Povitica- Daring Baker's Challenge for October 2011

Hi All,  I'm back after a very long time, I can imagine what's going on when you are reading this, where did you disappear suddenly..  Well, I have some reasonable reasons for not being blogging in the past few weeks, something which is more important than blogging.
Anyways I'm back with Daring Baker's Challenge.  I would have skipped this month if I had an opportunity, but I have missed quite lots of challenges in this year, so was determined to complete this one.

This time we were challenged by Jenni of The Gingered Whisk to make Povitica.  Povitica which is pronounced as po-va - teet - sa, is a traditional Eastern European Bread which is served during holidays.  It's also known as  Nutroll, Kalachi etc.. As I said Nutroll, just as the name suggests, this soft layered bread is filled with layers of sweet and delicious nut filling.  The actual recipe suggests walnuts, you can use your creativity to play with different filling which is sweet or savoury.

Ingredients:
For the dough:
All purpose flour- 300 g
Egg- 1/2 beaten
Dried Yeast- 1 1/2 tsp
Oil- 1/2 tbsp
Warm milk- 120 ml
Salt- 1 tsp
Sugar- 1 tbsp

For the filling:
Walnuts - 100 g
Butter- 1 tbsp
Milk- 3 tbsp
Vanilla essence- 1 tsp
Cocoa powder- 2 tsp
Egg- 1/2 beaten
Cinnamon powder- 1/4 tsp
Sugar- 1 tbsp

For the topping:
Chocolate- 100 g
Walnuts - 5 to 6 chopped finely

Method:
Prepare the dough:
Sift the flour and salt in a large bowl and mix it well, add the sugar and yeast, mix it together.  Make a well in the center, add the oil, beaten egg and warm milk.  Beat it together with a electric beater fitted with a dough hook, until the dough comes together.  Knead the dough in a floured surface for about 5 minutes.  Place the dough in a clean and oiled bowl, cover with a cling film and let it sit in a warm place until it doubles in size.

Prepare the filling:
Powder the walnuts in a blender.  Mix together the powdered nuts, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon and vanilla in a bowl. Heat the milk and butter together, until the butter gets melted completely.  Pour the hot liquid into the nut mixture and mix it together.  Quickly beat the beaten egg into the mixture and allow it to sit in room temperature, until it reaches spreadable consistency. 

Start preparing the loaf:
Take the risen dough, knock the air back.  Dust your work surface with flour and roll the dough as thin as possible.  Spread the dough with the nut mixture and start rolling the dough like a Swiss roll.  Grease a 2 lb loaf tin and place the roll inside the tin.  Cover and loosely with a foil and let it sit for 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 200 degree Celsius and bake the loaf in preheated oven for 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 170 degree Celsius and bake it for further 30 to 40 minutes, until the top of the loaf look brown in colour.  Take it out from the oven and allow it to cool in the wire rack.
Once the bread is cooled down, pour the melted chocolate on top of the bread and sprinkle the chopped nuts on top.  This bread would be great as a dessert or even with a hot cup of coffee.