![]() (If the dough is sticky after 3 minutes, add the remaining ½ cup flour, 2 tablespoons at a time.) Turn the dough out onto a heavily floured surface and shape into a ball. After the dough comes together, increase the speed to medium and mix until shiny and smooth, 4 to 6 minutes. With the mixer on low, add the milk mixture. Sift 2½ cups flour, the yeast, and salt together in the bowl of a standing mixer fitted with the dough hook. Mix the butter, milk, sugar, and egg yolks together in a large measuring cup. FOR THE DOUGH: Lightly grease a large bowl with cooking spray or neutral oil.Even that you finally folded all the laundry. Whatever kind of potica you make, any festivity is worthy of celebration. Different pans and sizes of loaves are expected from home to home. A variety of fillings are used: poppy seeds, cottage cheese, leek, chocolate, or honey. Traditionally, it can be served with savory foods or as a sweet course. I think the secret is the sweetness of the dates and the subtle crunch of the walnuts swirled in each bite. I bought these red walnuts for a little holiday spirit, but found that they really didn’t seem to give that color pop I was hoping for. There is no difference that I’ve noticed in flavor of the red walnuts versus the brown. The layers show themselves beautifully with the dates and walnuts contrasting with the light dough. ![]() Now Round 3: see those layers in the header photo? That’s what makes this bread so delicious. Eh, not so bad, since I got to eat more of it. I had to start over and make the bread again. It lied to me! The camera does lie! So disgusted with this, I finally just ate the bread and scrapped the photos. The camera would not give me what my eye was seeing. I tried ripping off part of the bread so the wonderful layers could be appreciated. I tried ambient lighting inside versus outside. After Round 2 and photographing the bread, I found myself unable - yes, unable - to make it look pretty. Round 1 of bread-making: we ate it too fast to take photos. It doesn’t need to be slathered with butter. What I love most about this bread is that it is everything you want in a cinnamon roll without being too sweet. Why wait until the holidays to make this? It’s too good to keep relegated to only once a year. It is almost like a double- swirled cinnamon roll: the dates (cicadas!), walnuts (grasshoppers!), and spices (squash beetles – ew!) are rolled up into a long snake of dough, then swirled again, into a nautilus of layered cinnamon and walnuts. It was actually springtime when I first made this holiday bread, Potica. Our family never made a point to stick with everyone else’s traditions and only make pumpkin pie at Thanksgiving, or Christmas cookies at Christmastime, or even a big fat ham for Easter. For me, I think of cinnamon, nutmeg, the warm spicy smells of mulled wine and freshly baked cookies and breads. There were already bins of fake silver-plated bells, smiling glittery snowmen ornaments in crispy cellophane boxes, and cheery pine trees in every imaginable color gracing each corner of the stores. At the cusp of Halloween, department stores were already in the Christmas spirit, advertising months of layaway service. The long end of a California summer also signifies autumn and the advent of the holidays. As if I can’t see them, the size of Mejool dates, sitting stiffly on the willow branches. Hypertelomeric cicadas stop their droning buzzing when I approach too closely. Once baby pea green grasshoppers, now a nutty brown as the summer lopes on, spring with wide hops and wriggle to force themselves from my fingers. Without guilt, I smash summer squash beetles, their bodies emitting an inky spiciness. ![]() Dandelions blaze yellow, waiting to turn to the soft gray puff of summer’s end.
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