New for 2015: Gluten-Free Potica--with Amazing Almond Filling!

Gluten-Free Potica, with almond & walnut fillings

Why would anyone attempt to bake a gluten-free potica?

Good question.

It requires a spirit of adventure. A strong incentive, like a family member or friend who is trying to avoid wheat. And the approaching Christmas holidays, which just aren't the same without Slovenia's most famous dish.

That's what brought me to this point. I undertook the challenge with trepidation, because I am new to the world of gluten-free baking. It's been just a couple of months, and so far I have been sticking to the easy adaptations: cookies, sweet breads and cakes that already include naturally gluten-free ingredients--like buckwheat, cornmeal, and ground nuts. I have had good results with most of these experiments. But I had never crossed the last daunting frontier: Yeast breads.

I didn't flatter myself that I would be the first person to attempt a gluten-free potica. But I was surprised to discover a good number of recipes online. Unfortunately, what I saw was not encouraging. The photos didn't look much like potica, at least not the kind I grew up with. Perhaps it really was an impossible challenge.

Then it hit me: I was approaching this all wrong. My family recipe, while not unique, is definitely one of the less common approaches to making potica. Our version is more pastry than bread. The foundation is a rich sour cream yeast dough, left to rise overnight in the refrigerator. The filling is a simple, unbaked layering of butter, walnuts and sugar, and a drizzle of honey. So I began to search online for a gluten-free sweet dough that sounded similar, without worrying about any references to potica.

I ended up in a surprising place: watching a Martha Stewart video,  as she prepared a gluten-free treat called Yeasted Coffee Cake.

Martha's coffee cake had a familiar look: a yeast dough with sour cream, rolled out thinly and covered with a dried fruit and nut filling, then rolled and twisted. Except for the streusel topping, it sounded like one of the many Eastern European sweet breads that resemble potica. It also reminded me of Jewish babka. Martha mentioned that it was a treat her mother would have loved. Then it clicked: Her mother was Polish. Suddenly, this recipe had some credibility. And it did look delicious.

There were a few things missing from Martha Stewart's recipe. No discussion of the challenges of working with gluten-free yeast dough. No instructions about how to choose the right kind of gluten-free flour. It seemed almost too good to be true. Perhaps it was, judging from the sole comment: An angry reader had made two attempts at the recipe and ended up with an inedible lump that didn't rise at all.

But I decided to forge ahead.

I divided the dough in half, so I would have two small loaves to work on. Good thing, because the dough, which has a tendency to crack, is tough to work with at first. I spread the first roll with my family's traditional walnut filling, shaped the loaf into a free-form shape--and proceeded to overbake it. It emerged from the oven looking gnarled and knobby. When I took it out of the pan, it was so brittle that it cracked in two. I was convinced that it would be inedible.

gluten-free potica, before baking

gluten-free potica, after baking

For the second, I resolve to lower the temperature and fit the roll firmly into a small loaf pan. I also put together a new almond filling I found in a Slovenian cookbook I'd bought last year. Naturally, I sampled it before baking. It was delicious! At least one good thing would come out of this crazy experiment.

gluten-free potica, spread with almond filling

But guess what?

When I sliced into the loaves, they looked just like my family potica, with nice thin circles of dough and filling. The flavor was really good. The texture was not bad at all. It was dense, not too much rise. Very much like the potica I have eaten every Christmas of my life.

Our son thought it was one of my better potica efforts.

I consider this a work in progress.  But if you care to give it a try--why not?

Good luck!


PS.  For a refresher on how to make the non-gluten variety, see my post from several years ago:  Potica: Step-by-Step Guide to Slovenian Nut Roll.

gluten-free potica, with almond filling (top) and walnut filling (bottom)

Gluten-Free Potica


Potica Dough   (adapted from Martha Stewart's Gluten-Free Yeasted Coffee Cake)

2 packages active dry yeast
1/4 cup warm water mixed with 1 teaspoon sugar  
1-1/2 sticks unsalted butter, at room temperature
6 tablespoons sugar (I used organic cane sugar)
2 large egg yolks
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/3 cup sour cream
1-2/3 cups gluten-free all purpose flour (see note below)
1 cup gluten-free bread flour (see note below)
1 teaspoon salt


Note: The original recipe doesn't offer any guidance about how to choose the right flour. There are plenty of make-your-own formulas online--and a growing number of commercially prepared gluten-free blends. I used two different products made by Bob's Red Mill: "1 to 1 Baking Flour" (for the all purpose flour) and "Bread Mix" (minus the enclosed yeast packet). Just be sure that your flour mix includes xanthan gum, an ingredient that makes up for some of the missing "stretch" that gluten provides.

For the dough: Mix the yeast, warm water, and sugar and set aside to proof. In a large bowl beat butter and sugar until smooth, then add egg yolks and beat until fluffy. Mix in vinegar and vanilla. Blend in sour cream. Finally, add the yeast mixture and blend well. In another bowl, whisk together the two flours and salt. Gradually add these dry ingredients to the wet ingredients, using the mixer at first and continuing by hand if necessary until dough forms a ball. Knead dough for 5 minutes (or less) until smooth.

