Independence: 25. 6. 1991
Capital: Ljubljana
Official language: Slovene
Population: 2 050 189
Area: 20 273 km2
International code: SI
Currency: Euro (€)

Gibanica

Ingredients:

• Basic dough:
  
  • 100 g sharp wheat flour
    
  • 100 g fine wheat flour
    
  • 100 g fat or butter or margarine a pinch of salt or sugar
    
  • milk, water or sour cream for kneading
  • 600 g fine wheat flour
    
  • 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
    
  • a pinch of salt
    
  • lukewarm water for kneading 
    
• Poppy seed filling:
  
  • 200 g fine grounded poppy seeds
    
  • 80 g sugar
    
  • 1 bag of vanilla sugar
• Cottage Cheese Filling:
  
  • 1000 g full fat cottage cheese
    
  • 100 g sugar
    
  • 2 eggs
    
  • 1 bag of vanilla sugar
    
  • a pinch of salt 
• Walnut filling:
  
  • 300 g grounded walnuts
    
  • 100 g sugar
    
  • 1 bag of vanilla sugar 
• Apple filling:
  
  • 1500 g apples (use the sour types)
    
  • 120 g sugar
    
  • grounded cinnamon 
• Cream Topping:
  
  • 60 dl thick sour cream
    
  • 4 eggs 
• Fatty Topping:
  
  • 150 g fat or butter or 200 g margarine

Instructions:

Basic dough: Sift the flour on a wooden board, add salt or sugar, and add also crushed fat. Knead the even dough while adding liquid. Leave it to rest for half an hour in a cold place. Make a hole in the sifted flour in the wooden board, add fat, salt, egg if desired and knead the ingredients while adding liquid. Knead for as long as the dough is even and stretchy. Make a loaf, oil the surface and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Poppy seed filling: Add sugar and vanilla sugar to the grounded poppy seeds and stir the mixture well. All the fillings are used in two parts.

Cottage Cheese Filling: Crush the cottage cheese with the forks; add eggs, vanilla sugar, sugar and a pinch of salt. Stir the mixture well until it is even and easily spread.

Walnut filling: Mix grounded walnuts with sugar and vanilla sugar.

Apple filling: Peel the apples, grate them, add sugar and cinnamon and stir the mixture gently.

Cream Topping: Slowly whisk the eggs with the sour cream.

Prepare a clay mould “tepsija” (very often round mould, 32-35 cm wide and 7-8 cm high). Cover well the mould with butter and put in a thin layer of the basic dough – named “podplat”, which should cover also the edge of the mould. Stick it with a fork. Roll the rested stretched dough and cover it with oil. Lift the dough and stretch it over the mould so the thicker edge of the dough hangs down. Cut into 8 equal parts in the shape of a mould. On the bottom that is already covered with the basic dough and the layer of stretched dough, spread the first layer of the poppy seed filling, sprinkle with melted margarine and cream topping. Put the second layer of the stretched dough and spread over the cottage cheese filling and sprinkle it with margarine. The third layer follows. Spread it with the walnut filling and sprinkle it with margarine. The fourth layer follows then. Spread it with the apple filling and sprinkle it with margarine. Gibanica is so half way made. Repeat all the fillings again to get 8 uniform layers. Cover the top with the cream topping and margarine. Cut off the thick edges of the stretched dough that are hanging over the mould and form the Gibanica. Stick it with a thin long needle. Bake in the baker’s oven or in the electric oven approx 75 minutes at 175° C. When baked spread the cream on top and leave it to rest a little while. Then cut it into triangles and sprinkle with sugar, if desired.

Info:

This excellent, juicy and most widespread Slovenian dessert from Prekmurje is stuffed with poppy seeds, cottage cheese, walnuts and apples. It is trademarked as a foodstuff with an indication of  traditional reputation and therefore can only be made under this name if the original protected recipe is respected in full.