We bring you a recipe for a special kind of cake called sirnica or pinca (the second term is more typical for northern Croatia) – traditional cake made for Easter in Croatia. It’s actually some kind of cross between bread and cake, usually shaped as round loaf but it can also be made in a braid form. Some people also like to add dry fruit to it (mostly raisins) or a colored egg for decoration.
Here’s our recipe, hope you like it 🙂
INGREDIENTS
- 730 g (25.7 oz) all purpose flour
- 250 g butter (8.8 oz) – if you’re using lard instead, a bit less
- 2 packets (14 g / 0.4 oz) of dry yeast
- grated zest of 1 orange
- grated zest of 1 lemon
- pinch of salt
- 250 ml milk
- 2 packets (2 tbsp) vanilla sugar
- 2 tbsp rose brandy
- 2 tbsp cherry brandy, or some other fruity brandy
- 250 g (8.8 oz) sugar
- 6 egg yolks
- EGG WASH
- 1 egg yolk
- coarse sugar or crumbled sugar cubes
INSTRUCTIONS
- put yeast into warm milk (not too warm!), add a teaspoon of sugar and let it rise a bit
- once it had risen add it to flour, salt, butter and all the other ingredients; if you don’t have any type of Croatian rakija brandy available – use rum
- knead the dough until it stops sticking to the bowl (ca. 10 minutes), cover it with kitchen cloth and let it rise in warm place until it doubles in size
- then knead it again, shape it in 2 bigger or several smaller loafs and place them onto the sheet pan; let them rest and rise for half an hour
- using kitchen scissors or knife cut u cross into the surface of each and brush the surface with whisked egg yolk; sprinkle it with coarse sugar
- preheat the oven to 180 C (365F) and bake for approximately 40-45 minutes
Few TIPS
– it’s better to add fat to the dough later on; for example if you do the 2 risings you can add it after the first one, this will help you sirnica rise more easil-
– in case you’re not sure whether it’s baked, stick a toothpick in the middle and if it comes out dry it’s don
– once your sirnica is baked, take it out of the oven, wrap it in a clean kitchen cloth and let it cool down a bit
