SIMIT-POGACHA (BUN PIE)

 
Simit-pogaca or bread-pie is specifically Skopje specialty, one of the few delicacies that are made and sold exclusively in Skopje. If there is any city across the country where they sell simit-pogaca, then, make sure that the master has come from Skopje or it was transported from Skopje.Simit-pogaca is a bun-sandwich consisted of bun (bread) and a greasy pie without filling (cheese, meat, etc.), which irresistibly reminiscent of burek. It's kinda bread with bread food, very strange at first hearing, but when you try it, you'll understand why it is so popular in Skopje.

Ingredients:

    For buns:
  •     500 g flour
  •     300 ml lukewarm water
  •     3-4 tablespoons rice milk powder
  •     100 ml oil
  •     1 teaspoon salt
  •     2 teaspoons sugar
  •     1 dry yeast (10 g)
    For oily pie
  •     800 g flour
  •     400 ml water
  •     2 teaspoons salt
  •     oil or fat (even better)
Preparation:
  1. Dissolve rice milk in water. Knead dough from all the ingredients for the dough and leave to reach. 
  2. Once dough has reached, knead dough and make 8-10 thicker buns and grease them with oil. Put them to reach for about 15-20 minutes, depends on the room temperature. During that time, heat oven to 220 C. 
  3. Put to bake until they get a beautiful reddish color. When removed from the oven, again grease with oil. 
  4. For the oily pie, knead dough and nicely knead for about 10 minutes. Divide in 5 balls, form disks and grease with oil. Leave to soak oil for 15 minutes. 
  5. Then, transfer disks to work on the middle of a table cloth, and gradually start pulling the edges of the sheet until you get a thin crust. Remove edges of the crust. Sprinkle crust with oil and overlap as envelope and put aside. Size should be roughly as the pan in which we'll bake pie. 
  6. Repeat the procedure with the next crust except we put in its middle the first envelope crust and overlap. Repeat the procedure with the third one, meaning we put each new envelope in the middle of the new stretched crust and we sprinkle oil at each overlapping. 
  7. Put pie in a greased pan and leave to stand for 15 minutes. It will form bubbles from standing. Bake at 220 C in preheated oven.
  8. Take one bun, cut in middle and put inside a piece of the pie. Bun will soak the grease from the pie. That's it, you got yourself a simit-pogaca!
Enjoy!