Our friend Erin is pretty awesome at cooking and at life. At one point in time, she made hundreds of batches of caramel that made the rounds of our Ravelry group. Seriously, people would hide these caramels from their families, hoarding them carefully to ensure that they would last as long as possible or alternately eat as many as possible in one sitting. So when she said that she’d be willing to do a little food blogging, I jumped at the possibility. I love reading about people’s Holiday traditions, particularly if they involve food! – Lauria
Growing up, my family didn’t have a lot of hard and fast Christmas traditions. I can think of two–both food related. On Christmas Eve, Grandma W. would make this weird apple sauce pudding concoction that she would hide a nut in. Everyone would get a scoop and whoever found the nut would get an extra present. I thought it was foul and would just mush my serving around looking for the nut. On Christmas morning, we had Grandma P.’s nut roll for breakfast. This was the good stuff.
This nut roll, very similar to potica bread, was adapted from my great grandma’s recipe. Grandma had to play around with it a bit, because her mother in law didn’t measure anything. She made it every Christmas, letting my sister and me help when we were around. Grandma gave me the recipe several years ago, and asked that I take over. I happily obliged.
Here is what you will need for the dough:
1 1/2 c milk
1 c sugar
4 1/2 t yeast
1 c melted butter
6-6 1/2c flour
4 eggs beaten
3 t salt
and for the filling:
1 1/2# shelled walnuts
3/4 t cinnamon
1 1/2 c sugar
First, scald the milk by heating it on the stove just enough to form small bubbles around the edges. Pour the scalded milk over sugar in a large bowl (I use the bowl to my stand mixer), stir and let cool to lukewarm. When the mixture reaches roughly 100 F, stir in the yeast and 3 cups of flour. Mix well, cover and let rise until full of bubbles.
Add the eggs, salt and melted butter, and blend well. Add an additional 3 cups of flour. Beat very well for 10 minutes or with dough hooks of mixer, adding more flour as needed to create a satiny, slightly tacky dough.
Cover, let rise 1.5 hours. At this point, the dough can be refrigerated overnight. Remove the dough from the refrigerator one hour before continuing. If you are making this all in one day, now is a good time to make the filling.
In a food processor fitted with the chopping blade, combine the walnuts, cinnamon and sugar. (I should note that I have decreased the filling amount from the original recipe. That’s all that will fit in my food processor, and my loaves are still bursting with goodness.) Pulse until the walnuts are coarsely chopped.
Divide your dough into four equal parts. Roll dough into a 1/4 inch thick rectangle. This can be done on a lightly floured towel, but I like to use my silicone baking mats. Spread on 1/4 of the filling, leaving a narrow border around the edge.
Roll up like a jelly roll, pinching closed the ends and seam. Transfer to a baking sheet. I don’t think it’s necessary to grease or line the sheets, but again, I use my silicone baking mats.
Repeat with the remaining portions of dough. Cover and let rise 45 minutes. Preheat your oven to 325 F. Brush top with beaten egg and bake for one hour.
Now that I look at it, this recipe could easily be cut in half if you don’t want four loaves of nut roll sitting around. It freezes well, though, and I usually end up doubling the recipe and passing them out to neighbors. Enjoy!
