I have a few recipes for Romanian ‘Placinta cu Branza’ or Cheese-Filled Pie from my friend’s grandma a.k.a buni :). This is the first one I decided to try out and hubby and I really loved it. This recipe is so easy to make and so rich and delicious! You can have it as breakfast (perfect during the week when you’re in a rush to work), as an appetizer or even as a light meal served with some salad.
Time: 70 min, Prep: 15 min. Cook: 55min.
Servings: 25 squares
Ingredients:
- 450 g phyllo sheets
- 1 kg bakers light cream cheese (I bought this from Starsky)
- 300 g feta cheese, grated
- 4 Tbsp sugar
- Zest from 1 lemon
- 2 Tbsp rum extract
- 2 Tbsp semolina
- 200 g raisins
- 60 g butter
- 6 eggs
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 2 Tbsp sour cream
Directions:
Mix the cream cheese and feta cheese.
Add the sugar, lemon zest, rum extract and the eggs (save 2 egg yolks). Mix thoroughly until all ingredients are combined. Lastly, mix in the semolina and raisins.
Preheat the oven to 220°C (425°F).
Butter your pan and add half of the pastry sheets. Brush them with melted butter. Spoon the cheese mixture over.
Place the remaining pastry sheets and again brush them with melted butter.
Bake for 45 minutes. Combine the 2 egg yolks with the sour cream and 2 tablespoons of sugar.
Brush the top of the pie with this mixture and bake for another 10 minutes.
Remove from the oven, cut into squares and sprinkle some powdered sugar (if preferred).
Enjoy!
I didn’t get something… The title says “phyllo”, but the ingredients say “puff pastry”. It’s quite different though, I believe… Is there something I’m missing?
Can’t wait to cook this 🙂 it looks very good!
It’s a typo… thanks for letting me know :). I used phyllo sheets. Although in this case you could use puff pastry dough as well, I used both depending on what I had handy and actually I find it easier to work with puff pastry rather than the individual phyllo sheets.
It makes a bigger difference if you make for example Greek baklava using puff pastry instead of phyllo but in this case you should be fine with either one of them 🙂
Hi Roxy,
I really enjoyed your posts since I know some of them being from Ro.
For sure I’ll try this one because it looks so yummiii.
When you get the chance please visit my website and tell me what you think.
Thank you and keep the good work !
Thanks Lumi! I’ve seen your website before…. can’t remember exactly what I was looking for at that time but I do remember your amazingly looking cakes! I’ll definitely visit your website more often from now on ;). Let me know how your placinta cu branza turned out if you try the recipe :).
My Grandma used to make her own pastery, a sheet that would cover the table and hang down over the edge. She would roll it up with apples and cinnamon or pumpkin, or raisins, or cottage cheese. and bake like strudel. I have been looking for a recipe for a long time, and I see I have been spelling it wrong. I will try this recipe too, thanks
I bought these pastry sheets – they are usually made with flour, butter, a little cold water and a pinch of salt. But my mom makes something similar to your grandma; she makes dough out of flour, some water, sunflower oil and a pinch of salt. She rolls it out into a very thin sheet (almost see-through), adds apples or pumpkin and rolls it out like a strudel.