April

In the memory of Bible event, when a crowd of people with olive branches in their hands warmly greeted Jesus at his arrival in Jerusalem, we still celebrate Palm Sunday today. A week before Holy Sunday we consecrate in bundles plaited with flowers and verdure. In our part of Slovenia, they are called presmec. Children can compete and make the smallest or the biggest presmec in the parish. After coming from the church, the bundle is thrown on the roof of your house to protect it throughout the year against evil spirits.
Easter has in Slovenia many colourful traditions and customs dating centuries into the past. It has been important feast for the people of Slovenia. The biggest Christian feast brought about the end of a long fast, which started on Ash Wednesday, and at Easter the table of the average inhabitant of this country was laden as on no other occasion. The essential ham, bread, horseradish and a special Slovenian cake, potica, are at this time of the year accompanied by colourful decorated eggs, in Slovenia called pirhi, pisanice, pisanke, remenice or remenke. In our family, we always colour eggs in onion peelings. Before cooking them in the brown-dyed water, children pick up different plant leaves and put them on egg's shell. The egg is then wrapped into tights and boiled. When you remove the wrapping, all the egg is brown except where the plant was placed. This you get amazing patterns. And everything is completely natural and healthy.
On Saturday before Easter, we take a bit of everything needed for Easter festivity to the church in order to bless the food.

Potica (Slovenian Nut Roll Cake)

2 teaspoons dry active yeast
½ cup warm milk
1 tablespoon sugar

Dissolve yeast and sugar in milk and wait for 5 minutes to activate the yeast.

Dough
1 ½ cups milk
¾ cups shortening
5 egg yolks
¾ cups sugar
2 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon nutmeg
7-7 ½ cups all-purpose flour

Combine the yeast mixture and the rest (except 2 cups of flour). Mix and add the remaining flour until the dough can be handled without sticking. It takes 20 minutes of kneading by hand, 9 minutes with a mixer with a bread hook.
Put dough in a large greased bowl, cover it and let it relax and double in size in a warm place (pre-heated oven e.g.).


 

Walnut Filling

1 stick margarine or butter (¼ pound)
1 ½ cups milk
2 cups sugar
½ cup honey
1 tablespoon vanilla
Grated peel of a lemon
5 egg whites
Cinnamon

First, mix milk and egg whites, then add margarine, zest and honey, after that combine the dry ingredients and add them to the mixture, and simmer slowly.
Take the mixture off of the heat and add 2 pounds of walnuts, ground fine.
Roll out the dough pretty thin, spread the filling (should not be hot) on the dough and roll it up (the rolling up gives it the name - Potica).
Egg wash the top if you want it shinny.
Bake in pre-heated oven @ 325 F for 1 hour.