Rising: The original recipe directs you to form dough into a ball and place in a bowl that has been sprinkled with flour. Cover and let rise in a warm place for 3 to 4 hours, until doubled--or simply refrigerate overnight. I ended up doing an unplanned hybrid. I started to let the dough rise in a warm place, but after an hour or so realized that I would not have time to complete the potica that day. So I punched the dough down and refrigerated it overnight. This slow rise refrigerator method is the one we use in my family recipe--minus that original rising. I believe the dough is probably easier to handle with this method and it is what I'll do in the future.

To roll out:  Place dough on floured board or cloth (my preference) and let rest for five minutes--or longer, if taken from the fridge. The original recipe calls for rolling the dough into a single 18 inch square with a thickness of 1/8 inch. I prefer to make two smaller loaves, so I cut the dough into two pieces and rolled each one into a 9 by 18 inch rectangle.  

To fill: Spread dough with filling of choice. I offer two suggestions below. The simple walnut-honey filling is my tried-and-true family favorite. The almond filling is my great new discovery from a  cookbook I bought in a Slovenian bookstore last year. Each one makes enough filling for the quantity of dough in this recipe--one large or two small loaves. If, like me, you want to try both fillings, just cut the quantities below in half.

To shape: After filling, carefully roll up from the short end, so that the finished loaf will be the size of your bread pan. (Since gluten-free dough often seems to spread and crack, it is probably best to avoid free-form loaves.)  Oil bread pan(s) and line with parchment paper. Carefully place loaf inside, seam side down. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Don't be concerned if the filled potica doesn't rise much.

To bake: The original directions call for baking a single large loaf at 375 degrees for 55 minutes. I found this temperature to be too high, so I reduced it to 350 degrees.  If you make two smaller loaves, as I did, start watching after 30 minutes.

Be careful when you remove loaves from pan. Let cool before cutting into thin slices.

Good luck!

Almond Filling (mandljev nadev), translated and adapted from Štruklji in Potice by Janez Štrukelj and Andrej Goljat

450 g grated almonds (I used ground toasted almonds with the skins left on)
150 g sugar (I increased to 200 g and used half brown sugar)
100 ml cream, warmed
3 egg whites (lightly beaten)
vanilla extract (I used a packet of vanilla sugar)
lemon rind, grated
maraschino liqueur (I used Amaretto)
80 g dried plain cookie crumbs (I used my homemade gluten-free cookies)

Combine almonds and sugar in bowl. Pour in the warm cream and stir to combine. Add the egg whites, vanilla, lemon rind, and liqueur and stir well. Filling will be thick. Drop onto the rolled-out dough and spread out as well as you can. Sprinkle cookie crumbs on top. Roll up from the narrow end.


Walnut Filling (from my family recipe, go here for details)

1 pound walnuts, finely ground (about 3 cups)
1/2 cup sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
dash of salt (optional)
melted butter, about 1/4 cup
honey, 1/4 to 1/2 cup


Combine walnuts, sugar and cinnamon in bowl. Brush rolled-out dough with melted butter. Sprinkle walnut- sugar mixture evenly over dough. Drizzle with honey. Roll up from narrow end. 

Walnut Syrup Cake (Orehove rezine)

Just in time for the holidays, I have discovered a wonderful new addition to the Slovenian dessert menu: walnut syrup cake, or orehove rezine ("walnut slices").

I've had my eye on this recipe for some time. I found it in my favorite modern cookbook, The Food and Cooking of Slovenia, by Janez Bogataj. The source is impeccable, but I hesitated to make it, because the recipe struck me as unusual. And I'd never seen it anywhere else, so I wondered if this was really a traditional Slovenian dish.

The cake includes chopped walnuts, white and whole wheat flour--and uncooked polenta. (See Note below.) After baking, it is soaked in syrup. There is honey and cinnamon in the cake, plus honey in the syrup. I couldn't quite imagine how all these ingredients would come together. 

Finally, a few weeks ago, I took the plunge. I shouldn't have worried. This unusual sweet is amazing.

To call this a "walnut slice" doesn't do it justice. This is a rich, moist dessert that straddles the line between decadent and wholesome. It looks like a dense cake or torte but it tastes like a less cloying version of baklava. And it keeps beautifully. 

As it turns out, the recipe can be found in many places on the Internet, usually without attribution. One Slovenian blogger who grew up in Maribor, in the northeastern part of the country, confesses that she had never heard of this dish before, but perhaps that is because it is traditional to the northwest!

The directions below closely follow Janez Bogataj's recipe in the English language version of The Food and Cooking of Slovenia.

Enjoy!


Note: In a recipe like this, "polenta" refers to the uncooked product--in other words, a medium grind of yellow cornmeal. For further discussion, see my previous cornbread post, or check out this link.

Walnut Syrup Cake (Orehove rezine)
                                                                  --from Janez Bogataj

1-1/2 cups (175 g) walnuts, toasted
10 tbsp (150 g) butter, softened
2/3 cup (150 g) light brown sugar
4 tbsp (60 ml) set honey
3 eggs, lightly beaten
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup (50 g) white flour
1/2 cup (50 g) whole wheat flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon (I used 2 tsp)
pinch of salt
1/2 cup, generous (65 g) polenta (or medium grind yellow cornmeal)
5 tbsp (75 ml) milk

(for syrup)
1/2 cup (90 g) golden caster sugar
4 tbsp (60 ml) set honey
1/2 cup (120 ml) water


Notes on ingredients: Set honey is referred to as spun, creamed, or whipped honey in the US. Regular honey can be used, although it is probably harder to blend. For golden caster sugar, I substituted raw cane sugar, which also has a slight caramel flavor.
 





