Scones with cottage cheese spread – Körözöttes pogácsa

by | Nov 22, 2021 | Breads, buns & biscuits

There are plenty of tasty pogács recipes on the internet, but scones with cottage cheese spread are unique in their own way. I have recently learned this recipe from a Hungarian chef (Szoky konyhája). The dough of this pogácsa is layered with körözött, the well known Hungarian cheese spread. The scones are light and soft, and they taste fantastic.

Scones with cottage cheese spread
Scones with cottage cheese spread – Körözöttes pogácsa – photo: zserbo.com

Ingredients:

For the dough:

  • 400 ml (~1 2/3 ) milk
  • 50 g (~1 3/4 oz) fresh yeast (5 tsp dry yeast)
  • 1 tsp sugar
  • 1 kg (~8 cups) flour
  • 250 g (~8 3/4 oz) lard
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 tbsp salt
  • ground black pepper to taste

For the spread:

  • 500 g (~1 lb + 1 2/3 oz) cottage cheese
  • 170 g (~6 oz) sour cream
  • 1 medium onion, finely chopped
  • 1 medium red onion, finely chopped
  • 1-2 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp ground caraway seeds
  • 1 tbsp sweet ground paprika
  • ground black pepper to taste

For the egg wash:

  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 tsp sweet ground paprika
  • pinch of salt

First make the dough. Dissolve yeast and sugar in tepid milk. Place flour in a mixing bowl and rub lard in it. Stir in salt and pepper, add eggs and activated yeast. Knead until smooth. Wrap the dough in cling film and put it in the fridge for 30 minutes.

Meanwhile prepare the cottage cheese spread. In a bowl mix together cottage cheese, sour cream, finely chopped onions, salt, pepper, paprika and ground caraway seeds. (Note: cottage cheese should be as dry as possible, so if your cottage cheese is soft and creamy, drain it before you make the körözött.) Chill until it’s used.

On a floured surface roll out the dough into a thin rectangle. (If you don’t have enough space, cut the dough in half and roll and spread the pieces one after the other.) Spread 3/4 of the cottage cheese on the dough evenly, then fold the dough as follows:

Folding
Folding

Spread the rest of the körözött on that long and narrow oblong, than fold the dough again (see below):

Folding
Folding
Folding

Cover and let the dough rest for 10 minutes. Roll it out 2 cm / 3/4 inch thick and score the top:

Scoring the top
photos: zserbo.com

With a 4 cm / 1,5 inch cutter cut out the scones, and place them on baking sheets lined with parchment paper. To reroll the scraps, you will need to add some flour because the cottage cheese spread makes the dough sticky. Repeat the “reroll & cut” process until the dough runs out.

For the egg wash beat eggs, paprika and salt together, and brush the top of the scones. The scones will rise while the oven is being preheated to 210°C / 410°F. Bake for 12-14 minutes or until golden brown.

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Hungarian cottage cheese

This is what Hungarian túró looks like

You often ask me what kind of cottage cheese (or curd cheese or farmer's cheese - call it what you want) I use in the recipes. In Hungary the store-bought cottage cheese is dry and crumbly as you can see in the picture. So if a recipe calls for túró, I mean this type. If you can't obtain túró, you can try to make your own from whole milk. Click on the link below.

Metric system vs cup

In Hungary metric units are in use, all the recipes on this website are based on this system, so a kitchen scale is necessary. Since I’m not familiar with cup as a measurement unit, I convert grams to cups by using an online converter. The values in brackets, therefore, are only approximate volumes, so, please, double-check them before you start cooking.

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