I had high hopes for this bake. I knew Potica, a Slovenian nut roll, would be a challenge for me, but I was willing to take on that challenge. Until I wasn’t.
The Plan
Here was my plan: Sunday morning I would wake up early, shower, and get to baking. I had visions of me dancing around my tiny kitchen, flour flying, and dough rising. It was going to be a delight! Lol.
Potica: The Recipe
But Saturday night, I had a hard time falling asleep, so I took a dose of my prescribed sleeping pills. I woke up Sunday at 11:30 in the morning, super groggy and definitely not in the mood to be kneading dough and grinding walnuts. I decided to wait to shower, and got straight to baking. The recipe I decided to use was Darling Apron’s Traditional Slovenian Potica Recipe (Walnut Nut Roll).
I persevered, and was happy with the result of the dough. I quickly got into the groove and before I knew it, I was kneading the most wonderful piece of dough I have ever had the pleasure of putting my hands on. It turned out perfect, soft, and elastic. Then I got a phone call from my mom.
Bad News
A family member of ours stopped responding to text messages and posting to social media. I called the police and asked them to do a welfare check. While waiting to hear back, I let my dough rise and ground up the walnuts and added the honey and cream mixture to create the most delicious filling.
Then the call came. My family member was found deceased. I was devastated and put everything on hold to contact family members. Since, I live so far away from him, there was nothing else I could do at that moment.
Maybe the dough rose too much, I don’t know. But the drastic change in my mood definitely impacted how well I was able complete assembling the roll.
The Ruin
I rolled the dough out as thin as I could per the instructions, and slathered on the walnut mix. But as I was rolling the dough, the outside layer broke and walnut filling began seeping out of the roll. It was ruined, and I knew it. But what could I do at this point? Nothing. So, I placed it in the oven and baked it according to the directions.
The Results: Potica
The Potica that resulted wasn’t very pretty at all. But it did bake through, and when I cut it, the signature spiral of the nut roll was evident. The outside crust broke easily. However, it still tasted amazing. Especially warm with a small bit of butter.
I was disappointed with the results and grieving the death of a loved one, so I will give myself some grace. I will definitely have to try this Slovenian nut roll recipe again at another time.