Serbian Bread or Pogacha
Here is a Serbian bread recipe - tasty, easy to make, with a strong butter flavour, which makes it mouth-watering. It will definitely be the star of any meal, as it looks very interesting and it can be served in different manners. My girls have been absolutely delighted, they just couldn't stop eating and complimenting the bread. I don't really have the time to prepare it at home lately, but I like to treat my family with some interesting bread when we are having soup or something with sauce.
It's super easy to make, you don't need any wonder ingredients and in 2-3 hours you'll have some special, freshly baked bread.
Whisk the milk together with the yeast and the sugar and put aside for 15 minutes - until the yeast becomes activated and starts to foam up.
After 15 minutes, add the salt and the flour and stir the dough.
You should get a softer, not so sticky dough.
Cover and let rise for 30-60 minutes, until it doubles.
Then divide the dough into 12 smaller pieces of the same size.
Shape into balls, then let them rest for a few minutes.
Use a rolling pin to make dough circles of similar size - about 10 cm in diameter and 5-7 mm thick.
These are my dough circles, they don't have exactly the same size, but they don't have to.
Melt the butter and let it cool for a while. Then soak each dough circle in butter.
Use a round oven pan (mine is 28 cm in diameter) and arrange the dough circles in the shape of a flower by overlapping one circle over the other, just like in the picture.
I don't recommend using the springform pan, as the butter will drain in the oven and will cause smoke in the kitchen. If it's the only one you have, you can place a bigger oven tray beneath it.
Let it rise for 20 minutes, then brush the top with egg yolk.
And spread over sesami seeds.
Bake the dough until golden for 25-30 minutes in the pre-heated oven to 180 degrees C.
Let cool and transfer on a plate.
It's a nice feeling to tear it petal by petal :)
Enjoy!
