Albanian Homemade Bread

Albanian Homemade Bread

There is no smell in the world more comforting than the smell of homemade bread. Homemade bread can be found in almost every culture and in a variety of forms. Here is how my mother, her mother, and many other generations of Albanian women before them have been making homemade bread.

Ingredients:

-                 2 cups of water

-                 1 tablespoon dry yeast

-                 1 teaspoon sugar

-                 1 tablespoon salt

-                 1 1/2 tablespoon oil

-                 Min 4 1/4 cups flour

Directions:

I have to admit, to me, making bread has always seemed like an overly complicated task. But, after watching my mother make it over and over again, I realized it’s really not that difficult. (For those of you who might be curious. Those are my mothers hands making the bread.)

Start with a large bowl where you will mix all of your ingredients plus have room to allow the bread to rise.

Add the water, sugar, salt, yeast and oil.  Now mix mix mix….

Gradually begin adding the flour till the dough starts to stick together. Now put your upper body to work and start kneading the dough. Knead it into a nice little neat ball.

You can see my mother got down, on the floor, on her hands and knees to add a little more strength to her kneading.

This is what your ball of dough should look like.

Cover the dough with a wet cheese cloth or a wet paper towel and place the bowl in a warm environment where it can rise slowly. We usually place it in the oven. But under no circumstance should you turn the oven on at this point!

This part of the process requires a lot of patience. You have to wait till the dough has risen to over twice it’s original size.

Once the dough has risen, you can start forming it into smaller balls. (This is of course up to you. You can leave it whole and bake it that way or form it into individual size portions.)

You need to let the dough rise again. This helps the bread become lighter and crustier.

Finally, bake in the oven at 350 degrees Fahrenheit for about 45 minutes or till the top is golden brown. Make sure to watch that the bottom of the bread doesn’t burn. To prevent this it’s best to lightly coat the baking dish with a little oil.

Enjoy the wonderful smell of homemade bread that will permeate your home!

Albanian Cornbread - Pite

Albanian Cornbread - Pite

Courtesy of globaltableadventures.com, as adapted from "Home Cooking Around the World" by David Ricketts and Mark Thomas. This bread is a great accompaniment to stews. It is excellent warm, but can dry out, so try to use up promptly or store well-wrapped.

Total Time 50mins

Prep 15 mins

Cook 35 mins

Servings 6-8 

Ingredients:

-                 1 1⁄2 cups cornmeal

-                 16 ounces cottage cheese (I would use small-curd)

-                 4 eggs

-                 1 cup chopped scallion

-                 1⁄2 cup butter, melted

-                 1⁄4 teaspoon paprika

-                 1⁄2 teaspoon dried thyme

-                 4 ounces feta cheese, crumbled (about 1 cup)

-                 1⁄4 teaspoon salt

-                 1 tablespoon chopped scallion (to garnish)

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 deg. Grease an 8" square baking dish. In a large bowl combine all the ingredients except the scallions for garnish. Pour into the baking dish and spread out evenly. Bake until lightly browned and an inserted toothpick comes out clean, about 35 minutes.

Garnish with the remaining scallion and serve warm.

Serbian / Balkan Lenten Bread (Posna Pogača) Recipe

Serbian / Balkan Lenten Bread (Posna Pogača) Recipe

This recipe for Serbian Lenten pogacha (POH-gah-cha), also spelled pogača, uses no eggs, milk, or butter, so it is perfect for fasting times, like the period before Christmas (Advent) and Easter (Lent). 

Christian Orthodox Great Lent, in general, is a time of great fasting and there are many rules on what types of oil, if any, can be consumed. This lean Lenten white bread fits well within the guidelines.

Compare this with a non-fasting pogacha recipe.

• Total: 90 mins
• Prep: 60 mins
• Cook: 30 mins
• Yield: 1 Loaf of bread (12 servings)

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups water (warm, not more than 110 degrees)
• 1 package ​yeast (active dry)
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons oil
• 3 1/2 cups flour (all-purpose)

Steps to Make It

1. In a large bowl, dissolve yeast in warm water. Add salt, sugar and oil and stir until completely mixed.
2. Add flour and mix until a cohesive dough forms. Knead until smooth. Place dough in a greased bowl, cover and let rise in a warm place until doubled.
3. Heat oven to 300 degrees. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and shape into a flat round. Transfer to a sheet pan that has been lined with parchment paper. Prick loaf all over with a fork. Rub top of bread with oil. Let stand, uncovered, 15 minutes in a warm place.
4. Bake 30 minutes or until an instant-read thermometer registers 190 degrees. Let cool completely on a wire rack before cutting.

