Vatrushka is a national dish of Russian and Ukrainian cuisine. Its history goes back to the time of the ancient Slavs. In shape, it resembles a round cake with a filling, which can be completely different: potato, fruit, berry, or even boiled condensed milk. But cheesecakes with cottage cheese are considered classic.
Required Ingredients
You can bake cheesecakes based on any dough, although yeast is most often used for these purposes. To prepare it, take:
- dry yeast - 10 g;
- milk - 270 ml;
- sugar - 2 tablespoons;
- flour - about 500 g;
- butter - 50 g;
- a pinch of salt.
For the filling you will need:
- cottage cheese - 500 g;
- yolks - 4 pcs;
- sugar - 4 tablespoons;
- butter - 40 g;
- sour cream - 2 tablespoons;
- flour - 1 tablespoon;
- vanilla sugar - 1 sachet.
Additionally, you will need 1 yolk and a couple of tablespoons of milk for lubrication, as well as a glass for shaping the products.
Instead of cottage cheese, you can use a sweet curd mass. In this case, you do not need to add sour cream, sugar and vanilla.
Cooking method
In this recipe, most of the time is spent kneading the dough. Therefore, it is necessary to start with him. Heat the milk. It should be barely warm, not hot. Dissolve sugar, yeast and a few tablespoons of flour in it, then cover and place in a warm place until bubbles appear on the surface.
While the yeast is fermenting, melt the butter in a water bath or microwave and let it cool. Remember that nothing hot should be added to yeast dough.
Add butter, salt and about 2/3 of the flour to a container with dough, then start kneading the dough. Add the remaining flour gradually. It is not necessary to add everything, focus on the consistency of the resulting mass: it should be firm, elastic and well behind the hands.
Do not try to add a lot of flour at once if the dough seems too moist and sticky to you, as it changes its properties during kneading.
Put the finished dough in a saucepan and, covered with a lid, put in a warm place. While it is rising, prepare the filling.
To help the ingredients combine better, rub the curd through a sieve. Then add the rest of the ingredients to it and mix thoroughly. You should have a thick mass that resembles fatty sour cream.
In the meantime, the dough should double its original volume (if not already, give it more time). Sprinkle a thin layer of flour on the table, put the dough on it, knead again and divide into 16 pieces. Roll each part into a ball and place it on a greased or lined baking sheet, leaving about 10 cm between them, and let them rise again.
Most likely, all the cheesecakes will not fit on one baking sheet. Therefore, place the remaining portions of the dough on the table, covered with a clean towel, for a second batch.
Take a glass and press it with the bottom on each ball of dough so that it flattens, and in the center there is a depression for the filling. Fill the resulting baskets with the curd mass. Mix the egg yolk with a little milk and brush the edges of the cheesecakes with it, then send the baking sheet to the oven, preheated to 190 ° C.
On average, cheesecakes need to be cooked for about 25 minutes. During this time, they will brown and the dough will be baked. After that, the pastries can be removed from the oven and served.