First, prepare the walnuts: Spread out on a baking sheet and bake for 8-10 minutes at 350 degrees F (180 C) until toasted. Let cool, then chop roughly and set aside.

For cake: Sift together the white and whole wheat flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt. Set aside. In a large bowl beat butter, sugar, and honey until fluffy. Beat in eggs gradually, then add vanilla. Sprinkle the dry ingredients over the wet ingredients and fold in. When partially combined, add the nuts, polenta and milk, and fold in.

Spoon batter into an 8-inch round cake pan (or spring form pan) that has been greased and lined with parchment paper. Bake at 350 degrees F (180 C) for 45-50 minutes, until firm and light brown.

While cake is baking, prepare syrup: Combine sugar, honey, and water in a pan. Heat gently until sugar dissolves then simmer for 5 minutes. Turn off heat.

When cake is done, let cool slightly. (If desired, remove from pan and place carefully in a pretty serving dish with sides.) Pour warm syrup slowly over the top, so that it is absorbed evenly. Let cool. To serve, cut into thin slices.

Never-Fail Balkan Cornbread

    

                               

Maize or corn made its way from the New World to Europe about four hundred years ago. It was enough time for Balkan cooks to develop their own special take on cornbread. There are many regional variations, but they share a few features that set them apart from the typical American cornbread.

A Balkan cornbread is usually dairy-rich. Along with eggs and milk, a typical recipe might include yogurt, kefir, cottage cheese, or feta. Fresh from the oven, it is a rich, moist treat, a cross between bread and pudding that can serve as the main course. Unfortunately, Balkan cornbreads often lose their charm--or at least their moistness--once they cool off.

I have been looking for the perfect Balkan cornbread for several years now. Along the way, I have tried a few recipes for Serbian proja or projara, perhaps the best known variant. I once made a flavorful but dense cornmeal leek pie from an Albanian American cookbook. I haven't yet tried cornmeal zlevanka, a sweet dish made in Croatia and Slovenia, because it sounds more like a dessert.

Early in the fall, I found yet another recipe for Serbian proja or projara. It was on a charming blog called Paris on the Edge. The blogger, Allison, is an American artist living in Paris. The recipe comes from her Serbian friend Sonja.

Polenta, flour, eggs, oil, yogurt, sparkling water, and feta cheese. On the face of it, there was nothing unique about this recipe, except that it specified instant polenta. I'd never heard of it. Was it the same as the standard polenta I often prepared? Was it the same as cornmeal?

A little reading brought some much-needed clarity: Polenta is just another name for cornmeal, which can be purchased in different grinds. Instant polenta (which looks like a medium grind cornmeal) has been pre-cooked.

(Here's a helpful pictorial guide to the the difference between cornmeal and polenta.)

My local market was out of instant polenta, so I had to improvise with a mixture of what I had in my pantry: a bag of coarse cornmeal and another of corn flour (fine cornmeal.) I used Greek yogurt (mixed with a little kefir) instead of plain yogurt. And, in the spirit of that Albanian leek pie, I added some fresh vegetables: parsley and corn.  Oh, and black pepper for extra zest.

Despite all the modifications, my first attempt at the new projara recipe was wonderful.  Moist and flavorful. It reheated beautifully in the microwave the next day.

I have used that same basic recipe three more times. Each time, it is a little different. I have made it with and without corn kernels. I've used gluten-free flour. For my most recent attempt, I finally got hold of some instant polenta. It didn't make any difference that I could see.

There must be something magical about the proportions of cornmeal, flour, eggs, oil, and liquid. Or maybe it's the mineral water. This recipe is forgiving and always delicious and moist. At least so far.

But don't take my word for it. Try it yourself!

Never-Fail Balkan Cornbread (adapted from Allison's proja recipe at Paris on the Edge.)

3/4 c (120 g) polenta or cornmeal (see Note 1 below)
1/3 cup (30 g) white flour (or use a gluten-free blend!)
1/2-1 t. salt
black pepper to taste (optional)
3 eggs
1/2 cup (100 ml) vegetable oil
3/4 cup plus 1-1/2 T (200 ml) sparkling water
3/4 cup (190 g) plain yogurt (see Note 2 below)
1 cup feta cheese (110 g), cut into "thimble sized cubes"
chopped fresh parsley (optional)
1/2 cup corn kernels, fresh or frozen (optional)



Oil or butter an 8-inch cast iron skillet or round cake pan, or a rectangular ceramic dish. Sprinkle with a little cornmeal.

Combine cornmeal, flour, salt, and pepper in a large bowl. In a medium bowl, mix eggs, oil and sparkling water. Add these wet ingredients to the dry ingredients and stir well. Add yogurt and stir. Mix in feta cheese cubes and optional parsley and corn. Pour batter into the prepared pan.

Bake at 350 degrees for 50 to 60 minutes until golden brown. Serve warm.

                                                                      

Note 1: Although the original recipe calls for instant polenta, the dish works with either type of polenta (instant or regular) and any kind of corn meal, although a coarse grind might be a little crunchy. I like to use a combination of medium and fine grind cornmeal (called "corn flour" in the US.)

