When I immigrated to Canada, I brought my grandmother’s pogácsa with me. Aun’t Lizi was waiting for me with a fancy dinner in Vancouver. I stopped over in Vienna for three days so the pogácsa was quite hard by then. I was just about to discard my week old pogácsa when my aunt grabbed the bag away from me and ignoring the lovely meal she was about to put on the table sat down and devoured the pogácsa. Then at the meal, which was incidentally quite lovely, it hit me that henceforth nothing will ever taste like home again.
FLAKY LARDY BISCUITS
4 cups flour1 Tbsp quick rise yeast
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup lard
salt to taste
2 eggs
1 cup sour cream [not light]
1-1/2 Tbsp butter, soft
1 cup hard cheese, grated
1 egg for egg wash
• Place the flour in a large mixing bowl.
• Add the yeast.
• Add the butter and the lard.
• Crumble the fats into the flour.
• Add the salt. Taste it, the dough should be mildly salty.
• Add the eggs and the sour cream.
• Combine to form elastic dough.
• Divide dough into two parts.
• Roll out the first dough very thin. It can be a rectangle or a circle or something in between. What shape it is does not matter.]
• Lightly butter half of the rolled out dough. You now have 2 layers of dough.
• Fold the empty side over the buttered side.
• Again, lightly butter half of the folded dough.
• Again, fold the empty side over the buttered side. You now have four layers of dough.
• Wrap it up with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• Roll out the remaining dough.
• Sprinkle half of the rectangle with the 2/3 cup of the grated cheese.
• Fold the empty side over the cheese.
• Again, sprinkle half of the dough with the remaining cheese.
• Again, fold the empty side over the cheese.
• Wrap the dough with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight.
• The next day, preheat the oven to 375F.
• On a lightly floured board, roll out the dough 3/4 inch thick.
• With a sharp knife cut slightly into the dough in a diamond pattern.
• Cut into rounds with the smallest biscuit cutter [1-1/4 inch diameter].
• Place the rounds on the parchment lined baking tray.
• Brush the tops with egg wash and bake in preheated 375F oven until light golden brown.
• Meanwhile set aside the leftover strands of dough for use later. Do not re-roll into biscuits.
• Cheese pogácsa will be ready first. Remove these and place them on a cookie rack to cool.
• Return plain pogácsa to the oven until tops are golden brown.
• Makes 36
To Use Leftover Dough
• Shape leftover dough into thin strands, cut with a pizza cutter, brush with egg wash and lightly sprinkle with sea salt and/or with leftover grated cheese.
• Bake these too at 375F until golden brown.
