STUFFED HORSESHOE BREAD - PUNJENA POTKOVA

Place of origin: Our recipe based on some similar European recipe 

I've once seen a recipe for something similar somewhere, but couldn't remember where, was it a cookbook or the internet. I've only remembered it was a European dish. I liked the idea so I made one on my own combining milk and butter bread dough with a filling to my liking. :-)  

INGREDIENTS

2 cups all purpose flour (or bread flour, wholewheat or some other flour suitable for bread)

30 g butter

½ cup milk

½ cup water

½ packet dry yeast

½ tsp salt

FOR THE FILLING:

1 cup grated cheese + some extra for topping (gouda, edam, emmental, cheddar….)

1 tomato

1 small zucchini

1 small onion

1 small bell pepper or ½ large pepper

salt and pepper

1. sift flour into a bowl, add salt and yeast; add butter cut into chunks and rub it into flour using fingertips or hand mixer with beaters for kneading
2. add milk and ¼ cup water, knead well
3. add the remaining water if the dough is too dry and not soft enough. Cover the bowl with a cloth and set aside till you’re preparing the filling. The dough should sit for about 1 hour in a warm place until double in size.
4. first grate the zucchini, put it in a bowl and sprinkle with salt. Set aside.
5. chop onion and bell pepper, peel and chop the tomato (to peel the tomato easily, make a cross with a knife on both top and bottom of it and immerse into hot water for couple of minutes; more ripe tomato will take less time and not so ripe and hard one will take more).
6. grate the cheese (or buy already grated one ;-) ). You will need 1 cup for the filling and app ½ cup for the topping.
7. squeeze the water out of zucchini as much as you can (otherwise the bread will be sticky and soggy)
8. put all ingredients for the filling in a bowl, sprinkle with salt and pepper and mix until well combined
9. turn the dough onto a floured working surface and knead lightly
10. roll out to form a rectangle about 1.5 cm thick and spread the filling over the dough as evenly as possible (leave edges without the filling)
11. roll it up as a Swiss roll, seal the edges (short sides) and place (seam side down) on a tray lined with parchment paper. Gently form into a horseshoe shape.
12. preheat the oven to 210°C
13. slit the roll at 2-3 cm intervals with a sharp knife (be careful so you don’t cut it too much or all the way to filling!) and sprinkle with extra cheese.
14. bake for 15-20 minutes.
15. take out of the oven, let cool, cut in slices and serve - it can be a nice and interesting side dish, for example, or a simple meal with salad

HINT: it is an excellent picnic dish (I made it only for hiking trips so far)! you can also add some bacon or ham cut into small chunks or cooked ground meat or even canned tuna (reduce the cheese for the filling to ½ cup otherwise you might end up with too much filling)

PUNJENA POTKOVA

SASTOJCI

2 šalice glatkog brašna (ili namjenskog za dizana tijesta, polubijelog, integralnog ili nekog drugog prikladno za krušno tijesto)

30 g maslaca

½ šalice brašna

½ šalice vode

½ vrećice suhog kvasca

½ žličice soli
* šalica "standardna" od 240 ml

NADJEV:

1 šalica ribanog sira + dodatno za posipavanje (gouda, edamer, emmentaeler, cheddar….)

1 rajčica, oguljena i narezana na kockice

1 mala tikvica

1 mali luk

1 mala crvena ili zelena paprika (bell pepper) ili ½ velike paprike

sol i papar

1. u zdjelu prosijte brašno i dodajte mu sol i kvasac pa potom maslac u komadićima. Prstima ili mikserom s nastavcima za kruh izmrvite maslac u brašno
2. dodajte mlijeko i ¼ šalice vode i dobro umijesite
3. ako je tijesto presuho i tvrdo, dodajte ostatak vode. Pokrijte zdjelu krpom i stavite sa strane dok pripremate nadjev. Tijesto bi trebalo stajati oko 1 sat na toplom mjestu dok mu se veličina ne udvostruči
4. prvo naribajte tikvicu, stavite ju u zdjelu i posolite te stavite sa strane
5. nasjeckajte luk i papriku (na kockice), ogulite i nasjeckajte rajčicu (kako bi rajčicu lakše ogulili, zarežite i gornju i donju stranu u obliku križa i potopite ju u vruću vodu te ostavite par minuta, izvadite i ogulite - zrelom plodu će trebati manje vremena, dok će tvrde i ne baš zrele rajčice trebati duže stajati)
6. naribajte sir (ili kupite ribani sir za pizzu). Trebat će vam 1 šalica za nadjev i oko pola šalice za posipavanje
7. istisnite vodu iz tikvice što je više moguće inače će kruh biti vlažan, ljepljiv i gnjecav
8. stavite sve sastojke za nadjev u zdjelu, dodajte sol i papar i dobro izmiješajte
9. dignuto tijesto stavite na radnu površinu i lagano ga premijesite
10. razvaljajte ga u oblik izduženog pravokutnika na debljinu od oko 1.5 cm te ravnomjerno rasporedite nadjev (rubove ostavite prazne)
11. zarolajte tijesto kao i svaku roladu, spojite krajeve (uža strana) i stavite štrucu na leh obložen papirom za pečenje tako da rub duže strane bude okrenut prema dolje. Pažljivo savijte u oblik potkove
12. ugrijte pećnicu na 210°C
13. zarežite gornju stranu potkove u razmacima od 2-3 cm, pazeći da ne zarežete prejako ili skroz do nadjeva, te posipajte ribanim siro
14. pecite15-20 minuta
15. izvadite iz pećnice, pustite da se ohladi, narežite na šnite i poslužite - može poslužiti kao prilog ili biti jednostavan obrok uz npr. salatu

SAVJET: ovo je odlična ideja za piknik (ja sam do sad svaki puta radila samo za planinarske izlete)! Sendvič u jednom. :-) Možete dodati šunku ili slaninu nasjeckanu na kockice ili kuhano/prženo mljeveno meso ili tunu iz konzerve te kombinirati povrće po vlastitom ukusu. U slučaju mesa i tune, smanjite sir na pola šalice jer bi mogli dobiti previše nadjeva koji vam neće stati u potkovu (osim ako ne dodate zaista malo mesa ili malu konzervu tune). 

Recipe by Linda