Romanian Plăcintă Cu Mere Recipe

Plăcintă Cu Mere is a traditional Romanian dessert consisting of on apple filling sandwiched between two layers of dough. The filling is cooked first, with sugar and spices like cinnamon and sometimes nuts. The dessert is baked then cut into smaller rectangular pieces before serving, sometimes sprinkled with sugar.

There are two types of Plăcintă dough. Foi de Plăcintă is a filo style dough that is stretched around the filling. The other is Aluat de Plăcintă which is a leavened dough that requires rolling. While it is made with dough, because of ingredients like sour cream the dough has a thick cake like appearance once baked.

‘Plăcintă‘ comes from the Latin word placenta, meaning cake. ‘Cu mere’ means apples. There are many other types of Plăcintă  such as Plăcintă cu Brânză which is filled with cream cheese and herbs and Plăcintă cu Cartofi which is filled with spiced potatoes.

In Northern and Western Romania where Germans settled, it’s not unusual to find plăcintă filled with sauerkraut. In Eastern Romania, where the country is bordered by Ukraine’s many dairy farms, plăcintă is filled with sweet cheese curds. Plăcintă cu Mere is also popular in Moldova where it looks like a hand pie and is preferred with a thinner pastry.

Origin & Cultural Significance

Plăcintă dates back to the ancient Greek and Roman Empire. Though the name has Latin origins, recipes would be later perfected by the Greeks who contributed their creation of filo dough.

In Romania plăcintă is considered comfort food, it is affectionately called placintele or little ones. They are prepared for birthday, weddings, funerals, to welcome guests or just to cheer up a family member who has had a tough day.

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Romanian Plăcintă Cu Mere Recipe

Yield: 8 Servings

Prep Time: 45 minutes

Cook Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

Plăcintă Cu Mere is a traditional Romanian dessert consisting of on apple filling sandwiched between two layers of dough.

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Ingredients

Dough

• Margarine - 9 oz.
• Full fat yogurt - 3.5 oz.
• Salt - 1 pinch
• Flour - 14 oz.
• Baking powder - 1 pinch
• Vanilla sugar - 1 packet

Filling

• Apples - 4.5 lb
• Sugar - to taste
• Cinnamon - to taste
• Vanilla sugar - to taste

Instructions

1. Wash, peel and grate the apples.
2. In a saucepan add the apples and desired amount of sugar.
3. Cook until soft.
4. Remove from the heat then add the cinnamon and vanilla sugar.
5. Mix room temperate margarine with the yogurt.
6. Mix the flour with the baking powder and add to the margarine mixture.
7. Knead into a soft dough.
8. Refrigerate for 30 minutes.
9. Divide into two equal portions.
10. On a tray, stretch one portion to the edges of the tray.
11. Cover evenly with the apples.
12. Stretch the other piece of dough over the apples.
13. Use a fork to seal the top and bottom layer of doughntogether, sealing the apples in.
14. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.
15. Slice and serve.

Nutrition Information:

Yield: 8 Serving Size: 1
Amount Per Serving: Calories: 559Total Fat: 27gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 5gUnsaturated Fat: 21gCholesterol: 1mgSodium: 33mgCarbohydrates: 77gFiber: 8gSugar: 30gProtein: 6g

Nutrition is provided and calculated by Nutritionix. It is for general information purposes and is only a rough estimation.