BS: It starts again the seasonal FRUIT CAKE

Subject: RE: BS: It starts again the seasonal FRUIT CAKE
From: Alice
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 10:53 AM

Oh, my Gosh!! POVITIZA!

I was just thinking of povitiza yesterday, as it is a traditional Christmas treat made by many families in Butte, MT.

One of my ad accounts in Butte is a coffee shop in historic uptown Butte in an old building that was used as the first jailhouse.

The owner is a photographer and also bakes Povitiza year round, not just at Christmas. It is a cinnamon, honey and walnut loaf bread/cake. Kind of like a cinnamon bun, only baked as a loaf and with lots of walnuts.

Here is their web site: http://www.buttegallowsframegifts.com/

Here is a page about their products, including Povitiza. Click Here

Subject: RE: BS: It starts again the seasonal FRUIT CAKE
From: Alice
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 11:10 AM

If you are searching for recipes, Butte people spell it Povitiza, but it is an Austrian Christmas bread spelled Povitica.

Subject: RE: BS: It starts again the seasonal FRUIT CAKE
From: Alice
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 01:26 PM

I googled Povitiza Povitica a bit more, as it didn't sound Austrian to me... and although I knew there were many Serbian immigrants to Butte, I didn't know that Austrians were another significant immigrant population in the past. Povitica comes up more as a Serbian, Croatian or Polish bread, but also Austrian.

Here are the immigrants to Butte in its glory mining days, according to wikipedia.
"The city attracted workers from Ireland, Wales, England, Lebanon, Canada, Finland, Austria, Serbia, Italy, China, Syria, Croatia, Montenegro, Mexico, and all areas of the USA. The legacy of the immigrants lives on in the form of the Cornish pasty which was popularized by mine workers who needed something easy to eat in the mines, the povitica -- a nutroll which is a holiday favorite sold in many supermarkets and bakeries in the Butte area -- and the boneless pork-chop sandwich."

Subject: RE: BS: It starts again the seasonal FRUIT CAKE
From: Alice
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 01:43 PM

More interesting stuff about Povitica and immigrants who brought it to the US, with a great photo of how it looks when sliced (swirls):


http://pallopovitica.com/
"Every year they host one of the Midwest's largest ethnic festivals, called the Sugar Creek Slovic Festival. Along with them came their traditional dessert known as Povitica (swirled bread)."

I wasn't going to bake anything special this week, but all the discussion of fruit cake prompted me to make the one thing my mom would make every Christmas - what she called Matrimonial Cake. It's not the same as other recipes with that name - it is a date filled bar with an oatmeal/brown sugar crust on the top and bottom. Center is pure dates, yum. Great with a hot cup of coffee.

Subject: RE: BS: It starts again the seasonal FRUIT CAKE
From: Alice
Date: 26 Dec 09 - 02:03 PM

Re: Matrimonial Cake, I've found that the basic date/oatmeal recipe as my mom used is the one that comes up when googling the name. The name origin relates to "matrimonial" - like our old discussions of "macaronic" lyrics. Two types of texture, the jammy dates and the crusty oatmeal put together, are matrimonial.