This pogacha melts in your mouth, it's so soft and fragrant, like eating kifli. I borrowed the recipe from my mother, after I was thrilled with its taste when I tried it several days ago, only hers was with feta cheese only and I added spinach because I love spinach and all sorts of green eatable leaves. Preparation is not complicated, but as any pogacha, it takes a little more time to make it.
This pogacha stays soft even the next days - if there's any left. For those who don't know, pogacha is traditional type of bread usually prepared in the countries of the Balkan Peninsula. It can be made plain without any filling and vice versa. For me, the only way of making this is with rich cheese filling.
Ingredients:
- 450 g flour (15.8 oz or about 3 5/8 cups)
- 100 ml of lukewarm milk (3.4 fluid oz)
- 2 eggs + 1 egg white
- 3 tablespoons oil
- 3 tablespoons plain yogurt (room temperature)
- 20 g of fresh yeast 0.7 oz or 1 packet dry yeast
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 50 g butter or margarine (1.7 oz)
- 200 g of feta cheese (7 oz)
- 2 full hands clean and chopped spinach
- 1 egg yolk and 1 tablespoon milk
- sesame seeds for sprinkling
- a little melted butter
- In a deeper bowl, dissolve the yeast in the milk with the sugar.
- Gradually add the remaining ingredients except the flour and whisk briefly with a mixer until combined.
- Gradually add the flour and mix with the mixer with the dough attachments. When the mixture is combined, knead the dough by hand for about 5 minutes. It might be sticky, I needed another 1 tablespoon of flour. Shape into a ball, cover with plastic wrap and leave to rise for about 1 hour.
- Prepare the filling by simply chopping the clean spinach and mixing it with the crushed cheese.
- After 1 hour, transfer the dough to a floured surface and divide it into 4 parts.
- Spread each part in a rectangular shape with the thickness of your little finger and coat it with softened butter and add 1/3 of the filling.
- Repeat the procedure with the next 2 crusts, stack them on top of each other, and do not coat the last one with anything.
- From thus stacked dough, spread a larger rectangular crust about 30 cm long and about 20 cm high.
- Cut the crust into 6 strips vertically.
- Twist each stripe (starting from the middle) spirally and place it in a round snail form in a 24 cm round pan. The pan needs to be greased previously. Arrange all the crusts in the same way as you arrange them when you make maznik.
- Coat with egg yolk dissolved in a little milk, and apply a little melted butter afterwards and sprinkle with sesame seeds. Cover with plastic wrap for another 30 minutes.
- Bake in a non preheated oven at 180 C (356 F) degrees for about 40 minutes or until pogacha gets beautiful golden color.
