Placinta
A Romanian folded pie of thin pastry filled with grated apple, sugar and cinnamon, baked for 40 minutes until golden.
Photograph credit: Placinta (image of Plăcintă on Wikidata Q2372494) · Public domain · Wikimedia Commons
Compare it to an apple pie and you find a thinner, crisper pastry folded like a parcel round the fruit. Plăcintă is the Romanian pie, and the sweet version with apples and cinnamon is the one most often made at home, especially at religious fasts when no dairy is used.
The dough is flour, oil, water and a pinch of salt, kneaded for 5 minutes and rested for 20 minutes. Roll it very thin, almost like strudel, and cut into squares. For the filling, grate tart apples, toss them with sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and a spoonful of breadcrumbs. Squeeze out the juice from the apples, as a wet filling makes the pastry soggy.
Put a heap of filling in the centre of each square, brush the edges with water and fold the corners to the middle, pinching the seams. Brush the tops with oil, set them on a lined tray and bake at 190°C / 375°F for 40 minutes, until the pastry is deep gold. Dust with icing sugar and serve warm. The pies keep for 2 days and can be reheated in the oven.
What People Ask
How long does Placinta take to make?
40 minutes of preparation and 40 minutes of cooking, plus 20 minutes of resting, so allow 1 hour 40 minutes from start to finish. The recipe serves 8.
How to Make Placinta
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Mix the flour, 5 tablespoons of oil, water and salt and knead for 5 minutes. Rest for 20 minutes.
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Toss the apples with the sugar, cinnamon, lemon juice and breadcrumbs. Squeeze out the juice.
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Heat the oven to 190°C / 375°F. Roll the dough very thin and cut into 8 squares of 15 cm.
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Put a heap of filling in each square, brush the edges with water and fold the corners into the middle, pinching the seams.
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Brush with the oil and bake for 40 minutes until deep gold. Dust with the icing sugar.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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A Few Pointers
- Squeeze the juice from the apples.
- Roll the dough very thin.
- Pinch the seams firmly.
Pairs Well With
Tea · Coffee · Vanilla ice cream
Leftovers and Storage
Keeps for 2 days. Reheat in the oven.
The Numbers per Serving
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
Your notes on this recipe
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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