Do you know the meaning of last minute? I know it really well! So it was no wonder that the Daring Bakers’ Challenge for this month was left until the last minute (literally!). To complicate matters, we went for an unplanned vacation and returned home only on 27th morning.
The Daring Baker’s October 2011 challenge was Povitica, hosted by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk. Povitica is a traditional Eastern European Dessert Bread that is as lovely to look at as it is to eat!
I started making the dough (quarter batch) at around 3 PM on 27th and was done baking by 9 PM. I made it with a traditional coconut filling used for South Indian sweets (all I had at home was coconut and jaggery). I had to use more than half a cup of whole wheat flour too, since I was short of all purpose flour. It didn’t make any significant change in the texture or taste of the bread.
I wanted to see whether my bread had the beautiful pattern or not, so I sliced the bread before it had cooled down completely. The filling was a bit sticky at that stage, though it was fine this morning. We took some snaps and shared half the Povitica with friends. This morning took some more pictures and had a slice for break fast too.
Povitica not only looked great, it tasted wonderful too. I would have preferred a savory filling, but will try it another time.
You can check out the original recipe for Povitica here, in the Daring Baker Archive section. I have used the quarter batch measurement. I used about 1/2 – 3/4 cup whole wheat flour and used milk for brushing the top. Other than that, I have followed the recipe as such.
I am going to note down the recipe for the filling here.
Ingredients:
- Coconut : 2 cups, grated
- Jaggery/Brown Sugar : 1 1/2 cups, powdered
- Ghee/Butter : 1 tbsp (optional)
- Roasted gram : 2 tbsp (powdered, optional)
- Water
Method:
- Blend the coconut for a couple of seconds in the blender/mixie for uniform size.Don’t make a paste out of it.
- Add the coconut and the powdered jaggery together in a pan, with quarter cup of water and bring this to a boil stirring continuously. When it reaches a semi solid state, add the ghee and the roasted gram and cook for a further 2 minutes. Switch off the heat. It should be spreadable on the dough, but not runny.
- Use this as the filling for povitica.
Thank you Daring Bakers and Jenni for this beautiful challenge. I really enjoyed it.
Linked to:
- The Daring Bakers
- Veggie/Fruit A Month – Coconut
- Dish It Out – for this month’s combination of Wheat and Jaggery
- Healing Foods : Coconut
- Global Food Festival
