but should pass the windowpane test. If it does not, the final stretching will not be possible without tearing.
- When the dough is properly developed, form into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl.
- Cover with plastic wrap and let rise until it doubles its volume. This can take up to three hours.
Make the filling while the dough is rising.
- In a food processor or coffee grinder, add nuts together with sugar, cinnamon, salt, cocoa powder, and coffee grounds. Blend until the nuts are finely chopped and transfer to a bowl.
- In a saucepan or microwave, heat the milk along with the butter until it just boils. Remove from the heat.
- Pour the milk into the nut mixture. Add the vanilla and the egg yolk and mix until completely homogenized.
- Set aside at room temperature, covered, until ready to fill the povitica.
Stretching the dough:
- Lay out a sheet or cloth on a wide, flat surface.
- Sprinkle the work surface very lightly with flour. (I used all purpose einkorn.)
- Turn out the dough and de-gas it gently.
- Roll the dough out into a very thin rectangle with a rolling pin, then continue to carefully stretch with hand to about 25½x18-in. (65 x 45 cm) rectangle. (The dough should be about three times as long as your pan. Very gently and slowly work the dough with your hands, stretching from the center to the edges. It should remain soft and elastic and stretch without tearing as long as the gluten was developed and the process is taken slowly.
Spread the filling.
- Drop spoonfuls of the filling evenly across the dough. Using an offset spatula and/or your hands, spread and distribute the filling evenly across the dough to all but one long edge that will seal after rolling. The filling may be dense so just go slowly and try not to stretch or tear the dough.
Roll up the dough.
- Starting with the long edge that has filling to the edge, roll the dough on itself making sure that there is no gap between each layer. Start at one end and just turn up the edge all the way across. Then continue to roll from edge to edge carefully and with the help of both hands.
- Once the entire sheet is rolled up, carefully pinch and seal the long edge.
- Shape the roll into an S and place it into the pan. It will take two hands, scoop in from the ends and carefully lift into the pan. (Other shaping methods including rolling up in a circle like a snail and baking in an earthenware baker, or cutting the roll into sections and lining them up in the loaf pan. Using sections and a smaller loaf tin will yield a taller loaf.)
- Cover with plastic and let the dough rise until the dough has puffed up somewhat. This will be most evident looking at the ends of the dough to see any increase in size. Again, this can take 1-3 hours.
Bake povitica.
- Preheat the oven to 350ºF.
- Brush the top of the loaf with half of the butter and sprinkle the crunch topping over the top of the loaf, if desired. Then place in the center of the oven.
- Bake for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 300ºF and leave for 45 minutes more. The total baking time is 60 minutes. *See notes.
- Remove from the oven and brush with the remaining butter, if desired.
- Let it rest in the pan for 20 minutes. Then turn out the loaf and allow to cool completely on a rack. Dust with powdered sugar if desired.
Notes
The ideal pan size for this dough is 10 x 4 x 3 inches (25 x 11 x 7 cm), but a 9×5 or 8×4 inch pan will work.
If you omit the egg in the filling, you can probably reduce the baking time. I baked it the entire hour and it was a bit dry.
This loaf should ideally be cut from the bottom to keep the outside edges/top from crumbling.
This loaf will keep for 4-5 days in a sealed bag or a week in the refrigerator. It may also be frozen in portions.
- Category: Yeasted Sweet Bread
Who are the Bread Baking Babes?
We are a group of breadbakers who get together every month and bake bread! We have a Facebook group if you’d like to bake along. New recipes are posted every month on the 16th.
Kelly, of A Messy Kitchen, is the host kitchen this month. Check out her blog post for more details on how to participate in this month’s challenge.
For more inspiration, check out all of the BBB posts:
A Messy Kitchen – Kelly (Host Kitchen)
Karen’s Kitchen Stories – Karen
Judy’s Gross Eats – Judy
Bread Experience – Cathy
blog from OUR kitchen– Elizabeth
My Kitchen in Half Cups – Tanna
Feeding My Enthusiasms – Pat
My Diverse Kitchen – Aparna
Thyme for Cooking – Katie (roundup)
Happy Baking!