A Word or Two About Pogacha

Pogača (Balkan spelling), Pogacha (Anglicized spelling), Pogácsa (Hungarian spelling), poğaça (Greek), pogaçe (Albanian) are all rustic leavened or unleavened breads made with white flour or whole-wheat flour or a mixture a combination of the two. Some breads have a potato or cheese filling and herbs like dill and sesame mixed in with the flour.

As you can imagine, every country, and every cook for that matter, makes pogacha its own way, so they can be found in different textures, flavors, sizes, and heights. Some have a crumbly scone-like texture while others are more like tender white bread.

In Bulgaria, where the bread is known as pogačice, it is more of a puff pastry affair and often served hot as an appetizer filled with sour cream or curd cheese or Bulgarian feta cheese. This is also popular in Turkey.

In Hungary, for example, pogácsa are made from either short dough or yeast dough. There are dozens of shapes and sizes with round being the most traditional.

A multitude of add-ins can be found either in the dough or on it, such as fresh cheese, aged cheese, pork crackling, sautéed cabbage, pepper, paprika, garlic, red onion, caraway, sesame, sunflower, or poppy seeds.

Nutritional Guidelines (per serving)
39	Calories
1g	Fat
7g	Carbs
1g	Protein

See Full Nutritional Guidelines

(Nutrition information is calculated using an ingredient database and should be considered an estimate.)

Mesenitza (Tutmanik)

Mesenitza (Tutmanik)

Mesenitza is simply a bread stuffed with cheese, this famous sirenje (or sirene) that is used in a multitude of Bulgarian recipes and that can easily be replaced with Greek feta. This bread is also called tutmanik and it is a very popular bread in Bulgaria. Every region, every village and even every family may have different recipes and even names for it.

The basic ingredients are flour, yeast, oil, milk, butter, eggs, famous Bulgarian yogurt and sirenje. The final shape and recipe vary, but the basic idea remains the same: roll the dough thinly and stuff it before closing it in a cylinder shape or small roll and then all shapes of large round loaves are allowed!

According to various sources, the original mesenitza was prepared based on a mixture of corn and wheat flours, and some even added rye flour. A lot of spice and cheese were added. This dough was soft or semi liquid. The mixture was poured into a baking dish, then baked. People ate it hot accompanied by yogurt or milk.

Depending on the region of Bulgaria, there are still recipes with corn flour. But the most traditional recipe is the one I chose to prepare today. There are also family recipes of mesenitza as for example, with fried ground or chopped pork that is mixed with sirene.

Some people even make a sweet version for which they combine sirene to fruit jam, marmalade or jelly. But it is rare and more popular in the northern regions of Bulgaria or with Bulgarians living in Romania, Moldova, Russia or Ukraine.

In most cases, the dishes prepared by Bulgarians living outside of Bulgaria are called differently, with sometimes names that are completely changed.

Preparation time: 2h

Rest time: 1h

Baking time: 0h25

Serves 4 people

Ingredients:

For the dough:

-                 1-1/2 lb flour, sifted

-                 1 tablespoon active dry yeast

-                 2 eggs, beaten

-                 2 tablespoons olive oil

-                 1 teaspoon baking soda

-                 1 tablespoon sugar

-                 1 teaspoon salt

-                 About 1 cup milk, lukewarm

For the filling:

-                 1 egg

-                 8 tablespoons butter, soft

-                 4 oz Bulgarian yogurt, beaten

-                 13 oz sirene (or feta), crumbled

For the decoration:

-                 1 egg yolk beaten with 1 tablespoon of cold milk

Directions:

Dough
Dissolve yeast and sugar in 1/2 cup water. Set aside for 10 minutes.

Mix all ingredients of the dough except the salt and incorporate milk slowly.

Form a dough and finally incorporate the salt. Knead the dough for 5 minutes with a stand mixer (at medium speed) or 10 minutes (by hand). Cover the dough and let it rise for about 45 minutes in a warm place, away from drafts.

Filling

Beat the egg and mix with yogurt and sirene.

Mesenitza

Divide the dough into several balls of equal weight. Roll each ball to a thickness of about 1/2 inch.

Smear butter and filling on the surface of each piece of dough. Roll the dough onto itself to obtain a cylinder.

Shape each cylinder into a snail-shaped roll and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Place all the snail-shaped rolls next to each other by spacing them slightly to form a large bun. As they expand during baking, all the snails will form one large bread. Let rise again for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, preheat convection oven to 350 F.

Coat the bread with the egg yolk and milk mixture. Bake for about 20 to 25 minutes or until the bread is golden.