Note 2: Plain yogurt is probably the best choice. I have also used Greek yogurt thinned with kefir or milk.

Special Diets: I have made a delicious gluten-free, low FODMAP version with gluten-free flour and Greek yogurt thinned with almond milk. (And I am happy to have this recipe included in Gluten-Free Fridays at Vegetarian Mamma!)

Cooking in Translation: A 1903 Recipe for Piškotni Zvitki (aka Jelly Roll Slices!)

Last winter, I found a treasure in a box of old books that had just been culled from the library at San Francisco's Slovenian Hall. I spotted a thick volume with an old-fashioned marbelized cover:

Carefully, I opened the fragile, yellowing pages. A pressed flower and a few old mass cards fell out. It was like walking through a door to the past.

c
















I had just discovered an original copy of a classic Slovenian cookbook called Dobra Kuharica  ("Good Cook"), published in 1903 in Ljubljana. The author, Minka Govekar-Vasič, was a formidable women whose accomplishments extended far beyond the kitchen. She was a doctor's daughter who became a prominent writer, translator, and women's rights activist. With Dobra Kuharica, she established standards for measurements and terminology that became the foundation for modern Slovenian cooking.

I gave myself an assignment: I would translate a recipe from Dobra Kuharica, prepare the dish, and share the results with my Slovenian class. I began to search for a a short, simple recipe for a bread or sweet.

I settled on a sweet called piškotni zvitki--in English, biscuit or cookie rolls. It looked like a simple enough dish: egg whites, egg yolks, sugar and flour. I imagined it might be similar to another old-fashioned Slovenian treat I had discovered in the last few years, a biscotti-like sweet called domači prijatelj. I did a rough translation and plunged in.

The dish turned out to be a sort of sponge cake that was supposed to be baked in a layer and then spread with something that eluded translation. Tomato paste? Nut paste? After some last minute e-mail consultations with Mia, my Slovenian language teacher, and a few exchanges with some Slovenian Facebook friends,  a consensus emerged: the mystery term was an older word, possibly German-derived or a dialect, that meant jam or fruit paste. I decided to use my favorite: apricot jam.

Unfortunately, I had one other translation problem. I thought the sponge cake layers were to be covered with a filling and then pressed together. By the time my Facebook friend Tina set me straight ("You do realize you need to roll the cake, right?") it was too late. The batter was already in the oven, in two round cake pans. So the first version of the dish, the one I presented to my Slovenian class that night, looked like the picture below.  But it tasted just fine, even if it wasn't quite the fancy presentation that Minka Vasič intended.

The second time, I decided to make the cake the proper way, for an event at the Slovenian Hall. I baked the cake in a flat rectangular pan and managed to roll it up with only a few small cracks. It looked quite elegant and it tasted lovely. But there was no getting around it: This was a familiar dessert. Americans call it a jelly roll. British cooks refer to it as a Swiss roll--or, if presented in layers, a Victoria sponge or sandwich.

But I do like this Slovenian dish, even if it isn't quite the exotic ethnic specialty I had expected. For one thing, it provides a glimpse into a segment of society in turn-of-the-century Slovenia that I knew little about: the educated urban elite, whose experience was so different from the village life of my own immigrant ancestors.

There is also a subtle but important difference in the Slovenian take on this dessert. In every other jelly roll recipe I have seen, the cake is rolled up loosely in a towel and cooled. Then it is unrolled, filled, and re-rolled. No wonder the cake often cracks! In the Slovenian recipe, the fruit filling is spread on the baked cake layer, returned briefly to the oven, and then rolled up while it is still warm. The warm, moist layer is easy to shape and it seems to seal itself. It is a far more efficient way of preparing this lovely dessert.

But why take my word for it? Try the recipe below and see for yourself!

Piškotni zvitki 
                                     --from Dobra Kuharica (1903) by Minka Vasičeva

Mešaj 14 dek sladkorja s petimi rumenjakič potem prideni sneg petih beljakov in 12 dek moke, razmaži testo za pol prsta debelo po namazani ploči ter ga speci. Ko je pecivo dovolj pečeno, ga obrni, namaži ga z gorko mezgo (zolznom) in ga deni nazaj v pečico, da se segreje. Potem ga zvij trdo skupaj kakor gibanico ter ga zreži na prst široke zvitke.

Cookie (or Biscuit) Rolls

Mix 140 g of sugar with five egg yolks then five well-whipped egg whites and 120 g of flour. Spread dough half a finger thick on a greased baking pan and bake. When the cake is baked enough, turn it over, spread with warm jam, and put it back in the oven to warm up. Then roll up firmly like a gibanica and cut into finger-wide rolls.      
                                              --translation by Blair Kilpatrick






Measurement notes:

1 dek (also written dag) means dekagram and equals 10 g by weight.
140 g sugar is between  2/3 and 3/4 cup
120 g flour is 1 cup



Additional notes on preparation:


The original directions are brief. If you are unsure about how to make a basic sponge cake, any good general cookbook will explain in more detail. I like to add a little of the sugar to the egg whites, to increase the volume. Because no extra leavening is used, be careful when you fold the whites into the yolk-sugar mixture. Sprinkle the flour on top and and then carefully fold  it in. Be gentle when you spread the batter in the pan. Bake the cake in a parchment-lined 10 x 15 inch jelly roll pan for about 10 to 15 minutes at 350 degrees, or until lightly browned.

