International Recipes: Slovenian Prekmurska Gibanica

Our international recipes series aims to shine a light on the fantastic countries that our tours take place in and the wonderful food that you can experience while visiting. Our last blog featured the recipe for Ethiopian Berbere Chicken, a warming and exotic dish that will fill your home with aromas of spices. This week we travel to Slovenia to indulge in sweet and indulgent Prekmurska Gibanica. Read on to discover how to create this Eastern European delight!

Prekmurska Gibanica is a rich and wholesome desert and certainly isn’t light! A combination of cake, pastry and strudel, this Slovenian delight is something you’ll find in most restaurants and cake shops in Slovenia’s capital Ljubljana and the rest of the country. If you’re keen to try it in its native land, why not check out our range of Slovenia summer holidays here?

If you’ve visited the beautiful country of Slovenia before and would like to reminisce with a gorgeous dessert, or if you’ve not been and would like to sample a flavour of the country, read on for our fantastic Slovenian Prekmurska Gibanica:

Ingredients:

For the strudel dough:

300g flour
3 tablespoons lukewarm water
2 tablespoons wine
1 tablespoon sugar
Salt to taste
2 tablespoons oil
2 tablespoons melted butter for brushing dough
(You can also substitute with shop-bought filo pastry or strudel dough.) 

For the fillings:

The apple filling:
500g apples, grated
200g sugar
Cinnamon to taste
1 lemon rind, grated
1 tablespoon lemon juice  

The poppy seed filling:
400g ground poppy seeds
200g sugar
Cinnamon to taste
1 cup hot milk 

The walnut filling:
500g ground walnuts
200g sugar
Cinnamon to taste 

The cottage cheese filling:
500g cottage cheese
300ml sour cream: (roughly 1 1/2 US cups)
1 egg
200g sugar
2 tablespoons raisins – soaked in rum (Optional)
Vanilla to taste
Preheat oven to medium temperature (350F/175C).  

Firstly, prepare each filling separately by mixing all of the ingredients together in a bowl so that each is smooth holds a firm shape. Set these aside for later.

Next, you’ll need to prep the dough. If you are using shop-bought dough, then you will be able to skip this section. Mix the ingredients in a bowl and turn out onto a floured board for kneading. You should knead the dough for at least 10 minutes to ensure that the ingredients are combined and that the dough has enough air for rising, now leave the mixture to stand for an hour. While the dough is standing, butter a square or rectangle baking tray.

After you’ve let the dough stand (unnecessary if you’re using shop-bought), roll it out and cut into thin sheets the size of the baking container. Place a layer of the dough at the bottom of the tray and brush a light layer of butter onto the dough. Now spread roughly half of the poppyseed filling across the dough ensuring that it is evenly spread and reaches the corners. Now cover the layer of filling with another layer of dough and brush this layer with butter also.

Repeat the process of spreading half of a filling across the dough and then covering with a sheet of dough until you have eight layers of filling (two of each). Remember to lightly brush each layer of dough/pastry with butter each time before you spread the filling.

To finish, place the final layer of dough into the cake and place into the oven to cook for one hour. Serve the cake with cream or ice cream, or on its own to really enjoy the diversity of the flavours.

Make sure you check out our other blogs on Slovenia and the other fantastic places that you can visit with our experience holidays! Get in touch if you have any questions or would like to make a booking!

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