Orehova Potica

Ingredients

• 600 g strong white bread flour
• 250 ml whole milk
• 20 g fresh yeast, or 7 g fast action dried yeast
• 80 g caster sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• 120 g butter, softened
• 0.5 tsp salt
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1 tbsp dark rum
• 450 g walnuts
• 150 ml whole milk, for the filling
• 100 g honey
• 80 g caster sugar, for the filling
• 60 g butter, for the filling
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 2 egg whites
• 1 egg, beaten, for glazing
• icing sugar, for dusting

Before you cook

• Warm the 250 ml of milk until it feels just warm to the finger and crumble the yeast into it with a teaspoon of the sugar.
• Leave the yeast mixture for 10 minutes, until it is frothy on top.
• Grind the walnuts in a food processor in short pulses until fine but not oily.
• Grate the lemon zest.
• Beat the two egg whites in a clean bowl to soft peaks.
• Butter a fluted potica tin or a large bundt tin thoroughly and dust it with flour.

Steps

1. Put the flour, remaining sugar, salt and lemon zest in a large bowl and stir them together.
2. Pour in the frothy yeast mixture, the egg yolks and the rum and mix to a rough dough.
3. Knead the dough for 10 minutes until it is smooth and elastic.
4. Work the softened butter into the dough a spoonful at a time, kneading until each addition disappears.
5. Keep kneading for another 8 minutes until the dough is glossy and pulls cleanly from the bowl.
6. Cover the bowl and leave it somewhere warm for 90 minutes, until doubled in size.
7. Bring the 150 ml of milk to a boil in a saucepan with the honey, filling sugar and filling butter.
8. Pour the hot liquid over the ground walnuts and stir hard until you have a thick, spreadable paste.
9. Stir the cinnamon into the walnut paste and leave it to cool to room temperature.
10. Fold the beaten egg whites into the cooled walnut paste to lighten it.
11. Turn the risen dough onto a floured cloth and roll it out to a rectangle about seventy by fifty centimetres and three millimetres thick.
12. Spread the walnut filling evenly across the dough, leaving a three centimetre border along the far long edge.
13. Lift the cloth at the near edge and use it to roll the dough into a tight log.
14. Pinch the seam and both ends closed.
15. Lower the log into the prepared tin, seam side up, and press the two ends together to close the ring.
16. Cover the tin and leave it in a warm place for 45 minutes, until the dough has risen to just below the rim.
17. Heat the oven to 175C.
18. Brush the surface with the beaten egg and prick it in several places with a skewer so trapped steam can escape.
19. Bake for 55 minutes, until deep golden and a skewer pushed into the dough comes out clean.
20. Cool the potica in its tin for 15 minutes.
21. Turn it out onto a rack and leave it to cool completely before cutting.
22. Dust with icing sugar and cut into thin slices so the spiral shows.