Today is the last day of the year. If I only knew how each of you is going to spend it I would perhaps get enough celebrating ideas for my whole life. As you can imagine I'm spending it at home, slowly preparing a New Year dinner, decorating a christmas tree, watching old movies and smiling to my lovely family.
If you are also in the mood for home cooking, let me show you these cookies. They are so simple and so tasty that it is hard to find a better fit for such a day. Have a bite and let a miracle happen to you. I believe they do happen if you let them do so. But whatever you believe, be happy tonight.
As I mentioned already we bake several kinds of cottage cheese based pastry. Unlike the cottage cheese apricot rolls I published earlier these cookies are ridiculously simple to make. You mix everything together, roll, spread the jam and you are nearly there. Despite being so easy to make they are very pretty. The crumbs on top are made of the same pastry. You just grate it over the jam before baking.
As for the jam, you do not have to use blackcurrant here. Redcurrant, cranberry, blueberry, even apricot all do well. Perhaps you could just experiment with your favorite one. The only thing necessary is for the jam to be smooth. So if it is not, you will need to use a blender or food processor to puree it.
Blackcurrant cottage cheese cookies
makes around 40 cookies
200 g butter (room temperature)
100 g sugar
pinch of salt
200 g cottage cheese (like on the picture below)
1 egg
200 g plus 2 table spoons of all purpose flour
1 tea spoon baking powder
350 g smooth blackcurrant jam (or other jam of your choice)
Cream butter with sugar and salt. Add the cottage cheese and egg and mix till smooth (it is easier to use an electric mixer or food processor).
Mix 200 g of flour with baking powder. Mix the flour into the batter first using a spoon, then, using your hands. The dough should become smooth and easily form a sphere.
Roll the dough on a sheet of baking paper 5 mm thick into a large round. Trim the sides to get a square of around 40 cm. Gather the cuttings (it should be around 1/4 of the dough) and mix them with 2 table spoons of flour using your hands. Put this piece of dough into a plastic bag and freeze for 15-20 minutes.
In the meantime fort the rolled pastry and spread the jam evenly over it. If the jam is very thick, heat it a little bit first, so that it spreads easily. Take the dough out of the freezer and grate it over the jam using a coarse grater.
Bake at 180C for 20-25 minutes till the crust on top starts to turn golden. Take out of the oven and transfer to the cooling rack together with the baking paper. Let cool for 5 minutes. then cut into strips 4 cm wide. Cut each strip into diamonds and let the cookies cool completely.
They keep for 2-3 days at room temperature. To store them longer - freeze airtight.
Happy New Year!
Related:
Hot and spicy mulled wine
Cottage cheese and apricot roll cookies
Cinnamon roll cookies
Lemon and caraway biscuits
Florentine cookies
Russian syrniki (cottage cheese pancakes)
Home made apricot jam (varenie)
Kiev food: a personal guide
These cookies are really awesome to look and I am also sure that the taste must be good one. But do you know about baklava. This baklava is y most favorite dessert and my wife can make this very perfectly and now I started little business baklava delivery home to home and yes I am getting good amount for that.
ReplyDelete