Three girls, including two Primorska women, 35-year-old Meta Kocjančič from Koper Land and three-year-old Urška Jerman from Kačič near Divača, were the best in the top 3 confectionery competition conceived by a well-known confectioner society. The first prepared Potična Torta, the second Prekmurski Navdih, Gibanica in a modern way.
PRIMORSKA > Potica is one of the most original and famous Slovenian holiday cakes with walnut, honey or tarragon filling, Meta Kocjancicwho has spent a large part of her life in Nova vas and in recent years in Dekani, has come up with a very special version – potic cake.
Which cake will be the “best”?
third finalist, Nina Bavdek, at home in Britof near Kranj, prepared Vegan Poetry. The trading company predicts that among the three cakes, the one that buyers like the most will win, and they will buy it the most by December 16. The most popular cake becomes the “Best Slovenian Cake” on December 23 and stays on store shelves, with the winner receiving a cash prize. The expert jury, which selected the final cake from eight cakes, consisted of the ethnologist Dr. Janez Bogataja master of baking with yeast Polona Klančnik and project manager in a trading company Veljko Tatic.
He listens to old rock while making desserts
“It has the same ingredients and spices, just a lot smoother and more modern than potica,” he says. In two and a half hours he prepares her the idea that her grandmother came up with Maria Panger from Kort celebrated her 85th birthday at this time last year.
Meta likes sports and prefers nature, she also likes to travel to distant countries (she was in Mexico a week ago), but she is collected, precise and sleepy enough at the kitchen counter and at the table, she adds with a laugh. When preparing desserts, she listens to music, preferably old rock songs, which were also close to her father, guitarist and author, who died young. Danilo Kocjancic. “I sing along, my colleagues tolerate me patiently, encourage me and don’t protest,” he explains. He is thinking of a team of four confectioners from Café Central in Portorož, where he has been working for three years, although his profession is a saleswoman.
Confectionery as sculpting, painting and carpentry
She was fascinated by her mother, a well-known landlady, above the kitchen Oriella Medos? “I first helped my mother with the service and then with the cooking, making desserts was my hobby at first. I could eat them all the time, I can’t imagine a day without chocolate.” His favorite things to do are creating chocolate sculptures and restaurant desserts that have “sauce, something hot and cold, and five to 16 ingredients.” She likes to mix and match different flavors. In Tartino , which she prepared with her colleagues on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of her death last year Giuseppe Tartiniincluding jam from black olives, the dessert contains chocolate and almonds as well as salt flower and olive oil.
“Modern confectionery is more than a delicious cake or a few minions. If you want to make a chocolate sculpture, you need a plan, you need to master the techniques of working with chocolate, as well as sculpting, painting, carpentry. That’s why she finds the cookies too boring, which doesn’t particularly bother her with Nona’s peaches and bugs.
Freeze, count on several layers and finish the glaze
Likewise Urška Jerman She spent most of her life in Pomjan above Koper and lived only a few years in Kačiče. She hasn’t missed the hustle and bustle of the city so far, she’s doing well in the Karst, she says everything is fine except for the cold. The cake has been baked for as long as he can remember. “My mother Stoyanka worked as a cook, I got my first cookbook with children’s dishes when I was six or seven, but I was only interested in recipes for desserts,” he recalls.
She started with roulades, today her passion is modern confectionery. “Most of the time I prepare them in the form of fruit or portion slices or cakes. In the modern version they need to be frozen, more layers and a perfect glaze. ” She creates her own recipes, especially since she completed her state professional qualification as a confectioner a few years ago. She has published books on cakes and sweet snacks, with two more – on the theme of modern desserts – on the way. He works with the company that created the Bam confectionery brand and intends to open his own confectionery factory in Sežana. Interestingly, she earns her living at the casino in Škofije and has trained as a nursing technician.
Cooking is not fun, but baking desserts is
As she explains, she chose Gibanica for the competition because Slovenian pastries come to mind first. She prepared similar fragile discs for her blog about a year ago, but for the competition she renewed the recipe and updated it at the suggestion of the organizers.
“Instead of shortcrust pastry, I used sponge cake, poppy seed cream, dacquoise (walnut meringue), cottage cheese mousse, and tangy apple jelly.” The preparation takes a few hours. Make sure the layers are as flat as possible and the cake looks nice when cut. “Desserts are eaten with the eyes first. Pastry has become a kind of art, we pastry chefs are much more valued than we were a decade ago, and consumers also have higher expectations,” he admits. Although she loves to cook, her challenge is to compose dessert recipes. “I don’t enjoy cooking, but I enjoy baking desserts.” He also spends a lot of time with his family and Chilly, a four-year-old American Stafford.
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