Sourdough cheesy “stangli”

Sourdough cheesy stangli or I could call them cheesy sticks. But these are not just simple cheesy sticks…

Let me tell you about a little memory of mine… I was living in Budapest for 6 years and in these years I often went shopping in a Spar ( in Hungary there are much bigger and they have they own bakery inside ). As I stepped in I felt the aroma of the freshly baked cheesy stangli lingering all over the shop. I couldn’t resist, I went towards the bakery hoping there are still some warm stanglis left in the big baskets and I can grab a few… as I stepped out from the door I reached into the buttery, cheesy fat soaked paper bag and tear the end down…Finally!

I didn’t have stangli for the last 10 years since I’m living in the UK. I even forgot how good these soft cheesy sticks can be until a few weeks ago when we had an online quarantine bake-along with the “mini sourdough group”. It was my turn to come up with an idea for our next session. Why not bake “sajtos stangli”?

Creating a sourdough cheesy stangli recipe, wasn’t as easy, as I had big expectations. Very soft, rich, pillowy interior with a soft and a lightly toasted cheesy and crunchy skin, as I remember from the Spar version. Well… I have to tell you this recipe exceeded my expectations, for me this is the perfect stangli. Besides the taste, this sourdough version is much healthier than any store bought version. Also, there are no additives or extra unnecessary stuff in it, as you make it yourself.

For this recipe you don’t need any extra ingredients that you would not have in your everyday fridge. I hand knead my dough, to be honest lately I nearly every time do this way. I only use my Kenwood if the nature of the dough would need it.

I fold the dough two times during the bulk fermentation and keep it in a warm temperature somewhere 26 – 28C the entire time. The recipe fits in a day, so if you start it in the early morning you can have freshly baked soft cheesy stangli by the afternoon.

For the preshape I use the same technique that I used for shaping my Hokkaido bread, seems like it works very well with it. The final shaping is also very easy, but you will need a rolling pin.

Sourdough cheesy stangli

This recipe makes 5 stangli, but you can make them smaller too. I start the recepie in the morning, so I feed my starter just before I go to bed the night before.

Sourdough cheesy stangli ingredients:

• 300g high protein flour, sifted ( Marriage’s very strong )
• 130g active sourdough starter ( fed before night 10g starter + 75g flour + 55g water )
• 150g warm milk
• 15g sugar
• 70g sour cream
• 2 tbsp sunflower oil
• 8g salt
• 30g room temperature butter
• 100g medium cheddar, freshly grated

1. In the first step warm up the milk and dissolve the sugar in it, and mix with the sifted flour, sourdough starter and the sour cream. Knead it for few minutes, then add the two tablespoons oil. Continue the kneading until all the oil disappears in the dough and doesn’t feel greasy by the touch. Rest for 20 minutes.
2. Add the butter in two stages and knead intensely for another 8-10 minutes. You need to have a nice smooth and soft dough at the end, but also easy to handle and not sticky. Put in a bowl, cover it and keep it between 26-28 C.
3. Dump the dough on the work surface and pull it out to a 40×40cm square. Make an envelope fold by folding the right third of the dough to the middle than the left side to the already folded side. Now roll up the dough and pull it sometimes to make it tight ( it’s easier to make, than write down probably,  please see pictures above ).
4. Rest it again in a warm place and repeat  the fold. You probably cannot pull out the dough as much again but that’s fine. In this stage your dough probably nicely developed and pillowy soft.
5. After the rest divide it into 5×140g pieces and make the preshape. Try to tap your dough with your fingers and form a rectangular shape. Fold the to shorter sides in the middle, than roll up from the shorter side tightly, pinch to seal the bottom ( see the preshape picture above ). Rest it for 20 minutes, and make sure you cover your dough as it’s getting dry very quick.
6. Make the final shaping. Lightly flour your work surface and place the dough seam side up. Roll out with a rolling pin to a 10×15cm rectangular shape and start rolling up from the longest side. You will end up with a tightly rolled stick. Place them on your tray 1-1,5cm apart  ( I used a silicon mat ) and keep them again in a warm place. I use my oven with a glass of boiled water in it, this way the surface will stay moist.
7. After about 1,5-2 hours later the dough beautifully risen, and touching each other. Sprinkle the grated cheese on it and put the tray in a 250C preheated oven with steam. Turn down the oven to 190C and bake them for 22-24 minutes or until fully baked. I keep my steam tray in the oven until the end, this way the stangli’ s surface stays softer.

Very soft and moist interior with a lighly toasted crunchy, cheesy surface. This is what I call cheesy stangli!

Enjoy!