Naomi first learned about the yeasted cookie/pastry called “nut roll” when she moved into Pennsylvania as a young woman. This tender and delicate pastry is Croatian/Serbian in origin and closely related to other slavic pastries like Potica. Follow the directions carefully for a delicious treat.
DOUGH
1pck active dry yeast
1/4 c warm water
1c + 2 Tbsp warm milk or DF sub
1/3 c sugar
1 tsp salt
1 egg
1/4 c soft butter or DF margarine
3 1/2 – 3 3/4 c (14-15 oz or 397-425g) Better Batter Gluten Free Flour
FILLING
1 pound walnuts, ground finely like sawdust
1/2 cup milk
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 egg
4 ounces (1 stick) butter
Dissolve yeast in water. Stir in milk, sugar, salt, egg, butter. Mix in Better Batter flour. Turn on high speed of stand mixer and mix 3 minutes. If desired let rise 2 hours (step may be omitted).
Meanwhile, make filling: In a medium saucepan, mix together all filling ingredients. Bring just to a boil, reduce heat and simmer on medium-low, stirring frequently, to prevent sticking and burning, until mixture is thick. Cool completely before spreading on dough, at room temperature. Do not refrigerate!
Place dough on floured cloth (NOT terry cloth!), or rolling mat and roll tissue thin into rectangle shape. If preferred you can roll slightly thicker, about 1/8 inch thick.
Spread filling over dough and roll up like jelly roll.
Place in greased pan and let rise for an hour before baking at 325 for 40-45 minutes. Allow to cool completely before slicing.



(12 votes, average: 3.50 out of 5)
Made this twice for Christmas (I cut the recipe in half the first time and in fourth the second time because I wanted to try your filling recipe–I used commercial nut filling for the first batch. Wow! Excellent recipe. I will be making this for Easter again–the dough was excellent and the filling was sooo good and sooo easy to make I will never buy the commercial nut filling again. Your recipe tasted just like the ones I remember from past holidays (I’m from PA too). My adaptations: I sprinkled coconut over the nut filling before I rolled it up and sprinkled sugar on top of the roll before baking (a neighbor used to do this with hers ).
so happy to hear it went well for you! Nut roll (as you know!) is huge here in PA – I will definitely have to try the coconut trick – I LOVE coconut!