Pastry & pies
Maznik
Hand-stretched dough, oiled, folded and wound into a spiral — the pie that looks like a snail shell.
Recipe from Туѓино Јабано
- Prep
- 1 hr 40 min
- Cook
- 35 min
- Total
- 2 hr 15 min
- Fasting
- Not suitable
Ingredients 10 ingredients
Method
- Knead the flour, water, salt and vinegar into a soft dough and work it for ten minutes until smooth and elastic. The vinegar relaxes the gluten, and that is exactly why the dough will later stretch without tearing.
- Divide it into four balls, oil them, cover them and let them rest for at least an hour. The rest is not optional — unrested dough springs back.
- Mix the crumbled cheese with the eggs and sour cream to make the filling.
- On a large floured cloth, stretch one ball by hand until it is thin enough to see a chair through. Work from the middle outwards with your forearms under the dough.
- Flick oil over it, spread a quarter of the filling and, lifting the cloth, fold the dough into a long strip. Wind the strip into a spiral and set it in the middle of a greased round tin.
- Repeat with the other three balls, winding each new strip around the last, so the whole tin fills like one large snail.
- Brush with the yolk, scatter sesame and bake at 200 °C for about 35 minutes until browned. Rest ten minutes before cutting.
If you cannot find it
Substitutions that work outside Macedonia.
- Hand-stretched dough
- Shop filo, three sheets at a time with oil between; the result is thinner but it works.
- White cheese
- Feta rinsed and drained, mixed with a little ricotta so it is not too salty.
- Sour cream
- Thick Greek yoghurt or crème fraîche.