When the cake is done, remove from the oven, turn it over, and spread with the jam or fruit filling of your choice. (I like apricot jam.) Return to the oven and bake for about 5 more minutes, then remove it.

The cake is rolled up while it is still warm. Roll it firmly, using the paper to help nudge it into shape. You will find that it can be molded into a compact shape, because it is moist and still warm. Wrap lightly in waxed paper and refrigerate for several hours or more before serving.

To serve, sprinkle with powdered sugar and cut into slices.






_________________________

Some new cooking vocabulary I learned:


Nouns *
zvitki, plural of zvitek = scroll or roll
piškot = cookie or biscuit
testo = dough, pastry
mezgo = spread, paste, or puree (fruit, jam, tomato paste, etc)
zolznom = an older term for mezgo, possibly German-derived or dialect, understood as jam or jelly
pol prsta = half a finger
ploče= metal baking sheet or dish (from pločevina = sheet metal)

* Note: For simplicity's sake, the nouns are listed in the form in which they appear in the recipe. Yes, I am sidestepping the tricky problem of gender and cases in the Slovene language. For more on that, see Tina's comment :-)

Verbs
mešati = to stir
namazati = to spread, to smear, to grease
razmazati = to smear, to smudge
dajati =  to give, to put
segrevati se = to warm up *
narezati = to slice
zarezati = to cut into
zvijati =  to roll or coil
obrniti se =  to turn around, turn over, flip over *

* Note: Yes, strictly speaking, in Slovenia cakes seem to flip themselves over :-) See Tina's comment below, about these reflexive verbs.

The new best-ever Jewish Honey Cake, sinkholes and all

Last fall, I made a wonderful honey cake for Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. I was attempting a low-sodium adaptation of a recipe by the great food writer Claudia Roden. To my surprise, it turned out to be the best honey cake I had ever made.

This year, I have a new candidate: Last year's recipe, made the right way!

A few weeks ago, I decided to make that wonderful honey cake again, with a few changes. The biggest one: regular leavening instead of the low-sodium adaptation. Instead of last year's plain cake, I took Roden's suggestion and added some walnuts and dried fruit. (I used cranberries instead of raisins.) As before, I used brown sugar instead of white, increased the spices, and used orange juice along with coffee. One unplanned change: half olive oil, because I ran out of vegetable oil. Finally, to save time, I baked the cake in three small loaf pans instead of a single large springform pan.

At first, the loaves rose nicely. But somewhere along the line, that dark liquid mass heaved, rolled, and fell. When I removed the honey cake from the oven, each loaf had a deep crack in the middle.  Actually, it looked more like a crater. Or like those sinkholes ("ponikve") that are common to the karst landscape in the region of Slovenia where my ancestors once lived.

I was baffled. Why had my honey cake risen so well last year, despite the always-risky substitution of those less-potent low sodium leaveners?  I didn't have time to fret about it, because I had to rush off to a Cajun music gig up north, at a winery in the hills of Napa county.

That night, we decided to try the honey cake, even though it had aged less then ten hours.

To my surprise, those misshapen slices were delicious! They were moist. Fully cooked in the center, too. The flavor was deep, dark, and tangy. The nuts and dried fruit were a fine addition. The olive oil seemed to add depth.

My husband thought it was the best honey cake he had ever tasted.

I did a little research and soon learned that sunken honey cakes are a problem for many people--even the popular food blogger Smitten Kitten.  She had also followed the honey cake recipe of a well-established Jewish baker. Her loaves were as cratered as mine.

Although it seems counterintuitive, the most frequent cause of sunken cakes is over-rising, often because of too much leavening. Smitten Kitten discovered her honey cake did better when she reduced the baking powder.

Curious, I went back to the original Claudia Roden recipe. Oh-oh. I had made an error, when I included her "regular leavening" instructions in last year's post. Roden called for 2 teaspoons of regular baking powder and 1/2  teaspoon of baking soda, but I had reversed it in my blog post.

Mystery solved!  I had followed my own misdirections and used 2 teaspoons of baking soda and 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder. No wonder my honey cakes were over-leavened.

I have corrected the error in last year's blog post and in the recipe below. But it is hard to go wrong with this forgiving recipe.

Dober tek!

And, if you are celebrating, Happy New Year.

Best-ever Jewish Honey Cake  (adapted from Claudia Roden)

2 eggs
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup oil (I used half olive oil)
1 cup dark honey
2 T. rum
1/4 cup warm coffee
1/4 cup orange juice
2 cups white flour
1-1/2 t. cinnamon
1/2 t. cloves
1 t. ginger
2 t. baking powder
1/2 t. baking soda
pinch of salt
1/2 cup walnuts, broken and 1/3 cup dried cranberries (optional)

(Low sodium option: use 4 t. low sodium baking soda and omit the salt.)



First, prepare pan. Line a 9-inch spring form pan with foil, then oil and dust with flour. Or use three small loaf pans, 3 x 7 inches. Set aside. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

In a medium-sized bowl, mix together the flour, spices, baking powder, and baking soda. Set aside.

In a small bowl, toss walnuts and cranberries (or raisins, the more traditional choice) in a little flour to coat. Set aside.

