Pastry & pies
Proja (cornbread)
A cornmeal bread baked in a tin, eaten warm with ajvar, soured milk or white cheese.
Recipe from Туѓино Јабано
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 35 min
- Total
- 50 min
- Fasting
- Not suitable
Ingredients 9 ingredients
Method
- Heat the oven to 220°C and brush a 24 cm square tin generously with oil. Leave it in the oven while you mix, so the batter meets a hot tin and takes a crust underneath straight away.
- Beat the eggs with the salt and sugar in a large bowl until they are pale and loose.
- Stir in the oil and the soured milk, then add the cornmeal, flour and baking powder and mix to a thick batter that falls from the spoon. If it is stiff enough to hold a peak, slacken it with a little milk.
- Fold in the crumbled cheese in two goes, keeping some lumps. A batter beaten smooth once the cheese is in it bakes heavy.
- Pour into the hot tin, level the top and bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is deep gold and a skewer comes out clean.
- Let it settle for ten minutes before cutting it into squares. Cut straight from the oven, it tears.
If you cannot find it
Substitutions that work outside Macedonia.
- Sirenje (white brined cheese)
- Feta, rinsed and drained if it is very salty; a mild Greek or Bulgarian feta is closest.
- Kiselo mleko (soured milk)
- Full-fat natural yoghurt let down with a splash of milk to a pouring consistency.
- Coarse stone-ground cornmeal
- Polenta, not the fine cornflour sold for thickening, which bakes to a paste.
