Merdenele

During my university I was running between classes and having breakfast and lunches was luxury. So, I was stopping to the corner shop and I was buying 2 merdenele (there is no translation for these, you can call them cheese rolls but they are more squares then rolls :) ). The ones that I was buying were oily and with just some traces of cheese but they were very tasty. Years has passed since then and in the meantime I changed my location. Here in Belgium there is no such thing like merdenele. They have other specialties,  like croissants, but they don't compare with the Romanian salty cheese merdenele.
Few days ago, a colleague of mine remind me of these and I had a mouthwatering experience. More, he was telling me that he made them at home. I replied, no chance, they couldn't be like the ones I know... he then challenged me to try them. It didn't take me long to actually do them. And yes, indeed they are not like the ones I was buying. They are 10 times better! Fluffy, melting into your mouth, not full of oil and with plenty of cheese inside.


Ingredients:

• 1kg puff pastry
• 1kg feta cheese
• 2 eggs

Directions:

1. Smash the cheese with a fork.
2. Beat the eggs and mix them with cheese.
3. Split the dough into 8 portions. If you prefer to do them in a smaller size, the dough can be splitted in more portions.
4. Stretch every piece with a rolling pin and shape it in a square with 25cm side. You can use a bit of oil to avoid sticking to the table or to the rolling pin.
5. Put 2-3 tablespoons of cheese in the center of the square and flatten into a little square of 10cm 45º turn from the big dough square.
6. Bring the corners into the center by overlapping them a bit.
7. Turn the merdenea upside down and lay it in a tray on which there was a silicon or baking sheet.
8. Repeat the steps for the remaining pieces and cheese.
9. Bake them for 45min at 180ºC or until they become a little brown on top.

They are perfect when they are warm but they are fine as well cold.
Mmm, was a delicios taste! Just try them and lets see if somebody doesn't agree with me.