Lopason is enjoying her meal

Passport & Plate - Sun in dough

Russian Federation | Thursday, March 13, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
Dough:
Wheat flour - 500 gr
Warm water - 1 glass
Sunflower oil - 3 spoons

Filling:
Pumpkin ~500 gr
Sugar - to liking (perhaps, 5 spoons)

 

How to prepare this recipe
1 - Heat the oven to 200C
2 - Mix the flour with warm water and oil. You have to knead and beat the dough really well to make it elastic, smooth and able to stretch easily. Then, it should be left in a warm place covered with a warm plate for 15-20 minutes.
3 - During these 20 minutes you can make the filling. Grate the pumpkin or just cut it in small pieces (the "older" and harder you pumpkin is, the smaller the pieces should be). Mix with sugar to your liking, and stew the mixture - just let the pumpkin become smoother and the sugar dissolve.
4 - Cut the pastry into pieces to the size of apples. Roll and stretch each piece of pastry. Let them dry up for a couple of minute.
5 - Put 3-5 dough sheets on top of one another, spreading oil between them.
6 - Put the filling in the centre of the dough circles. Close the filling - try to form a “pentagon” shape.
7- Place your pies seam side down on the pan covered with oil. Cover the pies with oil and bake for about 20 minutes.
8 - Eat them hot!

 

The story behind this recipe
The Internet said me that Placinta is a Romanian pastry, but I’m sure it is my granny’s.

The fact is the recipe of the pie and the plate on which it was always served appeared in the family before my granny was born.
The family lived in a village near Odessa. In 30s they fled famine. They took along only bare essentials but they couldn’t leave the plate which this pie had always been served on.
It was an old Kusnetsov porcelain plate (Kusnetsov porcelain was the best in Russia, as famous as Meissen china in Europe), which passed from generation to generation with the recipe of Placinta.
The family had nothing to eat and they were not sure if they would get some food in the near future. Though, the family couldn’t abandon the plate, they took it along with faith in a better future and hope to be able to serve Placinta on this plate one day.
They moved homes, took on any jobs to get some food. Because of hunger one child (my Granny’s sister) died. The family went through extremely hard times, and the plate was always with them making them dream of real home and pies.
They could only dream of Placinta with pumpkin. It was like a sun in dough - the same hot and orange.
Placinta could be prepared with any filling, but my Granny has always made it with pumpkin. The dough is simple, so it needs something really amazing inside. Sweet pumpkin filling with its color and mild flavor perfectly fits.
The recipe survived, and so did the plate. We have it at home, and we serve cakes and pies on it on holidays. But you know what? The plate looks newer and brighter with placintas on it. And my granny is always smiling when she gets to know I cooked something from her family recipes book.