Recipie for Slovinian Holiday Bread - Nut Roll, Poticia

Summary:
The recipe consists of two parts, sweet bread dough and filling.  
Make the dough first.  The dough can be made in a bread maker or 
neaded in the traditional method of making bread.  While the dough is 
rising and getting smooth and elastic, you can make the filling.
Once the dough is soft and smooth, roll the dough thin and cover it 
with filling and melted butter.  Roll it up, let it rise and bake it 
in a moderate oven.  (about 325F, 30 minutes or until lightly brown 
and baked clear through) The baking time and temperature must be 
adjusted to accomodate the shape and size of the final product.  
A short thick roll will require longer cooking at lower temperature.  
A longer, thinner roll can be cooked at a hotter temperature for a 
shorter time.  The traditional filling is sweetened, ground walnuts, or ground 
poppy seeds, or sweetened dry cottage cheese.
The volume of the filling should be only slightly less than the volume of 
the dough to make a pleasent mixture of flavors.  That is, the volume of the 
filling should be about 1/4 to 1/2 of the volume of the finished product.



Details:::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 

Dough part  of the recipe
1 cup water
2.75 cups bread flour
4T Dry milk powder
3/4 cup sugar
1.75 t salt
3.5 t dry yeast
1/4 pound butter (1 stick)

Bread Maker Recipe:
Dump the ingredients into a bread maker and set it on the "dough" 
setting.  Come back in an hour or so to get the dough. 
If you have an old baked potato, cheese, yogurt, or similar stuff 
laying around, you can throw some into the bread maker along with 
the other ingredients. Experiment when you feel brave.

Traditional Hand Needed Method:
Mix about 2/3 of the flour and 1/2 of the butter  along with the rest of 
the ingredients together. Continue neading for about 10-15 minutes using
the rest of the flour and butter as required to keep the dough from sticking 
to the table.   

Then let dough stand in a warm place for about 1 hour. I use an oven set 
at a warm setting, about 110-120 degrees Fahrenheit
(The bread machine cycle will 
probably already have a 1 hour or so interval built into it.)


Filling Part of the recipe
Walnut Filling:
Grind fine about 3 cups (about 1 pound) of walnuts (walnuts are the traditional
filling, but pecans are fine.  Another popular filling is based on 
poppy seed. Feel free to experiment.)  After the nuts are ground mix them with 
1 cup of sugar and 1 t cinnamon.  (Instead of cinnamon you can use
lemon peel, or vanilla.  And that will change the final flavor a bit.)

filling ingredients:
3 cups walnuts
1 cup sugar
1 t cinnamon
1/4 pound butter
[optional stuff: add some sour cream, or eggs,  raisens, whole walnuts, ...]

Final steps:
After the dough has been rolled into a 2 foot by 1 foot (or so)
rectangle, cover the dough with the ground nuts 
Spread the nut-sugar-cinnamon mixture evenly over 5/6 of the surface of the dough.
Leave a strip about 1 or 2 inches wide that will be the last part of the 
roll to be rolled up.  If you cover every square inch of the dough with filling.
then it will tend to unroll and filling may spill out as it warms during the 
beginning of the baking of the bread.

Other Fillings:

Poppy seed filling
1/2 c poppy seeds ground or crushed in a morter
cook with 1/4 cup of milk (carefully or in a double boiler)
remove pan from the heat and add
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 Tablespoons butter
2 egg yolks

carefully heat this mixture until it thickens
(stirring constantly on a very low heat or 
in a double boiler)
When the mixture has cooled slightly add 
1/3 cup almond paste or 1/2 cup ground almonds (or other nuts)
optional flavorings may be added including 2 t lemon juice, or 
1 t vanilla, or 1 t lemon rind:

 another version of Poppy seed filling 
2 cups poppy seed (ground or mashed somehow , rolling pin, blender, morter)
Mix in :
1 egg
1/3 cup honey
1T lemon juice
1/4 cup chopped nuts
 

Cottage Cheese Filling
Put through a strainer
1.5 cups dry cottage cheese or ricotta cheese
mix with 1/4 cup sugar
1 beaten egg yolk
1/4 to 1/2 cup raisens
2 t grated lemon rind

Beat until stiff but not dry 1 egg white. Then fold it into the 
rest of the mixture.