Pogácsa

Wotchers!

I’ve got a delicious treat for you today: Pogácsa! (pronounced poh-GAcha) – yeast-raised, laminated ‘scones’ originally from Hungary, nowadays also enjoyed further afield in Croatia, Serbia, Turkey and other parts of the Balkan peninsula.

A soft dough is rolled and spread with fat, and then folded and re-rolled much like the method for puff pastry. Unlike puff pastry, the process avoids the long, extended rising times and although the process can run to three hours, most of that time the dough is sitting in the fridge between brief periods of rolling/folding.

The original variation used was what we would call cracklings (Tepertős pogácsa) – the small, crispy solids left over from the rendering of pork fat – highly calorific but incredibly tasty. Nowadays, butter and margarine are used. Pogácsa come in lots of different flavours, both sweet and savoury, although the savoury versions seem to be the most popular.

This version is delicately flavoured with fresh dill. Variations you could also try include with the original cracklings or by replacing the butter in the filling with well-drained curd cheese/quark, Hungarian túró or even crumbled feta or Lancashire cheeses.

The cross-hatching on the top is traditional and, to my eyes, makes the risen scones resemble the rook chess piece. Utterly charming!

Pogácsa

Makes 16 x 5cm scones, using re-rollings.

Dough
320g plain flour
1tsp granulated sugar
15g salt
160ml milk
85g creme fraiche
2 large egg yolks
1 sachet fast-action yeast
1tbs softened butter

Filling
10g flour
140g unsalted butter, softened
1tbs lemon juice/white vinegar
1 x 20g pack fresh dill

Glaze
1 large egg
1 large yolk
1tbs water 

• Put all of the dough ingredients into the bowl of a stand mixer. Use the paddle attachment to bring the dough together and beat briskly for 3 minutes. The dough will be sticky.
• Flour some parchment paper and tip the dough out onto it. Sprinkle the surface of the dough with more flour. Pat the dough into a rectangle, fold the parchment around the dough and chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 hour.
• While the dough is chilling, prepare the dill butter for lamination:
  • Strip the dill from the stems and chop finely. Mix with the remaining filling ingredients until well combined. Set aside.
• Laminate the dough:
  • Remove the dough from the fridge. Roll out to a long rectangle roughly 20cm by 30cm.
  • Dot 1/3 of the filling over the top 2/3 of the dough.
  • Fold the bottom 1/3 of the dough upwards onto the dill butter.
  • Fold the top 1/3 of the dough down to make a neat rectangle.
  • Turn the dough 90 degrees so that the short edge is towards you.
  • Repeat twice more, until all the filling has been used (3 lots of rolling/dotting/folding in total).
  • Wrap the folded dough in the parchment and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Remove the laminated dough from the fridge.
  • Roll out into a rectangle, with the short side towards you.
  • Fold the dough as before: bottom 1/3 up, top 1/3 down.
  • Turn the dough 90 degrees with the short side towards you.
  • Fold the dough as before: bottom 1/3 up, top 1/3 down.
  • Re-wrap the dough and chill in the fridge for 30 minutes.
• Remove the dough from the fridge and roll out thickly (2-3cm).
• Using a 5cm plain cutter, cut out your scones. Press the cutter down firmly, do not twist. You want a ‘clean’ cut so that the layers will puff straight up during baking. NB If all this sounds like too much of a Faff™, you can speed things up and avoid re-rolling by just cutting your scones out as squares.
• Press any remaining dough together and fold, once or twice at most. Re-roll and cut out additional scones.
• Lay your scones onto a baking sheet lined with baking parchment.
• Take a sharp knife, baker’s lame or razor blade, and slice a grid into the tops of each scone. Don’t cut too deeply – 2-3mm is fine.
• Heat the oven to 200°C, 180°C Fan. The scones can rise a little while the oven is warming.
• Just before baking, whisk the glaze ingredients together and brush over the tops of the scones. Try and keep the egg wash from dripping down the sides, as it would interfere with the layers separating during baking.
• Bake for 20 minutes, turning the baking sheet around after 10 minutes to ensure even colouring. When done, the scones will have risen impressively and be a rich, burnished gold.
• Cool on a wire rack, and, when cold, store in an airtight container.
• Enjoy warm or cold.