In a large bowl, beat eggs with sugar until thick and lemon-colored. Add oil, honey, rum, coffee, and orange juice. Beat until smooth. Add dry ingredients slowly to liquid ingredients, beating until smooth. Finally, fold in the optional nuts and cranberries.

Pour batter into prepared pan(s). Bake at 350 degrees until top is firm and springs back when touched, about 45 minutes for small loaf pans for 1 hour and 15 minutes for a large spring form pan. Let cool on a rack. When cool, wrap in foil. If you can, wait at least a day or two before slicing and eating.

Belokranjska Pogača, Slovenia's answer to focaccia

Belokranjska pogača is one of Slovenia's official EU-protected specialty foods. Although the name means "pogača from Bela Krajina," it is often translated as "caraway flatbread" or "salted cake."

When I first spotted this delicacy on the official Slovenian tourist website, here, I wasn't sure what all the fuss was about.Yeast-raised flatbread is hardly unique to Slovenia. Many Balkan countries have their own versions of pogača (poe-gotch'-a). So do Italians, who call it by a more familiar name: Focaccia.

But then it came up again, in my Slovenian language class. In the spring, we were studying the food traditions of the Dolenjska region, a rural area south of the capital that was the original home of my own ancestors, along with many other Slovenian immigrants in the early 1900s. And there it was again, on a list of regional food specialties. (Bela Krajina, the "official" source of the bread, is a smaller region that borders Dolenjska.)

Now I was intrigued. I decided to give this Slovenian-style focaccia a try.

What makes Belokranjska pogača unique? The yeast dough itself is straightforward: flour, salt, yeast and water, with a touch of oil and sugar. But there are very precise specifications for the formation of the loaf.

Here's the official word from the Slovenian government:

Belokranjska pogača
Bela krajina flat bread

Belokranjska pogača is a type of flat bread and is produced according to a unique recipe. It is round with a diameter of approximately 30 cm. In the centre it is 3 to 4 cm thick, thinning to 1–2 cm at the edges. With oblique lines, it is incised into squares with an approximate distance of 4 cm, coated with a whisked egg and topped with cumin seeds and coarse salt crystals. When baked it is broken along the incised angled lines rather than being cut and is best served warm.

