Ricotta chives dinner rolls

These dinner rolls are excellent with a salad or to make sandwiches also. This was my entry for the "Ready! Steady! Cook!" hungarian food blog event hosted by Izbolygó this time. She asked for recipes with cottage cheese, ricotta, quark, bryndza. I had a lot of ideas first, but unfortunately had no time and energy to complete them. I came up with these simple rolls finally, which my family liked a lot.
Ingredients:
60 ml milk lukewarm
1 package active dry yeast
1 teaspoon sugar
45 g butter at room temperature
250 g ricotta
1 egg
1 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/2 cup snipped fresh chives
300-400 g bread flour

1 egg+2 teaspoons water for eggwash (optional)

1. Pour the milk into a large bowl and stir in the yeast and sugar. Let stand until foamy (5 minutes)
2. Beat the butter, ricotta, eggs, salt, chives and pepper into the yeast mixture with a whisk.
3. Stir in enough of the flour, 1 tablespoon at a time, to make a soft, but not sticky dough.
4. Knead 10 minutes.
5.Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl and turn to coat with oil. Cover with plastic wrap and let it rise antil doubled in bulk, 1 to 2 hours.
6. Punch the dough down and divide into 8 equal pieces. Shape them into rolls.
7. Put semolina flour in a baking tray and put the rolls on it.
8. Cover and let them rise an hour again.
9. Preheat oven to 350F.
10. With a scissor you can decorate your rolls or brush the top of them with egg wash.
11. Bake until they are nicely browned, about 45-50 minutes.
12. Turn them onto a wire rack to cool.

Pogacsa with pork rind (Tepertos pogacsa)

I have to admit I thought pogacsa was genuinly hungarian. As I browsed the internet i found out just the opposite. Anyway, this version is so-so hungarian that almost every hungarian fables and folk stories include it. Usually this is the bread the youngest son of the tales takes with him for his journey. It used to be baked in hot ashes and packed in a kitchen towel.

My father in law just turned to 60 this weekend. I was about to bake him Pierre Herme's lemon tart. As we talked, he mentioned that no pastry or cake can compete with this traditonal pogacsa. So i gave in and made them. They need little work but lots of time (as puff pastry) but they worth!Ingredients:
500 g all-purpose flour
30 g fresh yeast or 7 g instant yeast
200-300 g buttermilk or yoghurt (or half yoghurt half sour cream)
salt and freshly ground pepper
300-350 g pork rind
2 eggs

1. First put the pork skins in a blender and mix until creamy. Stir in one teaspoon of salt and pepper to taste.
2. Mixt the buttermilk and yeast, stir in one egg (slightly beaten) and a teaspoon of salt. Add spoonfuls of four and mix, antil the dough forms a ball. Sprinke flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and knead. Add more buttermilk or flour as needed to form the dough into a soft, but not sticky, ball. Knead approximately 4 minutes. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
3.Roll out the dough with a rolling pin into a rectangle. Spread the pork rind cream evenly on the top, then fold it like a business letter: Fold the bottom third of the dough over the middle third, then fold the top third over so it meets the edge of the folded dough. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
4.Repeat this folding 5 times in 30 minutes intervals.


5.After the last folding, roll the dough into 1 inch thick. Score the top with a sharp knife like this:
6. With a round cutter (2 inch in diameter) cut the dough, and put the pogacsas on a baking parchment. As the grow in the oven put then 3 inches apart. Beat an egg and brsh the top of the pogacsas with it.

7. Preheat oven to 220 celsius degree and bake them until dark golden.
They are best served while warm.