A nut roll is a pastry consisting of a sweet yeast dough (usually using milk) that is rolled out very thin, spread with a nut paste made from ground nuts and a sweetener like

honey Honey is a sweet and viscous substance made by several bees, the best-known of which are honey bees. Honey is made and stored to nourish bee colonies. Bees produce honey by gathering and then refining the sugary secretions of plants (primar ...

, then rolled up into a log shape. This 'log' is either left long and straight or is often bent into a horseshoe shape, egg washed, baked, and then sliced crosswise. Nut rolls resemble a jelly roll (

Swiss roll A Swiss roll, jelly roll (United States), roll cake, cream roll, roulade or Swiss log is a type of rolled sponge cake filled with whipped cream, jam, or icing. The origins of the term are unclear; in spite of the name "Swiss roll", the cake i ...

) but usually with more layers of dough and filling, and resemble strudels but with fewer and less delicate dough layers. Fillings commonly have as their main ingredient ground walnuts or

poppy seed Poppy seed is an oilseed obtained from the opium poppy (''Papaver somniferum''). The tiny, kidney-shaped seeds have been harvested from dried seed pods by various civilizations for thousands of years. It is still widely used in many countries, ...

s. Nut rolls can be found in the United States and in Central European cuisines. In the United States, "nut roll" is a more or less generic name for pastries of this type, no matter where they originate. Nut rolls are known also by many specific regional names, including: ''orechovník'' in Slovak; '' makowiec'' in

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...

; ''potica'', ''povitica'', ''gibanica'', ''orahnjača/orehnjača'' in

Slovenian Slovene or Slovenian may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to Slovenia, a country in Central Europe * Slovene language, a South Slavic language mainly spoken in Slovenia * Slovenes The Slovenes, also known as Slovenians ( sl, Sloven ...

and Serbo-Croatian (walnut variant, ''makovnjača'' for variant with poppy seed, in Croatia can also be made with ''

carob The carob ( ; ''Ceratonia siliqua'') is a flowering evergreen tree or shrub in the Caesalpinioideae sub-family of the legume family, Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated for its edible fruit pods, and as an ornamental tree in gardens and landscap ...

''); '' kalács'' and ''

bejgli The poppy seed roll is a pastry consisting of a roll of sweet yeast bread (a viennoiserie) with a dense, rich, bittersweet filling of poppy seed. An alternative filling is a paste of minced walnuts, or minced chestnuts. It is popular in Centra ...

'' in Hungarian; and ''pastiç'' (

pastiche A pastiche is a work of visual art, literature, theatre, music, or architecture that imitates the style or character of the work of one or more other artists. Unlike parody, pastiche pays homage to the work it imitates, rather than mocking it ...

) or ''nokul'' in

Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...

. Regional variations on nut rolls are part of weddings, for Easter and Christmas, as well as other celebrations and holidays.

Preparation and design

A sweet yeast dough is rolled flat, about 0.2 inches (5 millimeters) thick, and a filling is spread on it. The filled dough is rolled up, forming a log or loaf shape, then baked. When sliced, the cross-section shows a swirl of filling. Types or forms of nut roll are: rolled log, loaf made via a bread pan, and a "crazy loaf" style with a unique texture.Potica takes Slovenian tradition on a roll
Similar ground walnut filling is used in

Buchteln Buchteln (from Czech , pl. , also in German: pl., sing. ; also , , ), are sweet rolls made of enriched yeast dough, filled with powidl, jam, chocolate, ground poppy seeds or quark, brushed with butter and baked in a large pan so that they stic ...

, a bun-shaped pastry, also with yeast dough.

Central Europe

Traditional nut rolls in Central and Eastern Europe, like makowiec and bejgli, are a special type of rolled log shape. These are generally made with either of two types of filling: walnut and

. In addition to ground nut fillings,

cinnamon Cinnamon is a spice obtained from the inner bark of several tree species from the genus ''Cinnamomum''. Cinnamon is used mainly as an aromatic condiment and flavouring additive in a wide variety of cuisines, sweet and savoury dishes, breakfa ...

