Belokranjska Povitica Recipes

BELOKRANJSKA POVITICA

Steps:

• Mix ingredients for dough into a soft satin dough (about 10 minutes) and divide it into 4 smaller balls, brush them with oil and let them rest for about 1/2 hour.
• Spread out an old clean tablecloth on the table and sprinkle lightly with flour. Place the dough balls one a t a time on the cloth and roll out to a rectangle as thin as possible, lifting and turning it to prevent it from sticking.
• Gently stretch the rectangle, working from the centre to the outside, and using the backs on the hands until it is very thin. Trim the thick edges. Leave to dry and rest for 10-15 minutes. Repeat with the remaining three dough balls.
• Have the fill prepared beforehand. For the fill - If you want to make it as the original and I suggest you do because it does make a difference - skrlupec (baked cream) and fresh cheese (ricotta) is made as following: Take 5 liter fresh milk (NOT reduced fat!) refrigerated for at least 12 hours in a pot. Slowly warm it up on a stove to a temperature just under boiling and keep it there for a while until a thick layer of cream with a skin forms on the top. Heat the oven to 200°C and put the milk off the stove to cool down a little. When the oven is at 200°C put the milk pot into the oven for 10-15 minutes so the cream that formed on the milk gets a thin unevenly brownish crust. Then collect the baked cream from the milk with a spatula or a big spoon and put it in a bowl--this is "skrlupec" or baked fresh cream. For fresh cheese (ricotta) put the remaining milk back on the stove and warm it to a simmer slowly. Put a teaspoon (or tablespoon if using less acid vinegar) of apple cider vinegar and salt into the milk and turn off the stove. Milk starts turning into cheese. Leave it to cool down to room temperature (round 1 and 1/2h or more) so you can collect the fresh cheese (ricotta) from the cheese water with a clean cloth. Press the cheese in the cloth to drain it and make it firmer. The cheese has to be white, not green or grey.
• Alternatively if you don't want to bother with the extra work or don't have time you can use a ricotta from the store (500 g package) to which you add a mixture of 0.2 l sour cream, 0.1 l milk and 200 grams butter.
• Mix 2 eggs with the cheese/baked cream mixture (or bought ricotta, sour cream, butter and milk mix) and 2 full teaspoons of salt or sugar into a thick mass.
• For special occasions you can add grape raisins into the fill of the sweet variety or pork cracklings to the salty variety.
• Spread the fill evenly on the 4 stretched dough rectangles.
• Roll the dough into rolls, close both ends by stuffing the outer ends into the roll - towards the center. Fit the four rolls into a baking pan. If the rolls are too big, fit two and two together.
• Brush it with beaten egg and bake at 200°C approximately 30 minutes.