Bake #8 | Povitica
In case you're not up to speed, this is the eighth bake in The Great Blogger Bake Along series. Read about it here.
This one wasn't too scary... at least until I had to roll the dough out to FORTY inches. Yeesh. This was the first one that I had Tom lend a hand with. Let me explain in a moment.
The Challenge
Povitica loaf with four rolls of layered bread and walnut/chocolate filling.
The Outcome
Bread is not my strong suit. For whatever reason, I have a terrible time getting anything to rise properly. I had the same issue with this. The dough comes together easily, but once I set it in a bowl to rise, it never got the bubbly height I had expected. My mom never has a problem with rising, so hers definitely beat me out on that mark. This also required you to roll and stretch your dough out to 40x20" - and this is where I had Tom come over and help me gently stretch it. I barely made it to the parameters, but it ended up being fine. Then we spread the filling over the stretched, super thin dough and laughed as it got all torn to shreds. I should have softened the filling a bit more, but I was worried it would cause the dough to under-bake if it was too wet. Finally I rolled it up and set it in the tin for another lousy rise - haha - but overall, my bake ended up being just fine in terms of size and texture. Tom and I didn't think the flavor of the bread with the walnut/chocolate filling was all that good, but my parents really enjoyed it. I'd have liked the bread alone without any filling to be honest! All in all, it was a pretty simple bake besides the 40x20 size (but read below and hear how my mom used an actual bed sheet!)
Would either of us bake this again?
My mom probably would, but I think I'd pass.
Here's the glamour shots...
Here's my mom's report
Another bread. Happy me! So far the breads in these challenges have been done with dough hooks, which is a very nice method. Hand kneading can be tricky. Using the mixer takes the guesswork out of the process and the result is a beautiful dough.
The directions were simple and easy to follow. The filling was also easy. Shaping the loaf was a bit challenging. By the time you were finished, the stretched out dough was to be paper thin 40" by 20". The directions recommended having a bed sheet laid out to do this. Knowing it would be so thin I did use a sheet which I floured generously. I managed to get the job done without too much trouble and was happy for the cloth underneath resulting in dough that did not stick to the counter.
I took 15 minutes off of the baking time. I wouldn't call it a pretty loaf, but we did like the taste. Bread and chocolate, a nice combination for someone who likes both. It was a tad dry, but the remedy for that came from my mom - a little bit-o-butter makes everything better! I would recommend this bread. Pretty yummy and not to difficult.
This was fun to make on a holiday at home with my husband :) And even better, I face-timed my mom and kept her company while she got hers rolled out to 40" and we laughed because we both made the same comment during that process, "Who even thinks to make something this way?! What in the world?!" Don't forget to use the hashtag #JoyLynnBakeAlong and join along on this super fun challenge. Coming up next...
Wednesday, June 7th
Bake #9: Schichttorte
(I'm looking forward to this next one! It's a 20 layer cake that my mom and I actually made together one night for Tom's birthday! Though, this version is a little different, but still fun nonetheless - stay tuned!!)
