Time for a delicious pogacsa

While preparing my post about Hungarian food, I decided that I do not need only to try remembering my childhood memories, but also to try cooking myself some of the most famous or not-so-famous but too delicious to miss dishes. 

As usual, when it comes to many of the meals in Central and Eastern Europe, if you want to find out more about, you should go back to a history book or at least to know some linguistics to identify the roots of the food. In the case of pogacsa, the root may be Latin - a modification of the word for bread 'focacius'. The majority of pogacsa recipes are from the bread type and the result is very similar to a croissant or a dinner roll. I saw some ready-made ingredients for a Turkish pogacsa at my Turkish shop, made by Dr. Oetker, many Austrian bakeries sell 'pogatschen' as a delicious offer for the breakfast. The Slovakians included pogacsa as part of their cuisine, especially in the areas near the border to Hungary. 

From a region to another and a country to another, the recipes differ and I noticed various recipes based on cheese, bacon, cheese and bacon (not my cup of pogacsa), jam or no filling at all. As I needed some appetizers for Shabbat morning and I know that simple dough will not be accepted, I picked up the following cheese-based solution:

Ingredients:

My pogacsa were not very good looking but delicious

300 gr. cottage cheese

600 ml. warm milk

1 package dry yeast

500 gr. flour

2 eggs beaten

120 gr. butter or margarine

cummin for the cheese combination

1 pinch of salt

Directions

1. Disolve the yeast in the warm milk

2. Add the flour, the margarine and the flour, together with the eggs

3. Let the dough rest for around 30 minutes

4. Knead the dough for around 10 minutes and roll it. Put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

5. Cut the dough and add the cheese filling. Put them on the baking paper of the tray.

6. Wait for the pogacsa to get baked at around 250 C for 15-20 minutes. 

It is relatively easy to prepare and without too many expensive ingredients. My problem is when I should roll and add the filling and roll it back in a good-looking way. You can decorate the pogacsa with some sesame seeds or even with poppy seeds. 

Bon Appetit!