- Is it Patoka, Potito, Potita.

It's hard to pronounce, but it's delicious.

(upbeat music) - Hi Yia, are you ready to make the potica?

- I'm ready to roll.

- Let's go.

- So I will have to admit to you guys that when our producers came to me and said, Hey, we're going to do potica, I thought she said pizza.

(upbeat music) And they're like, it's from the Iron Range.

And I'm like pizza from the Iron Range.

I'm like, okay.

So how do you guys pronounce it?

Or how have you heard it pronounced?

- Yeah, you were saying it right, potica.

- Potica.

- The other one that we've heard is Potika.

Which we'll silently judge.

- Like we know what you mean, but that's not how you say it.

(upbeat music) - Tell me a little bit about potica.

- Oh my gosh, where do we start?

(laughing) Potica is a sweet bread.

You roll it out tissue paper thin, and then spread it with a walnut sugar cream honey, filling out on the whole thing.

So we'll fill this whole countertop.

And once it's baked, there's all the layers of dough and filling.

Yeah, it's delicious.

- Potica dates back hundreds of years.

It's originally from Central and Eastern Europe.

The word potica comes from a Slovenian word, poviti, which means to wrap in.

Take me through the process of making potica.

- So we'll start, you bloom the yeast in warm water.

And then we'll scald the milk, which is basically you want the milk to steam and then it'll get little bubbles all around the edges, and then will melt butter, sugar, and salt.

We'll let it cool down just a little bit before we add the eggs.

- [Chef] I want to know how you guys met.

- Yeah, so we grew up in Eveleth on the Iron Range.

- The Iron Range is an area of Northeastern Minnesota, where iron ore mining flourished from the late 18 hundreds to the 1980s.

- Okay, so this has cooled off a little bit.

Ashley's gonna add three eggs.

- [Ashley] We don't have scrambled eggs, so that's a good sign.

- [Samantha] And then we'll put the yeast in there with it before we add it to the flour.

- [Chef] So how did potica get into the Iron Range?

- [Samantha] The Iron Range is quite the melting pot of immigrants.

The main one for potica being Eastern European.

So Slovenian which I am not.

Ashley has a bit.

- I have some.

- So she's our representative.

- Yes.

That's the cool thing about recipes from the Iron Range.

That even if you aren't Slovenian the melting pot of the Iron Range and everyone there makes those recipes and enjoys them and shares them with everyone else.

- In the early 1900s, the influx of immigrants working in the mining industry made the Iron Range, the most ethnically diverse area of Minnesota.

By 1910, the majority of immigrants in the region hailed from Finland, Italy, Sweden, Croatia, and Slovenia.

Each of them bringing their own cultural traditions and the Eastern Europeans bringing the potica.

When is potica traditionally eaten.

- Christmas time and Easter time.

- Chreaster.

- Chreaster, chreaster, yes.

(laughing) It freezes super well.

- [Ashley] And they make really great gifts too.

- [Samantha] We've made it before where we've cut them in mini loaves.

You don't have to share so much.

- So like, we don't love you this much.

We love you this much.

- Right.

- This is how much work.

(laughing) - [Samantha] So we're just going to flour the surface.

- And you look at this dough, it's, it's a little wetter.

- It is pretty sticky.

And by the time we're done it, won't be.

You just fold it, quarter turn and press it.

- It's a very simple technique.

Quarter-turn and then use your, you know, use your palm.

- I use my palms, yep.

And I'll just continue to work in more flour.

- [Chef] How longs the kneading process?

- This usually takes about 10 ish minutes.

So we're looking for a nice, smooth elastic finish.

- [Chef] That's why all like the moms in the Iron Range just like were jacked.

(laughing) You know.

- Our hand muscles.

- Right.

- [Chef] They're like 10 minutes, we call that our warmup.

Do you guys have any like memories of it?

- [Ashley] My grandma would make it, and then we had quite a few of her friends in town, the potica ladies, who would make it throughout the year.

- Were they called the potica ladies?

- Kind of unofficially.

- [Chef] Oh, wow.

- Yeah.

- [Samantha] They didn't know it.

- Yeah, and you had to be good at potica if you were gonna be the potica lady, you know.

like if you're going to... - They'll cut you out.

(laughing) You know, It's like sorry Evelyn, you're not making it this year.

- [Ashley] Right.

(upbeat music) - [Samantha] I think we're gonna call this good.

- [Chef] As we see the dough here, it's like smooth.

It's not tearing up.

- [Samantha] It doesn't break apart, yep.

But so the next step we'll put this in a clean greased bowl to rise.

My husband's grandpa taught me if you put it in your oven, just with the oven light on, it is just enough warmth to rise for about an hour and a half.

- [Chef] Now we're getting to the fun stuff, right?

- [Samantha] Yeah.

- [Chef] We're working on the filling.

There are countless potica filling combinations ranging from savory to sweet.

Back in the day, the fillings could even indicate ones' social class.

With wealthier families using walnuts and cream versus an herb filling.

Today, walnut fillings are still super popular.

- [Samantha] For the filling we'll grind our walnuts.

I have done this before where I didn't quite grind them up enough.

It was just a little bit harder to spread.

- [Chef] But then all the potica women, they just judged you.

- They judged, yeah.

I was gonna get kicked out of the group.

- You would not be the potica lady.

- Yeah.

- [Samantha] We'll move on to heating up the cream and then melting the butter and honey in there as well.

- [Chef] That's adorable, you measure.

- We're baking, you have to measure when you're baking.

- [Chef] So the Iron Range is known for mining.

Did any of your family, were they into mining or have they?