from Slovenian Protected Agricultural Products and Foodstuffs, a government publication

~~~~

There are a number of recipes available on the Internet, with just a few small differences among them. Should the yeast be proofed before the dough is mixed? Should the topping be limited to coarse salt, or is it better to add caraway seeds? Or cumin seeds?

For my first attempt, I opted for proofing the yeast before making the dough. I sprinkled the entire loaf with coarse salt, and then I added some cumin seed on one side. Unfortunately, because of a small miscalculation, I made the circle of dough too small--just half the specified diameter!

The result was a round, high loaf that looked beautiful. Inside, the bread was moist and tasty, with a coarse grain. But it certainly wasn't a flatbread. It was too thick to break, so I had to slice it.

It was a lovely country-style loaf of white bread.  But not up to European Union standards for Belokranjska pogača.

For my second attempt,  I made the dough with the much faster "all in one bowl" method. I was careful to follow precise measurements, so I ended up with a thin, large circle of dough that was exactly 30 centimeters across. For the topping, I used a mixture of coarse salt and caraway seed over the entire loaf.

This second pogača came out just right. Pretty enough, I thought, to appear on one of those official government websites. It broke into squares easily and made a tasty accompaniment to a nice bowl of mineštra.

The verdict? I enjoyed the lightness of the first loaf, even it wasn't quite the flatbread I was expecting. Partly it was the rounder shape, but I think proofing the yeast made a difference. I liked all three toppings, although cumin was certainly the most unusual.

I will certainly make this again. I will stick to proofing the yeast, even though it adds an extra step.

I might also aim for an in-between thickness. A compromise between my first two loaves.

I realize this might be breaking with tradition. But I doubt the  EU pogača police will bother me in California.

Enjoy!

Belokranjska Pogača

500 g flour (about 4-1/4 c)
1 T salt
1-1/2 t. sugar
1 package dry yeast
1 T oil
350 ml lukewarm water  (just under 1-1/2 c)

For topping: 1 egg, coarse salt, cumin or caraway seed



First, prepare the dough.

The easy way: Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl. Make a well in the center, add the oil and water. Mix until you have a soft dough that is not too sticky to be kneaded.

The better way: Warm a little of the water (about 50 ml) in a small bowl and stir in part of the sugar.  Add the yeast and allow it to proof. Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Make a well in the center and pour in the yeast mixture and the oil. Mix into a soft dough as above.

After mixing the dough, knead until it is smooth and not sticky. Place in an oiled bowl, cover, and let rise for thirty minutes.

After rising, punch down dough and place on an oiled baking sheet or other flat surface. Pat and stretch it into a circle that is about 30 cm (12 inches) across. It should be 1-2 cm thick in the middle and a little thinner at the edges. Slice the dough into squares, using diagonal lines that are about 4 cm apart. Brush with beaten egg. Sprinkle with coarse salt and cumin seed or caraway seed. If desired, let rise briefly again before baking.

Bake in an oven that has been preheated to 400 degrees F (200/220 degrees C) for 25 to 40 minutes. Let cool. To serve, break into squares.  Best served warm.

Caraway Meatballs: A Healthy Update

I first made these simple but flavorful meatballs in June of 2012, during my inaugural year of weekly Slovenian dinners. The foundation was a recipe I'd spotted in Woman's Glory: The Kitchen, my first vintage cookbook. Meatballs flavored with caraway, cheese, and bacon sounded like an intriguing Slovenian alternative to the more familiar Italian version of the dish.

My first version of caraway meatballs turned out well. It soon became a favorite.

Two years later, I decided to create a healthier version, with no added salt and fewer carbohydrates.

In some respects, I followed Woman's Glory more closely: chopped fresh pepper instead of celery, and no matzo meal or bread crumbs in the meat balls. Since I skipped the salt, I compensated by increasing the black pepper and adding some garlic. I used turkey bacon instead of regular bacon in the sauce. Finally, I served the meatballs over spaghetti squash instead of pasta or polenta.

The result was delicious. Full of Central European flavor and guilt-free. And by skipping the bread crumbs and the pasta, it also becomes gluten-free!

Enjoy!

Caraway Meatballs with Sauce (low salt, low carb)


Meatballs:

1 lb. ground beef (or beef/pork mix)

1/4 c. grated sharp cheese

1 t. caraway seeds

1/4 c. green or red pepper, chopped

1 T. fresh parsley

pepper, black and cayenne

1 egg

1 clove garlic

Sauce:

1/2 c. chopped onion

3 strips turkey bacon, diced

24 oz. jar strained tomatoes

pepper and garlic to taste

parsley to taste

1/4 t. sugar

Mix all the ingredients for meatballs. Form into balls and set aside.  For sauce, brown the bacon and onions, then add meatballs and brown.  Add tomatoes and seasonings.  Simmer an hour, or longer if you like, adding water as needed.

Serve over spaghetti squash (to make it low carb and gluten free), polenta, or spaghetti.  Sprinkle with grated parmesan cheese, if desired.

Sweet Omelet Sponge for Father's Day Breakfast

What does this photo look like? A sponge cake? A soufflé? A giant pancake?

This traditional Slovenian dish is called Pohorska omleta--in English, Pohorje omelet. It is a sweet egg-based dish from Pohorje, a mountainous area in the northeastern part of the country. I had seen photos and recipes on a few of the Slovenian government's tourist websites that proudly feature traditional national dishes. Not much to this one, I thought. Just a sweet omelet that is lightened with beaten egg whites. I did wonder about one odd touch: a little flour added to the omelet batter.

It wasn't until last month that my interest in the Porhorje omelet was piqued by the Professor, a Facebook friend in Slovenia. (He's an American who teaches translation at the University of Ljubljana.) He posted a photo and a recipe, and then asked his American friends to weigh in: What would you call this dish in English?

The usual translation is "folded omelet" (aren't they all?) or "biscuit omelet" (like a British cookie?).  Omelet itself seems like an odd name for a dish that Slovenians usually serve for dessert, with a generous garnish of sweetened whipped cream and jam or fruit sauce. Cranberries are a traditional accompaniment. 

This translation challenge turned into a cooking adventure. I decided to whip up a Pohorje omelet for Father's Day breakfast. I wanted to see for myself what this dish ought to be called.

I found plenty of recipes on the web, all variations on the same theme. Separated eggs, small amounts of flour and sugar, and perhaps a bit of vanilla and lemon rind.  Except for the proportions, it sounded just like baking a sponge cake layer.

A number of these recipes specified an identical formula of three's:

3 eggs
3 tablespoons flour
3 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons melted butter to grease the pan

I liked the ease and simplicity of this formula--although I did increase the measure to 4 of each ingredient, since I thought our visiting son might be joining us. And since this was a breakfast dish, I skipped the whipped cream and used a simple fresh berry mix, sweetened with a little sugar and Amaretto.

Before and after baking, the omelet looked like a familiar sponge cake layer:

