These salty pastries (called pogácsa in Hungarian) are a recipe of a dear friend of my mom’s, Judith. She is Hungarian and used to make these often for me when I was a child. I like them a lot and they are very versatile: perfect for an afternoon snack or as an “aperitivo” before a meal together with a cold drink. The yogurt gives them a slightly tangy flavour while the caraway seeds add that extra kick that makes these salty pastries special. Try and make these with your kids, they will love helping out with the cookie cutters and all the different shapes.
Ingredients:
500 gms plain flour
250 gms margarine at room temperature
¾ to 1 tbsp salt
1 sachet (7 gms) of dry yeast dissolved in 2 tbs of lukewarm milk
1 tsp sugar
2 egg yolks
200 ml yogurt
1 egg yolk and 1 tbsp of milk for the egg wash
Caraway seeds
Put the flour, margarine, salt, dissolved yeast, sugar, egg yolks and yogurt in a mixer with a dough hook and knead for a couple of minutes, till the dough looks smooth. You can also knead this by hand if you like.
Let the dough rest for 10 minutes.
Roll the dough, fold it in 3 and let it rest for another 10 minutes.
Repeat this process another 2 or 3 times. This will make the pastry puff up when cooked. Then roll the dough into a 3 mm layer and cut into shapes with some cookie cutters.
Place them on an oven tray lined with baking paper. Brush them with egg wash and sprinkle some cumin seeds on the top.
Bake in a preheated fan forced oven at 200° for 12-15 minutes, depending on the size you choose to make them. They have to become golden.
Serve at room temperature. They are perfect with a glass of wine or any other drink.
Hi Manu, the spice should be caraway seed, not cumin!! We don’t use cumin in Hungarian culinary but caraway a lot (what we call kömény so it happens often that someone is not aware by the translating). Poppy seed is also a tipical topping, cheese is also very common. We call this pogácsa (the world comes from the turkish times, they have also Poğaça, it’s different from this hungarian one).
Hi Anna! Thank you soooo much for this comment! I truly appreciate it. I am going to fix it! It does make total sense! I love pogácsa, they bring back so many childhood memories. <3 Thank you again!!
I’m happy I could help a bit.
Now I searched for you a bit and found these recipes which are really authentic and are written in english:
– https://zsuzsaisinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2018/01/cheese-biscuits-sajtos-pogacsa.html
– http://tasteofmemories.com/tepertos-pogacsa-hungarian-savoury-scones/
– http://theeccentriccook.yummly.com/2011/12/sajtos-pogacsa-hungarian-cheese-puffs.html
I’m a sucker for cumin! These look great … and I love the shapes!
Perfect,yummy and well explained…must in menu list for this wknd
You are a genius! I often see this in pastry shops, usually the fancier ones, and have never ever thought of making them myself!
These look awesome… reminds me of buttermilk biscuits…
These sound great! I love salatini, but I never ever baked them… I will try this next time I organize a dinner!
Wonderful recipe, Manu! Great shots too!
Cumin with pastries wow!lovely combo manu, nice snaps thanks for sharing this.
Surprised me! I’m Hungarian, and coming here for italian recipes, and what found? 🙂
But at hungarian kitchen the cumin is very frequent spice. Any kind of savory snack we can use. Me no, its not my favourit, but…
Thanks to tell the origin.
carinissimi…sembrano perfetti pe un aperitivo con vino. L’impasto mi ricorda un po’ i biscottini rugelach. Devono essere “addictive”!
Adding cumin seed on pastries is something new to me. It’s interesting but I can imagine the taste with cumin flavors…. It sure sounds delicious. Your kids must enjoy baking with you. 🙂 Thanks for sharing your special friend’s recipe with us.
I usually make “salatini” with puff pastry (filled with wurstel, spinach, tuna and pepper etc…), but I never made them like this… I totally try them!
Awsm bite ! I make something similar at home, actually my mom makes and we call it Nimki 🙂 You bite just reminded me of that .. think I should make those something soon!
Manu, these gorgeous little pastries are new to me – they are very unusual and I know I’m going to love them. Great photo of all your pastry cutters lined up (lots of great photos actually). Hope you are having a wonderful weekend.
Your step-by-step approach seems so comforting in guiding non-bakers through the entire process!
Oh my goodness, those look and sounds fantastic Manu!
Great combination and fantastic photos!!
So delicious! I’m way a more a savory person than a sweet person so these would fit in perfectly in my house. Thanks so much for sharing. Beautiful photos!
These sound wonderful! I love love love your photos, so beautiful!
These look so perfect and delicious, I’ll have to try them with my daughter, she loves kneading! And she prefers savoury snacks 🙂