Hearty, Creamy and Flaky special sweets from Central European Slovenia

Like some of its neighbors, desserts in Slovenia are inclined towards being made for festivities and celebrations rather than for fame like in some European countries. It comes from the heart of its towns and villages that use local curd cheese, cottage cheese, walnuts, poppy seeds, flaky pastry dough to whipped cream and freshly cooked custards. From layered cakes, and strudels to creamy custards, this quaint central European country has some hearty and soul-filling special sweets.

1. Kremna rezina

Coming from the Bled town of Slovenia, this cake has a buttery and flaky crust at the bottom with a topping of vanilla custard, whipped cream and the same flaky and crispy crust on top to create a sandwich-like cake. It's eaten as cubes and usually dusted with powdered sugar. This cream cake is very similar to the Hungarian Krémes because it was a chef called Ištvan Lukačević, who presented this cake at the Bled’s Park Hotel in 1953. The only different thing is the amount of whipped cream used on the top of the cake. Seven is the golden rule for the cake, from the number of folds, the size and also the cooking time for the custard.

2. Prekmurska gibanica

Hailing from the northeastern corner of Slovenia, this dessert has Austro-Hungarian influences and it is a kind of layered strudel pie, that is a classic dessert in the eastern part. The oldest records of this cake date back to the 1700s, and it's made to be typically served at weddings and intimate celebrations. The bottom layer is shortcrust pastry, followed by poppy seeds paste layer, then cottage cheese, ground walnuts, and grated apple. It might just have one layer each or the same layered repeated again with the shortcrust pastry layer on top to finish it off. It's brushed with egg wash and baked and it's sweet, aromatic and not too greasy.

3. Blejska grmada

Made from moist chocolate sponge cake, vanilla pudding with plenty of whipped cream and sometimes red berries, Blejska grmada is an indulgent dessert. It comes from Bled, a town in Slovenia. The chocolate sponge cake that forms the base of the dessert, uses rum and milk with two or more layers of the base and topping; both are scooped to form balls of dessert on a serving plate. Chopped nuts are sprinkled on top or chocolate sauce.

4. Potica

A traditional cake that is beautiful to look at, it's typically prepared for Easter and Christmas. It comes from the 1500’s inspired by rolled dough cakes and back then only the elite used to eat this cake. There are said to be 60 different versions of Potica with different fillings – cottage cheese, poppy seeds, walnuts, hazelnuts, chocolate, honey and tarragon. It's said to be the pride of every Slovenian housewife and was once featured on the local postage stamps.

5. Pohorska omleta

This is a local sweet omlette made with eggs, flour, whipped cream, sugar (vanilla and plain), salt, rum, cranberry jam and mint liqueur. The white and yolks are separated first whisked, mixed then flour, salt, sugars and rum are added and baked. The cranberry jam, mint liqueur and whipped cream are added to the omlette hot off the oven.

6. Prleška gibanica

Another eastern side specialty, Prleška gibanica comes from Prlekija which is a cake made with sour cream and curd cheese. It's a sheet cake where ingredients are rolled into a thin dough, alternated with the sour cream and curd cheese and baked with oil brushed on top of the last layer to have a nice brownish top. It might be topped with powdered sugar and sour cream before being served.

7. Sirovi štruklji

Slovenia has a few different versions of the German strudel and the Sirovi štruklji is made with dough that is rolled into a thin layer and topped with sour cream and local curd cheese called skuta; sugar and raisins might also go into the dough layers. This dough is rolled and wrapped in a linen or cotton cloth and boiled in salt water. Then it's cut into small pieces and often a sprinkling of buttered breadcrumbs is added as a garnish. There's also the strudelji that uses a fruit filling with persimmon and is made in late autumn. Kobariški štruklji is another one prepared mostly during festive occasions, that uses a walnut filling in the thinly rolled out dough. It also contains rum, vanilla and raisins with a hint of lemon zest. This one is called a dumpling often times because the filling is wrapped and pressed in the middle to seal them in. They are doused in syrup and eaten warm with the buttered breadcrumbs.