Pork Crackling Biscuits - Trial #1

[a_boleyn]

When I was growing up, my mother would make these wonderful rich biscuits made with ground pork cracklings. Recently I was reminded of this dish by a post on Eva's Kitcheninspirations and decided to try and make them based on advice from Eva, searches on Hungarian and Romanian blogs and my own memories of the biscuits I had enjoyed. Yesterday, I

Comments

[ext_877277]

Oh, oh, oh - I think I love you :D You've taken my favourite thing in the whole world and shown me how to make biscuits out of it? Oh. My. God! Now I just need to find a place to buy pork cracklings, or "scratchings" as they're called in England. A very popular pub snack. Might need to wait until I go to England next time, but these will be worth the wait! Thanks so much for sharing these :D

[a_boleyn]

They turned out really well for a first try.

I would add a bit more liquid to the dough as I think it was a bit tough to work with. Not bad, but it took some upper body strength to man the rolling pin. And, add some resting time to the dough before the first rolling out and after cutting them out at the end. My recipe called for refrigeration between rollings (like you would do when making croissants to let the butter harden and promote formation of the layers) but other recipes do the risings at room temperature and seem to have gotten a higher product. Something to try next time.

For a richer product, I've seen the water replaced with more milk or even sour cream but I think they were 'rich enough' with all the pork cracklings. :)

[anonymous]

They look fantastic and yummy, but since you asked me they are a bit flatter than for example at Zsuzsa's blog: http://zsuzsaisinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2012/01/crackling-scones-omlos-toportyus.html. I have no idea if her recipe is different, but all Zsuzsa's recipes were foolproof for me. However, I'm sure your pogacsa tasted heavenly! The look doesn't matter really !
I find making pogacsa very tricky (the only ones I make are curd cheese pogacsa) and have looked for a very long time for a good recipe. Sissi (http://www.withaglass.com)

[a_boleyn]

In looking at Zsuzsa's recipe tried to figure out how thick she rolled her biscuits. The only place where she specifically says is on the cheese ones, where she says they were 3/4" thick. Mine were only 1/8" thick so that may have had some effect. :)

http://zsuzsaisinthekitchen.blogspot.com/2011/12/flaky-biscuits-leveles-pogacsa.html

She cut her thicker biscuits only ~1 1/2" in diameter which meant she got about the same number as I did, about 3 dozen, so I'm pretty pleased with my output. I do want to increase the amount of liquid that I used, however, as my dough was a bit tough.

[anonymous]

Good luck! I cannot advise you here, alas. I have eaten these pogacsa, but never made on my own... Sissi

[a_boleyn]

Don't know how I missed this. Thank you, retroactively, for the good wishes. :)

[anonymous]

Thanks for commenting on my blog regarding the Töpörtyüs Pogácsa! I don't think it needs baking powder, this is the first time I've seen it like that, Th recipe is authentic, otherwise, and the taste is delicious. The reason yours did not rise higher...#1. rolled out too thin, #2. needed more time to rest, which would raise it more, and perhaps, you could have added an extra packet of yeast. This was my first attempt to make it all by myself, since my Hungarian aunt passed away, over 12 yrs ago. It's been even loner than that since I watched her make it, and forgot mostly how to make it.
I also used Zsuzsa's source but referred to two other ones as well to lighten up the dough, that's why I did not use melted lard, and used Greek yogurt to replace the sour cream! Also, the white wine is a good thing to add for flakiness!
http://foodandthriftfinds.blogspot.com

[a_boleyn]

Thank you for responding. I don't remember where I saw the baking powder addition but I thought it couldn't hurt. :) I will definitely increase the yeast as I've seen 2 tbsp yeast used elsewhere as well as following your other suggestions as to rolling them thicker and allowing them to rise longer.

Like you, I omitted or reduced some of the extra fat. I wonder whether white wine vinegar (maybe a tsp or 2) would help with the flakiness as I don't normally have white wine on hand. I use it in other pastry recipes and it definitely helps.

Again, thank you for visiting and giving some suggestions.

[anonymous]

Thank you for the mention, Maria. I cannot believe I missed this post entirely! Thank you for the gentle reminder on a comment on my blog. They look wonderful! My Mom's version looked more like the one's on the left, of course. The photos really make me want to make them, but I am too afraid of eating too many of them. Thanks for the memories.
Eva http://kitcheninspirations.wordpress.com/

[a_boleyn]

I didn't realize you hadn't seen it yet. :)

I rolled them much too thin and refrigerated them in between folding so they weren't as tall as they should have been. I'll do better with the other half pound of ground cracklings I have in my freezer.

I gave 2 dozen out of the 3 dozen I made to my Hungarian SIL and brother so they didn't all go to my hips.

[codruta_77]

Hello, glad to see you made and enjoyed "pogacele cu jumari" as we call them in Romanian :) I never made them... but I remember how good there were the ones that my granmother used to make...
best wishes, codruta

[a_boleyn]

They were very tasty though we called the cracklings "jumirettes" in my family. At least that's the best I can do to translate it into written form. I don't write in Romanian though I can read it, slowly and with some help from google to translate my kindergarten learned Romanian reading vocabulary. :)

Vă mulţumesc pentru citirea.

[a_boleyn]

I've made the pogacele again. You may want to see the new, improved version. :)

http://a-boleyn.livejournal.com/91720.html