, raisins or currants, different types of chopped

nuts Nut often refers to: * Nut (fruit), fruit composed of a hard shell and a seed, or a collective noun for dry and edible fruits or seeds * Nut (hardware), fastener used with a bolt Nut or Nuts may also refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media Com ...

, bread crumbs, lemon or

orange zest Zest is a food ingredient that is prepared by scraping or cutting from the rind of unwaxed citrus fruits such as lemon, orange, citron, and lime. Zest is used to add flavor to foods. In terms of fruit anatomy, the zest is obtained from the fl ...

, rum, butter and

heavy cream Cream is a dairy product composed of the higher-fat layer skimmed from the top of milk before homogenization. In un-homogenized milk, the fat, which is less dense, eventually rises to the top. In the industrial production of cream, this process ...

or sour cream are used.

Povitica

The povitica,Recipes from the Iron Range
a traditional Croatian and partly Slovenian pastry, is made from buttery pastry dough rolled into very thin layers and covered with a layer of brown sugar, spices, and walnuts. The log-shaped loaf is then baked. Povitica was featured as the technical challenge recipe on the "Advanced Dough" episode of The

Great British Baking Show ''The Great British Bake Off'' (often abbreviated to ''Bake Off'' or ''GBBO'') is a British television baking competition, produced by Love Productions, in which a group of amateur bakers compete against each other in a series of rounds, atte ...

in 2014. Other roll-shaped European pastries are filled with thick jam (called lekvar, usually

apricot An apricot (, ) is a fruit, or the tree that bears the fruit, of several species in the genus ''Prunus''. Usually, an apricot is from the species '' P. armeniaca'', but the fruits of the other species in ''Prunus'' sect. ''Armeniaca'' are also ...

cherry A cherry is the fruit of many plants of the genus ''Prunus'', and is a fleshy drupe (stone fruit). Commercial cherries are obtained from cultivars of several species, such as the sweet ''Prunus avium'' and the sour ''Prunus cerasus''. The nam ...

) called lekvarostekercs or

Slovenia

Slovenian potica Slovenian potica ( sl, Slovenska potica) is a nut roll and a traditional festive pastry from Slovenia. The name of potica is distinctly Slovenian and developed etymologically from earlier Slovenian forms such as povitica, povtica, potvitsa. This ...

is traditional walnut roll cake in Slovenia.

Serbia

Nut roll is also typical for northern Serbia ( Vojvodina), where it is named "štrudla/штрудла" or "savijača/савијача". Serbian nut roll is usually covered with a layer of poppy, walnut or

, but sometimes can be with a layer of

cocoa Cocoa may refer to: Chocolate * Chocolate * ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree * Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao'' * Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...

United States

Nut rolls are popular across the United States, often made with some combination of walnut,

, and coffee, with more traditional varieties and preparations made in areas with large Central European settlements. They were introduced there by Central European immigrants and widely adopted by other ethnic groups in those regions. Nut rolls are an essential part of Christmas celebrations and popular other times in Pittsburgh and southwestern Pennsylvania, Austin, Texas, Joliet, Illinois,

Cleveland, Ohio Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...

, Sheboygan, Wisconsin, Youngstown, Ohio, northeastern Ohio (where it is known as ''kolachi''), the Iron Range of Minnesota,

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

and

Butte, Montana Butte ( ) is a consolidated city-county and the county seat of Silver Bow County, Montana, United States. In 1977, the city and county governments consolidated to form the sole entity of Butte-Silver Bow. The city covers , and, according to the ...

. As such, povitica, as well as Cornish pasties, are considered one of the traditional state foods of Montana, regardless of ethnic group.

References

External links

{{Pastries Croatian desserts Cypriot cuisine Czech cuisine Pastries with poppy seeds Polish desserts Russian desserts Serbian cuisine Slovak cuisine Slovenian cuisine Turkish pastries Yeast breads