Fresh From The Oven - Kiflice

This months bread bake for Fresh From The Oven was picked by Maja from Cooks and Bakes.  Maja lives in Serbia and asked us to join with her in baking a Serbian treat called Kiflice, traditionally filled with cheese.  Now this is the part where I hang my head in shame ... I ended up having to divert from the original recipe due to some poor planning on my part!  You see our fridge is generally stocked full with goat's cheese (one of the cheeses that can be used to fill these little guys) but when it came time to make the filling I realised to my horror, that they were all out of date.  Oh the shame!  It seems it had been a while since we had last indulged our goat cheese fetish. 

So with the dough made I wasn't quite sure what do to.  A quick flick through the cheese container only turned up plastic cheese slices (I really am hanging my head in shame now!) and I decided that they just wouldn't do the recipe any justice.  Panic set in ... until I saw the jar of Nutella.  Now I realise that Nutella generally isn't a suitable replacement for cheese but I figured I'd be able to turn a savory treat into a sweet one and not waste the already prepared dough.  Apologies to Maja and the other Fresh From The Oven bakers for this cheat ... but I can honestly say that they were pretty delicious!  Below is the recipe as supplied by Maja, I've updated with my changes below.

Nutella Kiflice
Dough
500 g all purpose flour
1 tsp salt
20 g fresh yeast (2 tsp instant yeast or 2.5 tsp active dry yeast)
1 tsp sugar
250 ml milk
75 ml sunflower oil
1 egg
Filling
200-250 g cottage cheese (you may use feta or other fresh cheese)
1 egg white (optional)
To Finish
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp milk
100 g margarine

Crush the cheese using a fork. Add some salt if it tastes neutral. Stir the egg white in, if the cheese is too crumbly. Filling shouldn't be runny, but thick and compact, thicker than the cream cheese, and pretty salty.

For the starter - dissolve yeast with some lukewarm milk in a cup, add a teaspoon of sugar and a tablespoon of flour, stir to get smooth batter. Set aside at room temperature, or near the stove top, to let the yeast activate and fill the cup.

Sift the flour, add salt. Add activated yeast, egg, oil and milk, then combine using a wooden spoon to get smooth dough. The dough seems like too soft and too sticky at the beginning, but don't worry, continue with kneading, and soon your dough should start to separate from the bowl, and thicken. It is not necessary to knead the dough by hands, the wooden spoon works just fine. Grease the cling film with oil, cover the bowl, and set aside for at least an hour, at lukewarm place, to let the dough doubles in size.

Re-knead the dough, divide into 5 equal parts, shape them into balls. Each part should make 8 rolls, so you'll end up with 40 rolls, which should perfectly fit the regular oven pan, if lined in 5x8 order. Flatten each ball by hands over the floury working surface, then use a rolling pin to roll the dough out in a circle, a few millimeters thick. Use a sharp knife to cut the circle into 8 triangles. Take one triangle, stretch it in the air with your hands, to get it extended as much as you can, gently. Put some filling at the triangle base, then fold the edges of the base, to avoid the filling leak out during baking. Roll. Arrange the rolls at the pan (5x8).

Lightly beat the egg yolk with a tablespoon of milk, then brush the top of each roll with the mixture. This is used to prevent forming thick crust, and to improve the color of baked rolls. Sprinkle with some sesame seeds, if you like.

Arrange the small peaces of margarine between the rolls, then bake in the oven preheated to 180°C for about 20 minutes. Be careful not to over bake them. Let them cool to room temp before eating.

Makes 40 rolls

So, in my usual style I started the dough the night before and popped it in the fridge overnight to rise.  The next day I pretty much followed the recipe above, except I subbed the Nutella in for the cheese.  I then sprinkled the rolls with some demerara sugar and some chopped hazelnuts.  Delicious!