The Fastest Way to Make the Most Delicious Fresh Fried Bread

My habit of trying to cut corners when it comes to spending time in the kitchen led me to the discovery of a culinary delight. Everything started after my many unsuccessful attempts to bake bread with a bread machine. I wanted fresh homemade bread fast and easy, but I always ended up with tasteless and stale lumps. Then I decided to buy some ready-dough. After a couple of attempts with frozen and refrigerated dough, I finally succeeded in baking my fresh homemade bread. The secret? Pillsbury refrigerated ready-dough called Crusty French Loaf. Enough for baking. Here comes my discovery.

Even with fresh bread on the table I still missed my grandma’s Bulgarian fried bread called Mekitsa usually served with Bulgarian feta cheese. Now that I had my flour-mess-free favorite dough, I could try to make some Mekitsas. I failed many times, and I never came close to a real Bulgarian Mekitsa. But I discovered my fried bread delight.

I started using a regular Collins glass instead of a rolling pin. I rolled out the Pillsbury dough on a bread board. One time I tried to stuff my fried breads with feta cheese instead of serving bread and cheese separately, and the product was my delicious small fried bread pockets stuffed with melted feta cheese.

Here’s how you can do it yourself—please follow the instructions closely for best results:

Ingredients:

11 Oz Crusty French Loaf ( one container Pillsbury refrigerated ready-dough). You can find it at Pavilions or Vons, or probably at any big box grocery store.

15 Oz Feta Cheese

3-4 Oz of flour

Tools:

Mini rolling pin or a Collins glass (240 to 350 ml or 8-12 fluid ounces)

Breadboard

Sharp knife

Large sauce pan

Oil

After opening the ready-dough container carefully, you can wait a few minutes to allow the dough to relax. Cut the dough into 6-7 pieces. Place the pieces of dough on one of their flat sides— the sides you made by cutting the cylindrically-shaped dough. With your thumbs, spread each piece of dough so that there’s enough space for 2-3 ounces of feta cheese inside each piece.

Place the feta cheese carefully inside the pocket you created with your thumbs—do not let cheese go outside the pocket. Using both your index fingers and thumbs, carefully close the pocket of each bread piece—try to fuse the dough so that lump of cheese is evenly covered by the dough.

Spread some flour on the breadboard. Place a bread piece stuffed with cheese on the board covered with flour. With your fingers, flatten the piece trying to spread the cheese evenly inside without spilling it. Turn the piece on both sides to cover with flour—do not use too much flour.

Take the Collins glass or your mini rolling pin and start rolling out the dough. Flatten evenly, but avoid sharpening the edges of the bread piece and flattening the piece too much or for too long (or your bread may rise too much while frying). Each bread piece should be less than 1/2 inch thick and covered with flour. You should be able to see the cheese through the dough—small white spots.

After you finish flattening each bread pieces, preheat about 3 inches of oil in a saucepan—the hottest temperature you can get. Fry both sides of the flattened pieces until golden-brown or golden. Don’t fry more than 1-1.5 min per side because it’s very easy to burn the bread—sides should be soft not hard. Drain them from oil on paper towel.

If you got soft thin pockets of bread with evenly spread feta cheese inside, that’s it.

Now enjoy while still hot.

Let me know how you like my bread.