Bryndzove pagace (soft cheese pastry)

Brynzdove pagace is typical Slovakian pastry made with bryndza cheese.

Pagace has crumbly scone-like consistency inside, but it can be more tender like a fresh dinner roll. Different regions make slightly different varieties of pagače (they can be prepared with many different ingredients like brynzda, hard cheese or fried pork lard - oškvarky), and they can also differ in textures and flavours.

Many different ingredients can be used either in the dough or sprinkled on top before baking.

We can imagine that it can be difficult to find bryndza in your local store, so in this case you can replace bryndza cheese with Feta cheese.

For decoration you can use any kinds of seeds you like. Our favourites are poppy seeds, whole cumin seeds and sesame seeds.

Store in air tight container for up to 2 days or you can freeze them for up to 3 months.

Ingredients

Cookie cutter round 6 cm

150 ml milk

50 ml oil

1 egg yolk

250 g all-purpose flour

100 + 70g potatoes boiled in their skins and finely grated (70g for the dough and 100g for the filling)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon sugar

5 g of dry yeast

Filling

125 g Bryndza cheese or Feta cheese

100 g of grated cooked potatoes (which we prepared earlier)

1/4 teaspoon grounded cumin

¼ teaspoon ground black pepper

½ teaspoon of salt

1 egg

Topping

1 egg for brushing

To decorate- poppy seeds or sesame seeds

Salt

Directions

1. In a small bowl combine:

25 ml of milk (room temperature) with 5g of dry yeast and ½ teaspoon of sugar.

Let the mixture sit for 5 minutes (until we see bubbles on the surface).

2. In a large bowl mix:

250g all-purpose flour, 125ml milk, 70g cooked grated potatoes, ½ teaspoon salt, 1 egg and 50ml oil. Add the yeast and mix well.

3. Knead the dough (by hand or in a mixer). The dough should have a nice compact smooth consistency.

4. Cover with a tea towel and let it rise in a warm place for 30-40 minutes.

Let's prepare the cheese filling:

5. In a bowl combine:

125g of bryndza or feta cheese, 100g of grated cooked potatoes, ¼ teaspoon of cornstarch, ¼ teaspoon of ground black pepper and ½ teaspoon of salt. Mix well.

6. On a floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 1 and ½ cm rectangle (see photo). Evenly spread the filling.

7. Close like an envelope – as seen on the picture.

8. Gently roll the top (so that the filling does not leak), fold in half and gently roll again. Fold it in half again and roll it over. Fold the last (4th time) in half and roll out.