I love food!

Passport & Plate - Pressed cottage cheese pastries

Romania | Friday, March 14, 2014 | 5 photos

Ingredients
1. For the dough:
- 500g sifted flour
- 100g margarine
- 25g yeast
- 150ml warm milk
- 3 eggs
- 3 tablespoons of sugar
- zest of 1 lemon
- 24g vanilla sugar
- 1 teaspoon of salt

2. For the filling:
- 500g pressed cottage cheese
- 200g sugar
- 60g vanilla sugar
- 2 eggs

 

How to prepare this recipe
1. The dough
We dissolve the yeast in the milk along with 3 tablespoons of sugar, salt and margarine. We knead the flour with the whole eggs, the lemon zest, the vanilla sugar and with the milk mixture. I used a kneading machine on the pizza dough program and I left it to rise until it doubled its volume.
Until the dough rises, we prepare the filling by mixing the pressed cottage cheese with the 200g of sugar, the vanilla sugar and the eggs.
We roll the dough on the dough board and cut it in squares.
We place a tablespoon of the cheese mixture on each of the squares.
We fold the squares by placing one corner on the opposite one. We egg-wash them and place them on a tray that has been previously covered in baking parchment and we leave them to rise for 15 minutes.
We put them in the preheated oven at 180o Celsius and leave them for 30 minutes.

 

The story behind this recipe
This is a recipe that reminds me of childhood. Growing up, my grandmother and mother made these pastries especially on Sundays and for special occasion. They were a real treat and every child was impatient waiting for them to be ready.
Although it is a simple recipe, seeing it done as a kid seemed complicated and looked like it needed a lot of work put into, as back then my mother did not have a kneading machine. She often told me that when you knead a dough you need to put your hart into it for the pastries to be delicious. I still remember her word every time a make something. Food requires passion, patience and commitment.
I have a big extended family and all the women in my family are great cooks. It is tradition that at least once a week we all get together for a meal and that usually involves preparing it as well. Being part of a family that appreciates food and consider it to be the thing that brings people together I always wanted to cook myself.
The pressed cottage cheese pastries were the ones that always intrigued me. When I first tried to make them they turned out so bad I wanted to give up. But at that time I did not realize that cooking requires patience, the lack of which made me to forget to mix in the yeast. But the second time I made them they were a success! However, they are not always the same. My mother always tells me that one batch of pastries will never be the same with another.
This being the first pastry recipe I ever tried, I thought it would be appropriate to share it with you.