Last summer I was lucky enough to take an amazing trip to Venice and a number of regions in Slovenia. I always love planning these trips, but this one brought special joy because I was really, really excited to stay on the border of northern Italy and Slovenia, an area called Gorica in Slovenia and Gorizia in Italy. There were a number of reasons I wanted to visit – it’s a great wine region, Hisa Franko had a tasting menu I was dying to try and the house was apparently where Hemingway wrote A Farewell to Arms, and this was an important area during World War I, which I’m kind of obsessed with (not sure if you’ve ever heard anyone describe to you their “favorite war” but if not, we probably haven’t met). To summarize, I wanted to visit Gorica because I’m a nerd even when vacationing.
A few weeks ago I was flipping through Classic Home Desserts looking for some inspiration, when I found this recipe for yeasted “Easter bead” and thought it would be nice to put something on the site that was actually in time for a holiday, something that I get my act together to do very rarely. Then I noticed in the side notes that the origin of this coffee bread is actually Gorica, that lovely town nestled in the Julian Alps where I forced my parents to do a number of hikes through trenches from 1917 and visit museums filled with war memorabilia and gas masks. I got pretty excited and decided to make it right away.
I’m so glad I did, because I am in love with this cake. As my best friend and #1 taste tester told me while her mouth was full, this cake “tastes like it’s from the bakery.” The dough is almost exactly like panettone (light yellow, airy, a little lemony) and the filling is nutty and delicious. It’s really more of a sweet bread than a coffee cake. To top it off, the recipe actually makes two cakes (give one to a friend!) and looks absolutely gorgeous. The dough is rolled up with the filling inside like a jelly roll, then stretched out so it’s long and thin and then coiled up in a pan. From the outside the bread looks like a puffed golden coil, and when you cut into it there are coils of filling within each slice. It’s a beauty.
When I described this bread to two people who are great bakers, one of whom was my mom, and said the dough was yeasted, both claimed they “were not good with yeast.” Nonsense! I think maybe yeast is a little intimidating because, and this cake is a good example, it takes time – this took almost the whole day to put together but for the majority of that time I was literally watching bread rise. It also takes some judgment. My dough was not “very slightly sticky” as the recipe described when I was done mixing the ingredients for the appropriate amount of time, so I had to knead additional flour into it until it seemed just right. I think you just need to trust your gut.
The other quirk of this recipe is the filling – I was pretty skeptical that by mixing three very different alcohols, a pack of shortbread cookies, raw almonds, toasted pine nuts and some raisins I’d have anything delicious to fill the dough with. Wrong! I mixed these ingredients in a bowl and let them sit, and by the time the mixture got rolled into the dough and baked it had become the perfect filling. It even tasted familiar, I’d just never been able to put my finger on what that taste really was (turns out, highly alcoholic).
So if you don’t have a chance to visit Gorica – and I really hope you do, even if you don’t have a favorite war – then this spring, or Easter if you’re religious, please make this recipe. Give one bread to someone you really like, and keep the other to slowly peel off pieces and marvel at what you’ve made.
Ingredients
- 1 1/2 cups lukewarm milk
- 2 packages active dry yeast
- 5 3/4-6 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup plus 3 tablespoons sugar
- 2 large eggs
- 2 large egg yolks
- 1/4 cup heavy cream
- 2 teaspoons coarse (kosher) salt
- Grated zest of 1 large or 2 small lemons
- 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cut into pieces, softened
- 1 1/3 cups (5-6 oz.) pine nuts, toasted and cooled
- 1/2 lb. (about 2 cups) raw almonds (unblanched) with skins
- 1/4 lb. biscotti or shortbread cookies (about 10 pieces Pepperidge Farm shortbread cookies
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, melted
- 1 cup raisins
- 1 1/2 tablespoons ground cinnamon
- 2 tablespoons pure vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup Marsala
- 1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons Triple Sec
- 1/4 cup brandy or grappa
- 1 egg yolk mixed with 1 teaspoon cold water, for glaze
- Sugar, for sprinkling
Instructions
- To make the dough, combine 1/4 cup of the lukewarm milk and the yeast in a small bowl. Stir in 2 tablespoons of the flour and 1 tablespoon of the sugar. Set aside in a warm place until doubled 20-30 minutes.
- In an electric mixer fitted with a dough hook or by hand with a wooden spoon, beat the eggs and egg yolk with the remaining 1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar until well blended. Beat in the remaining 1 1/4 cups lukewarm milk, the cream, salt and lemon zest. Mix in the butter; mix in the yeast mixture. Add the remaining flour, about 1/2 cup at a time, adding just enough to form a soft, moist and very slightly sticky dough, about 8 minutes with a mixer or 12 minutes by hand.
- Transfer the dough to a lightly floured surface and knead by hand until it is springy, elastic and very smooth, about 8 minutes. If the dough becomes too sticky to handle easily, work in a little more flour as you knead. Transfer the dough to a buttered bowl and turn to coat with the butter; cover with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel. Let rise until doubled, usually about 1 1/2 hours or overnight in the refrigerator.
- Meanwhile, in a food processor, combine the pine nuts, almonds, biscotti or shortbread cookies and the sugar; pulse until the nuts and cookies are the size of peas. Transfer the mixture to a bowl, and stir in the melted butter, raisins, cinnamon, vanilla, Marsala, Triple Sec and brandy or grappa. Mix until all of the ingredients are moist and well combined. Add more seasonings and/or spirits to taste. Let the filling soak for at least 1 hour or overnight.
- Punch down the dough and transfer it to a lightly floured surface. Form the dough into a smooth ball; cover and let stand for 10 to 15 minutes.
- Divide the dough in half. Roll out half of the dough on a lightly floured surface to a 16x11-inch rectangle. Spread half of the filling evenly over the dough, leaving a 1-inch border on all sides. Starting from a long side, gently roll up the dough into a cylinder. When you finish rolling, the seam should be on top; fold in the ends to enclose the filling.
- Working very gently and beginning from the center of the cylinder, stretch the cylinder, so that it becomes even longer and narrower. Do this by picking it up at the center and elongating it as you move your fingers toward the ends. Starting with one end as the enter, gently coil the cylinder of dough into a flat spiral shape. Transfer the coil, seam-side down, to a buttered 9-inch round cake pan or springform pan; the coil should come to within an inch of the edges of the pan but should not touch the edges. Do not tuck the ends of the coil underneath.
- Repeat the last two steps with the remaining dough and filling, placing the coil in a second buttered pan. Cover the pans with plastic wrap or a kitchen towel. Let rise in a warm place until nearly doubled, for about 1 hour.
- Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F, with a rack at the center. Brush the coils gently with the egg yolk glaze. Let the dough stand for at least 10 minutes while the oven heats.
- Lightly sprinkle the surface of the dough with sugar. Bake until the breads begin to turn golden brown, 20 to 25 minutes. Place a sheet of foil over the loaves and continue to bake until they are nicely golden brown and baked through (they should sound hollow when tapped), about 20 minutes longer.
- Cool the breads in the pans on a wire rack for about 5 minutes. Carefully remove from the pans and cool completely on the rack. Serve warm or at room temperature.
Notes
Adapted from Classic Home Desserts
