Macedonian Maznik

My first attempt at homemade fillo dough. Well, it's not really fillo dough, but the Macedonian equivalent of paper-thin dough layers. The homemade version is vastly superior to anything you can buy in a store, so maybe you should give it a shot!

The filling options are many and varied, from sweet cheery to simple cottage cheese filling. Here I made it with spinach and Feta.

In Macedonia it's a traditional meal on the 14th of January, for the celebration of the "old New Year". I was quoting my husband here. Well, it's the new year of the Julian calendar, which I guess is retained by the Orthodox churches. On this day, a coin is baked into the maznik, and after slicing, the family member who gets the slice with the coin will have luck for the new year.

Ingredients (for 2 people)
250g of flour
0.5 tsp salt
water

100mL vegetable oil
100mL lard

8 oz spinach
6 oz Feta
1 egg
0.5 tsp dried dill

yogurt

Preparation
Preheat the oven to 400F. Mix a dough from the sifted flour, salt and enough water to bring it together. Do not make it a very sticky dough, or the layers will cook instead of frying. Cut it into three pieces.

Melt the lard and mix with the oil. Soak the dough in it for 15 minutes.

Squeeze out the wilted spinach and mix with the Feta and egg until spreadable.

Remove one piece of the dough from the fat and press into a circle. Start pulling on the edges, stretching the dough evenly until paper thin.

You must take care not to rip the layer, so apply force with care. When the dough is stretched, spread a third of the filling in a strip.

Fold the edges over the filling, and start rolling it up, removing the thicker edges as you go. When you get a tube with filling, lay it down on a greased pizza pan forming a spiral at the center.

Repeat with the other two pieces of dough to complete the process. Spread the top with some more fat.

Bake in the preheated oven until golden brown.

The maznik should be sliced as a pizza. It will be crispy and flaky on the edges and softer in the middle.

Serve with plain yogurt!