- [Ashley] Yeah my dad actually right out of high school, started working at the mine right in Eveleth.

And he worked there almost 40 years, all the way up through retirement.

So it was a huge part of the livelihood of our family and, and the huge part of our culture.

- [Samantha] My dad and my grandpa had a construction business, but in turn did a lot of work for the mines.

- So it's that blue collar kind of mentality up there.

That's why we need sticks and sticks of butters to get us through in this.

- Yes that's where this comes in.

- [Chef] And then you just mix it all in.

- [Samantha] Yep, you just mix it all together.

We'll add the vanilla too.

This is one of my favorite smells.

Even if it cools down a little bit, we'll even put it in the microwave for a second.

It makes spreading a lot easier.

- [Chef] We're gonna roll out on that?

- [Ashley] It's kind of our family potica tablecloth.

So it's, as you can see it's not in perfect shape, but it has the memories that come along with years of making potica with it.

The best part about this tablecloth is when we stretch the dough out, the key indicator that it's going to be thin enough is that you're gonna see these flowers through the dough.

That's how thin the dough is gonna be.

- [Samantha] So first we're gonna flour this to keep it from sticking.

It's like the whole surface, - Yeah get in there.

- Just gets lightly coated.

So here's the dough after about an hour and a half.

I like to start by just shaping it a little bit.

And then it's basically, you just roll.

Once it gets big enough, everyone can get in on the action.

- There we go.

So as you're going, I still, I can't see any flowers yet.

So we're not ready.

- We are not even close to being thin enough.

- This is what separates the potica ladies.

How thin can you get your dough?

- They're just throwing shade on each other.

It's like, oh.

- Have you seen her dough?

- Yeah.

- [Samantha] So it's to the point where he can tag team it.

- I feel like I'm being judged right now.

- No.

- Don't worry about wrinkles, it's okay.

- Wrinkles are okay, this is the one instance where wrinkles are okay.

- [Chef] Oh really?

- [Ashley] Yeah.

- Wow, oh, I can start seeing.

Guys, I'm doing it.

(laughing) I'm doing it.

- You are a potica lady.

(upbeat music) - [Ashley] Awesome, this looks good.

- [Samantha] I think we're going to call this good.

- [Chef] It seems like this is going to be the fun spot.

- So this is our giant bowl of filling that we're going to scoop out and then just cover the entire thing to the edges with our Walnut filling.

- [Ashley] And we do want it to go pretty close to the edge too.

- Oh, I've always been told to stay away from the edge.

- [Ashley] Everything you think of with potica is almost the opposite.

You know, wrinkles, wrinkles are fine.

Close to the edges fine.

- [Chef] Being away from home and having somebody connect with you on this, it's like a piece of home came with you.

- Yep.

- You know.

- [Samantha] When we no longer lived on the Iron Range, obviously we're like, wanna make it together since it's kind of labor intensive.

- Yeah, kind of keep the tradition going because it's one of those things, if some of the younger generation doesn't keep it going, then it's, it's going to die off.

And we're not gonna be able to pass it on to the next.

- It's special.

All right, friends.

- Oh, wow.

- Look at this.

- Looks awesome.

- [Samantha] Now we roll.

This is where it's also really helpful to have two people.

So you start really small and just a little bit of a fold.

- [Chef] This, there's like that importance of making sure that this is well floured, right?

Because you don't want this to be the sticking point.

- That's where that could backfire on you.

If you don't have it well floured.

You're gonna, you get in there.

- [Chef] Oh, thanks.

- [Ashley] We'll let you roll.

(laughing) - All right.

- Right to the edge.

- Bring it back.

There we are.

We have two, 9x13 pans that we've added more butter.

- [Chef] Are you serious?

You roll it in the butter.

- Roll it in the butter.

For browning purposes.

- [Ashley] That's where you get it nice and golden brown.

And also, so it doesn't stick to the pan at all.

(oven dinging) - [Chef] Wow, this looks incredible.

- [Samantha] Alrighty, the big reveal.

- [Chef] Oh man, look at that.

It's so mesmerizing.

- [Ashley] That swirl, it's so pretty.

- [Chef] Wow, what's the drink of choice with this?

- [Samantha] Drink of choice, I like it with coffee sometimes just milk.

- [Ashley] So my dad also eats it sometimes with a slice of ham on it.

- What?

- Yeah, it's kind of that sweet and salty combination.

- [Samantha] My mom did fruit, salami, and potica.

- That sounds like it's more like, it's like an Iron Range charcuterie board, right?

(laughing) (upbeat music) - Wow, that's so delicious.

When I'm looking at this, I'm thinking, oh yeah, cinnamon roll.

I get it, you know, and that's what I automatically think, but it doesn't taste like a cinnamon roll at all.

You guys do butter on it, right?

- We do butter on it because there's obviously not enough.

- I mean, you know, I mean when in the Iron Range, let's go.

- No we can't help ourselves.

- That's a really good with butter.

(laughing) - I know, we weren't lying to you.

- Man, this is totally like 180 from some of the things I know, which I love.

So it's just great to be a part of this, it's great to be part of this tradition.

Thank you, thank you so much for having us.

- Thank you.

- We were so happy to be able to share it.

- You know, the romantic side of me is like you could put, "will you marry me?"

on here.

You know, and doing this with your lady.

- That's a commitment.

- Yeah.

- You're covered in flour.

- Yeah, trademark.

- Potica proposals.

- Yeah.

(laughing) - Or a gender reveal.

- Yeah gender reveal.

(laughing) - Oh, you just changed the world.

(upbeat music)