Tuesday 13 November 2012

Cheese scones Juhtúrós pogácsa






































Juhtúró is a soft sheep's cheese with a very strong distinctive flavour. It's delicious in a lot of savoury dishes like scones or pasta dishes. It makes a lovely moist dough for scones, they don't dry out but stay fresh for days. I haven't seen anything similar in the UK but came up with the idea of using other types of sheep's cheese widely available instead. Feta cheese mixed with a bit of natural cottage cheese gave the right creamy and slightly salty texture that juhtúró has. But ricotta could also be used instead. You could even add a sprinkle of grated Pecorino or Manchego on top, both of which are  hard sheep's cheese.  I opted for a more decorative finish of poppy seeds and sesame sprinkle. These small cheesy scones are great as a savoury nibble, or eat them with a bowl of warming soup as we did. The beautiful hand made ceramic bowl was a recent present from my Dutch friends Vera and Remco :-)

To make 45-50 small scones: 
500g plain flour
1 sachet (7g) dried yeast
250g butter
200g feta cheese
100g plain cottage cheese
2 egg yolks
200ml creme fraiche or sour cream
pinch of salt
1 beaten egg for egg wash, sesame and poppy seeds for decoration

Mix the flour with the dried yeast and crumble together with the butter until it is a fine breadcrumb texture. Mix in the finely crumbled feta and the cottage cheese. Add the egg yolks, sour cream, salt and knead it until completely mixed and you have a fairly firm dough. Put in a clean bowl, cover and let it prove for 1,5-2 hours in a warm place. Preheat the oven to 180C. Knock the dough back and roll it to a 1cm thickness on a floured surface. Using a round cookie cutter, cut out the scones and place them on a greased baking sheet. Brush with an egg wash and sprinkle with sesame or poppy seeds. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes or until golden colour and cooked through.


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