Cathy
Absolutely love the color and what you did with the filling! Truly a beautiful loaf! Hope ingredient acquisition and travel gets easier soon.
Thanks Kelly! This is a delicious bread!
I love, love, love the coffee in yours! Your bread is gorgeous.
Thanks Karen! I liked the coffee in this bread as well.
Your bread is beautiful – of course it is. Your bread is always beautiful. What a great idea to add coffee to the filling! I really like that idea even more than chocolate. Brilliant.
Excuse me for replying to myself even before the comment has been approved.
By “coffee grounds”, do you mean ground coffee beans?
Thank you Elizabeth! I used chocolate and coffee in the filling. It was delish!
By coffee grounds, I mean ground coffee. Perhaps I should use that terminology in the post.
I also used a little brewed coffee in the dough.
I suspected you meant that. I had a vision of dumping out the used coffee grounds from the coffee pot and thought that HAD to be wrong. Did you grind the coffee very very finely and/or does the ground coffee soften when it’s baked?
(I LOVE the idea of coffee in the bread and am quite excited to add brewed coffee to the dough too. If we can manage to have brewed coffee left over that hasn’t been drunk, that is.)
I didn’t grind the coffee I used in this bread although that would be good. I used a medium roast that I purchased at the store.
As for the brewed coffee, you don’t need very much – just 35 grams unless you want to add more.
Bryan Ford’s coffee bread has 200 grams in it but it doesn’t include any additional hydration. I thought this bread would benefit from more milk than coffee.
Be sure to let the brewed coffee chill in the refrigerator. I forgot to mention that previously. Just don’t keep it in there too long. Not that I’ve tried that. Ha ha!
LOVE that quote! I think I do reasonably well by that but it is excellent to verbalize it.
I will check out the coffee bread in Ford’s book.
Finagle the dough you did into a spectacular loaf. Lovely.
Thank you Tanna! I thought the quote was very appropriate, but it is how we Babes tend to do things anyway.
I am so glad I already have Ford’s book! I just checked out the coffee bread…I will be giving this one a bake!
Of course you already have his book! I recommend the coffee bread. It’s so good! I’ve been substituting olive oil for the butter in the dough and using stone ground all-purpose flour instead of bread flour but I think it would work with a mix of flours. It’s a very tender dough.
And so here I am with my starter almost ready to mix into coffee bread dough, making an extra pot this am so I have cold coffee tomorrow. Now, being a Babe, have you ever added dark chocolate shavings to the coffee and (brown for me) sugar filling? You can see my thinking can’t you? I always add dark chocolate to my coffee in the mornings.
I have not tried dark chocolate shavings in the coffee bread filling, but I bet it would be good. Brown sugar, definitely. If you do try the chocolate shavings, let me know how you like it. I’ll probably be making it again soon.
Will do! 😊
Very slow to report here BUT while the coffee was good AND the chocolate was good I think it would have been excellent had I not forgotten to add the cinnamon. Can’t believe… oh well yes I can. Great bread with the coffee! I’ll do it again.
Hi Tanna, thanks for sharing your experience making the coffee bread. I need to post about that one sometime soon. Still testing it myself. And yes! do try it with the cinnamon.
Love having the coffee in it (as well as with it)
The coffee worked really well in this bread.
I think your Povitica looks lovely. I’ll agree that coffee in this perfect as I used it too.
I’ve been working with whatever I have too so I left the egg out and used a milk cheese in the filling with the walnuts.
Thanks Aparna! The coffee definitely worked in this bread.
Can you use more all purpose eikorn flour instead of the milled eikorn grains?
Thanks
You can make this completely with all-purpose einkorn or use a portion of store-bought whole grain einkorn flour instead of the home-milled flour.