The downside to having purchased an entire box of Bran Flakes cereal to make a weird-sounding candy is that then you have an entire box of Bran Flakes cereal in the house. I already turned some of it into cookies, but if there is bran cereal in your life, then muffins must follow (it is the natural order of things). However, plain bran muffins are kind of boring. So this morning I made Peanut Butter Bran Muffins, which had the bonus of also using up some of the applesauce from last weekend’s apple fluff pie (aka warm applesauce in a pie crust). If you, too, happen to be staring a box of bran flakes in the face and wondering what the heck to do with it, I highly recommend these muffins. They are bran muffins that do not taste like bran muffins usually taste (which is earnestly healthy in a dry and unappealing manner).
But you aren’t here for the bran recipes, you’re here for the citrus! So today’s challenge recipe – Potica – is from King Arthur Baking’s Extraordinary Breads collection.
This is a Slovenian recipe, and consists of an enriched yeast dough that is rolled out thin, then filled with a mixture of crushed nuts, egg, sugar, and spices, and also some orange zest. The resulting roll is coiled into an oval, which is then nestled into a bread pan, so as to produce its characteristic swirls.
This took a lot longer to bake than anticipated (I kept taking it out and stabbing it with my thermometer and then grumbling because it had to go back in), but I am extremely pleased with the result.
Here’s the finished loaf, all shiny and sprinkled with more crushed walnuts.
And here is an interior shot, looking exactly like it’s supposed to!
The end result is extremely delicious, although more than a bit messy due to all the nuts. This is definitely one I’ll be making again.
Making a thing a day for Thingadailies.
Ooh, that looks amazing…