It was easy to remove from the pan, top with fruit and fold in half.  The finished product looked pretty. Almost good enough to be on one of those official government websites.

I couldn't wait to cut into the omelet and solve the mystery.

The result? Delicious!

Pohorje omelet turns out be a simple but unusual dish, with an elusive texture that is difficult to categorize. It is more eggy than a sponge cake--but lighter and drier than an omelet, thanks to the beaten whites and the touch of flour. It does resemble a soufflé, but it has more substance--and it won't collapse!  It is definitely a hybrid. An ideal breakfast or brunch dish, especially with fresh fruit. Whipped cream and jam transform it into a fine dessert.

The origins of this lovely dish also seem to be mysterious. One official Slovenian website says it is "an example of the invention of heritage in the period after the end of the Second World War."

"Invention of heritage" sounds like an oxymoron! Cooking expert Janez Bogataj puts a slightly different slant on it: The dish was created by "chefs who were flirting with international cuisine" after the war ended.

But what "international cuisine" could have inspired this dish?  There is nothing quite like it in any sources I have consulted.  I would like to think of this as a uniquely Slovenian twist, somewhere in the border region between several more familiar dishes.

The name? The best I can offer is sweet omelet sponge. Why not make it and decide for yourself?

Pohorje Omelet (Sweet Omelet Sponge)

4 eggs whites
4 egg yolks
4 T. sugar, divided
4 T. flour
1 t. vanilla
lemon rind, grated
4 T. melted butter (or less) for pan

Filling: jam or fresh berries (cranberries are traditional)
Topping: confectioners sugar or sweetened whipped cream




If using fresh fruit, mix and set aside. I used fresh strawberries and blueberries, mixed with a little sugar and amaretto.

Beat egg whites with half the sugar until stiff but not dry. In another bowl, beat yolks, remaining half of sugar, vanilla, and lemon rind until thick. Fold egg whites into yolk mixture. Sprinkle flour on top and fold in, taking care to avoid deflating.

Melt butter in a 10-inch pan. Pour in batter and gently spread. Bake in a 350 degree oven for 10-12 minutes, or until lightly browned and firm to the touch. It will resemble a sponge cake layer.

Let cool slightly, loosen edges, and turn out on a platter, top side down. Spread with jam or fruit filling and carefully fold in half. Sprinkle with confectioners sugar or sweetened whipped cream. Slice into pieces to serve.

Albanian Mystery Cake Revisited

Our son was visiting from Kosovo, so I decided to make an encore version of the delicious meal I had prepared from the Albanian-American cookbook he had sent me for my birthday in January.

The main dish, a beef and eggplant moussaka, had been a standout, so I was eager to serve it again.The dessert, on the other hand, was more of an experiment. The women of St. Mary's Albanian Orthodox Church in Massachusetts (the authors of the Albanian Cookbook) called it Authentic Albanian Cake, but I had my doubts. It was definitely a Mystery Cake.

The recipe had seemed straightforward: a simple, one-bowl affair, with ingredients that can be found in anyone's kitchen. In fact, it reminded me of a frugal American cake that has gone by various names over the years: Depression cake, eggless-butterless-milkless cake, or (my favorite) wacky cake. But this Albanian version turned out to be full of surprises. 

For starters, the batter was so liquid that it bubbled in the pan. After baking and cooling, the dessert ended up in layers, with a dense, pasty filling sandwiched in between two crust-like layers. The flavor was mild and inoffensive. Perhaps this was meant to be a sort of poor man's baklava. This dessert was odd and hard to categorize, at least by American standards. I wondered what my son would think of it. 

Authentic Albanian Cake, Version #1

For this second attempt, I made a couple of small changes to pep up the flavor. A touch more sugar--and brown instead of white. More cinnamon, plus a little vanilla. A mix of walnuts and almonds.There were also two unplanned changes: Italian 00 flour (often used to make pasta) because we were out of all purpose flour. And extra baking powder, when I discovered that the three cans in my pantry were all a little (or a lot) past the expiration date.

This time, the result was completely different. Unbaked, the batter was thicker. After baking, it had a familiar texture: uniformly light but moist. Very much like an easy, old-fashioned American spice cake. Or even a "wacky cake," although the Albanian version is lighter on the sugar and heavier on the oil.

Authentic Albanian Cake, Version #2

I strongly suspect that the unusual texture of the first cake was the result of two mistakes: Forgetting to reduce the water when I cut the original recipe in half, and using baking powder that was long past the expiration date. The second cake was lighter because the baking powder was more potent--and perhaps because of the touch of acidity introduced by the brown sugar. The American approach to this kind of cake always includes a bit of vinegar, so it makes sense.

Now that I have made the cake the proper way, I still wonder: Is this really a traditional Albanian dessert, or is it simply an adaptation of an American standard? The jury is out on that one. I'm hoping one of my readers in Kosovo or Albania will weigh in.

Whatever its origins, this is an easy and pleasant cake. It is a perfect dessert when time is short and you need to work with simple ingredients that are already at hand. It is also a good, basic foundation that can be enhanced with more spice, more nuts, and additions like dried fruit or coconut.

Update: In doing some additional research on America's long-popular wacky cakes, I've made a few interesting discoveries that offer modest support for the possibility that this really is a traditional Albanian sweet.

Even though this frugal American cake is typically associated with the Great Depression or the Second World War, historians note that it dates back to the early 1900s, if not earlier. I also discovered a fascinating new name variant in a few places, like this in this typical recipe for a white wacky cake. According to some sources, it's also known as Patrushka cake, which offers more than a hint of Eastern European origins. 

Authentic Albanian Cake (with a strong resemblance to Wacky Cake!)

--adapted from the Albanian Cookbook (1977, 2000), by the Women's Guild of St. Mary's Albanian Orthodox Church, Worcester, Massachusetts

1-1/2 cups water

2 cups flour

1 cup oil

2/3 cup sugar (I used brown; increased from 1/2 cup) 

1/2 cup nuts, chopped (I used half walnuts and half almonds)

1 teaspoon cinnamon (increased)

1 teaspoon vanilla (my addition)

2 teaspoons baking powder

confectioners sugar for topping

(For the original version in the cookbook see my previous post)

Combine flour, cinnamon and baking powder together in a large bowl and set aside. In a medium bowl, beat oil, sugar and vanilla together until thick. Beat in water. Stir this liquid mixture into the dry ingredients. Fold in nuts.

Pour batter into an ungreased (or paper-lined) 8 x 11 inch pan. Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes or until golden brown. When still warm, sprinkle with confectioners sugar. Cut into squares to serve. 

(Note: A much simpler mixing approach should also work. The original Albanian recipe calls for mixing everything together in a single bowl, in no particular order. American wacky cakes are often mixed directly in an ungreased baking pan.)