Grandma Govednik's Chocolate Potica

Thanks to Ann (Kocjancic) Govednik for this and so much more!

Please note that this is not a quick and easy recipe. Allow a full day, especially if it is your first time! This is probably why we only had it on those special holidays like Christmas and Easter. Once you look over the ingredients list for the filling, you will soon realize Chocolate Potica is not a low calorie or low fat item. But hey, it’s a special holiday treat – trust me, it’s worth it!

                        1 cup warm milk                       1 cup warm water

                        3 ¼ ounce pkgs. dry yeast         ½ cup butter

                        ½ cup sugar                               3 egg yolks, slightly beaten

                        1 teaspoon salt                           flour – about 6 cups

Chocolate Filling

The best part!

                        1 cup honey                            ½ cup sugar

                        1 pound light raisins, ground    2 cups milk

                        1 teaspoon Vanilla                   1 pound walnuts, ground

                        1 stick butter                           2 bars sweet chocolate

3 egg whites, beaten to soft peaks & folded into above mixture after cooled.

What you see above is all that I received in written form. How to put it all together came from watching my Grandma Govednik and my Dad actually make it. Here’s what to do with all of this stuff.

The most time consuming part is the dough so start out with that first. This is a yeast dough like bread. If you are familiar with making bread dough it’s pretty much the same. I have found that yeast dough works best when working with room temperature ingredients. So the first thing I do is take the eggs out of the refrigerator, separate them and let them warm to room temperature. While you’re in the fridge, get the butter out and let it also warm to room temperature.

Start out by getting the yeast going by combining the dry yeast with the warm water. Check the yeast package for the correct temperature of the water and the correct time to allow for letting the yeast bloom. Always use fresh yeast!

When the yeast is ready, pour the mixture into a large mixing bowl. Add the warm milk, butter, sugar, egg yolks, and salt and stir. Add flour as needed to make the dough. I wish I could be more detailed in the, "adding the flour" part but you just have to know. Please note that the ingredients list says, "about 6 cups." The dough will more than likely be ready somewhere after 5 cups. It should not be sticky nor should it get to hard. You will have to judge for yourself. Remember that practice makes perfect. Once the dough is mixed, place it in a large greased bowl, set the bowl in a warm place and allow it to rise to double.

Now it’s time for the filling. This is not only easier, it makes the whole house smell good and the "testing" along the way tastes great! Start out by grinding the light raisins. I actually use an old hand grinder that my Moms Mom had – you know the kind, it clamps to the counter, put a bowl under it, push the stuff in, turn the handle and out the other side comes ground stuff. Use whatever tool you have to accomplish this but I like my old hand grinder. Grandma Govednik and my Dad used the same type hand grinder and they learned (and I learned from them) to start out by grinding the raisins first, then the walnuts. If you do the walnuts last they will help clean the sticky raisins out of the grinder.

Put the ground walnuts, ground light raisins and the rest of the filling ingredients into a 4-quart pot and cook over medium heat. Heat the mixture only enough to melt the chocolate and get everything mixed well. Set the mixture aside and allow to cool.

Putting it all together!

Allow me to be honest here, this is the tricky part. With a little practice and planning it will turn out fine! Grandma Govednik had a huge dinning room table and she made this all at once in one piece. You can also do this step in two, three or four parts. First, I’ll tell you how Grandma Govednik did it and then we’ll get to the simplified version.

First, get a huge dinning room table. You will also need a full size top sheet. Yes, a top sheet – like the one you might use for your bed. Get a brand new one for obvious cleanliness reasons and, after you’re done with this, you won’t want to use that sheet for your bed anymore. Go shopping and get a cheap one – you’ll be glad you did.

Clean the table off and put in all the table leaves you have. I did say a large dinning room table, didn’t I? Spread the sheet out on the table, centering it like a table clothe. Get the dough and that last (about) 1 cup of flour. Using a flour sifter, lightly sift the flour over the sheet rubbing it into the cloth and place the dough on the floured sheet. Now get your rolling pin out and start rolling in all directions! The object here is to get the dough rolled VERY thin! Grandma Govednik used to get it close with the rolling pin then she’d put the rolling pin down and pull the dough with her hands. Mind you she did this without tearing the dough – practice makes perfect! When she was finished (and this is the part that I’m still learning) the dough was so thin you could almost read a newspaper through it. While you’re rolling (and pulling if you get that good) shift the sheet side to side across the table to allow the dough to grow. Depending on how big your dinning room table is, the sheet of dough can be twice as big in area as your table by the time you’re done. Grandma and Dad always had the dough so big it would, at one point, almost touch the floor when pushed all the way to one side. You might want to keep the dogs in a separate room when you do this. Oh, another caution if you haven’t already figured this out, you will get flour on the floor during this process.

Once you have the dough as thin as you can get it, push it to one side so that one edge of the dough is at the edge of the table in front of you. Now get the chocolate mixture and a wooden spoon. Yes, it has to be a wooden spoon because that’s what Grandma Govednik used. The object here is to get an even coating of the Chocolate mixture all over the dough. Start out by dropping little piles of the mixture every 4-6 inches. Then use the back of the spoon to spread the mixture out. Continue spreading the mixture until you have half (or thereabouts) of the dough on the tabletop covered. Okay, here’s the really neat part! Assuming that you had the sheet floured just right, the dough will not be sticking to the sheet. Lift the sheet edge up and roll the dough mixture into its self. This is like making a jellyroll. Continue lifting the sheet and pulling it toward you as you go, rolling the dough into a long roll. Continue spreading the mixture out onto the dough and rolling until it’s completely covered and rolled. By now, you should have one very long tube.

Now it’s time to put that long roll into the pan. Pre-heat the oven to 375° . You’ll need a good size baking pan - one that’s about 14x 18 and about 4-inches deep. First, cut about 3-4 inches or so off the ends and set them aside. Then carefully lift the roll into the lightly greased pan curling it around in something like an e shape. When you are done, the pan should be pretty full! Bake at 375° for 30 minutes – then reduce the heat to 350° and bake for another 45-60 minutes. Cook those little end pieces you cut off earlier separately for 20-30 minutes and have them as your treat – or give them to your children or grand children as a special treat.

All right, I promised you an easier way to do the rolling part so here it is. There are two different ways to make this slightly easier BUT it won’t look like Grandma Govednik’s Chocolate Potica when it comes out of the oven. Trust me, it will taste the same! First simpler method; when you get ready to roll the dough cut the raw dough into halves, thirds or quarters. This is especially helpful if you don’t have a large dinning room table. The second simpler way is to follow Grandma Govednik’s method up to where you have to put it in the pan. Remember that long roll? At that point you can cut it into smaller pieces and cook them on a cookie sheet. If you take either short route, shorten your cooking time by whatever you find best. Watch the bottom of the roll and take it out when it turns golden brown (not black!).

Final step – and this is the REALLY important part – eat it!

Enjoy!

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Last modified: November 29, 2011          Copyright 1998, 2000, 2011 Len Govednik, II