I started making this coffee cake about 35 years ago! I can’t believe it but I have made it for every Christmas during those years. Sometimes by myself – when the girls were too young to help – then with the assistance of the girls. I believe there has a been a time or two after the girls got married that they sent their husbands in the kitchen to see how it was made and to help! Now here it is this Christmas the first time in along time that I have made it totally by myself once again. Mike was in and out of the kitchen taking photos for me as my hands were too covered with flour to do that too 
This recipe if you do a search on line has many different versions. The recipe I use came with the first Bundt pan that I bought – it had a little booklet of recipes and I used all of the recipes for awhile – I used to make cakes a lot! This cake Potica is a Slovenian nut bread. It is pronounced “po – tee – zah”
The recipe:
Potica
the cake:
1 cup butter
1/2 cup milk
2 packages dry yeast
3 eggs, separated
2 1/2 cups flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 cup sugar
Filling:
2 cups chopped walnuts
1 teaspoon cinnamon
3 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup chopped dates
3/4 cup milk
1 cup sugar
reserved egg whites
Heat butter and milk until the butter is melted. Cool to lukewarm (I use a candy thermometer to 110 degrees). In a large bowl dissolve the yeast in the warm water and beat in egg yolks one at a time. Blend in to the cooled milk mixture. Stir in the flour, salt and sugar. Beat until mixture is smooth and creamy. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight. The following day blend walnuts, cinnamon, sugar, dates and milk in a saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stir until thickened. Let the mixture cool a little bit. Beat egg whites until stiff. Slowly add the 1 cup of sugar. Fold into the cooled walnut date mixture.
Cut the dough in half, dust with flour. Roll each out to make a 18 inch circle (or if you like a rectangle it makes no difference). Roll the dough thin – but not too thin! Top each piece of the rolled out dough with half of the walnut mixture and spread to within an inch of the edge. Roll it up jelly roll fashion. Place in the bundt pan one piece at a time and let them overlap. Let rise for 30 minutes and then bake in a preheated oven at 350 degrees – bake for 45 minutes minutes.
step one, milk butter mixture cooling
getting the dough ready this morning.
making the filling
rolling the dough out
spreading the filling over the dough
rolling the cake jelly roll fashioned
place in the buttered and floured pan
the second rolled up piece on the opposite end of the pan and let it overlap if it needs to.
Baked for 45 minutes - the top will be a little brown but it doesn't matter as it is on the bottom when you put it on your cake plate. Yes sometimes by overlapping the two pieces of dough you get a little lopsided cake but I don't care - it is going to get eaten rather quickly anyhow! Let it cool in the pan for about 15 minutes when you take it out of the oven.
Put a light glace of frosting on the cake when it is still warm so it will drizzle down the sides - unless you really want frosting and want to cover the whole cake. I just like it light.
It looks like we will be spending our Christmas by ourselves this year – the first time since we spent our first Christmas together 37 years ago! The weather is undependable this year. We have had so much rain the past two days that there is flooding in some places of Arkansas so much so that some of the interstates south of Little Rock are closed in sections. Tonight the temperatures are dropping and we do not know if we will have ice or snow tonight. Right now the forecast is to have 1 to 3 inches of snow by morning. It is not raining or snowing right now. The roads are wet though who knows what kind of shape the roads will be in tomorrow. But because of the weather our daughter and son in law in North Little Rock have decided to play it safe and stay home. They – or we – can make the trip to see the other when the weather improves. I’ll just have to make sure that I save some of this coffee cake for them until we see them. I might have to put their cookies in the freezer to keep them fresh enough also!
I hope all of you have a very happy and safe Christmas. I have enjoyed so much this past year all of the friendships made through people stopping by my blog and leaving comments which lead at times to more mail being exchanged and look forward to more of the same in the new year. The weather is so bad this year in a lot of the county so don’t drive if you don’t have to!
