Pasca - Romanian Easter Bread with Cheese Filling

The dough:

Combine yeast with 1 tablespoon of sugar and warm water. Leave for 10-15 minutes until it starts to foam.

In a large bowl, pour the warm milk, melted butter, 1 egg, 1 teaspoon of salt, 150g of sugar - beat well with a whisk.

Pour in the yeast mixture from step 1 and mix.

Add 500g of flour and mix the dough with a spoon, at first.

You will still need to add flour, but you will do it along the way, during kneading. If you add too much at once, the dough may get too hard and may not rise.

We have different types of flour and the quantities may vary.

Start kneading the dough with your hands, adding flour little by little along the way.

In the end, we'll have to have a soft, non-sticky and easy to shape dough.

Set aside in a warm place, covered with a towel and let rise for 40-50 minutes.

After this time, turn the dough out onto the table.

Cut about 1/3 of it.

We will use this piece to make the base for the cake.

From the remaining dough, cut another 1/3 - we'll have a smaller piece which we'll use for the cross in the middle.

And the last piece left, the biggest one, see the middle of the picture, will be used for the sides.

We are making the base:

We take the piece for the base and roll it out with the rolling pin into a circle about 28 cm in diameter - the size of the tray.

Place in a pan greased with oil and smooth out / press evenly.

Here I used a springform pan, 28cm in diameter.

We are making the sides:

-Take the largest piece of dough, for the sides - cut in half.

Roll each half into a thin long stick.

Work without flour on the table, otherwise your hands will slip and you won't be able to shape the wands. If the dough sticks to your hands, just lightly sprinkle with some flour on your fingers.

For the 28cm pan, each strip must be about 110cm long.

Twist the edges of the strips in opposite directions - this way you'll have a beautiful and even braid.

And braid - as the sticks are long, it's easier to do it from the half, in 2 steps.

Arrange the border in the tray, carefully joining the edges together.

We are making the cross:

Take the last piece of dough, the smallest, and cut in half.

Roll each half again into a thin long strip.

This time, they should be about 70cm long.

Braid the same way as the border.

Cut in half and we'll have the two parts of a cross.

Now let rise for at least 1 hour - base and border in the tray, the cross, separately, not in the tray.

The filling:

Fifteen minutes before the end of the dough rise time, prepare the cheese filling.

Choose drier, well drained cow's cheese.

Add to the cheese: 1 egg, 3 tablespoons of sugar, 2 tablespoons of semolina, 1 tablespoon of oil, 0.5 teaspoons of salt, a teaspoon of baking soda, vanilla essence and raisins / cranberries. Mix well.

We are assembling the Easter cake:

Sprinkle with 2 tablespoons of semolina over the dough in the pan, only on the base, not on the border.

Spoon the cheese in the middle and smooth out.

Use a knife or a spoon to cut out a canal in the cheese, in the middle.

Fit the first part of the cross in it.

The same way, make the other canal  - lightly cut the piece of braid in half, but not completely.

And carefully arrange the other part of the cross.

Brush over with eggwash - both on the dough and on the cheese.

Bake in the preheated oven at 160 degrees C for 1 hour.

In the first 15 minutes, the cake will brown quickly.

Cover with foil and bake like this for 30 minutes.

This is to avoid too much tan :)

After this time, remove the foil and keep the cake in the oven for another 15 minutes.

Remove from the oven and let cool in the pan for 1 hour.

Then remove from the pan and allow to cool completely for 5-6 hours.

If you cut it while it's hot, it will seem raw because of the cheese filling that needs to set and cool.

Here is a delicious and beautiful section for you.

Enjoy!