Homemade recipes with cottage cheese are not limited to pies and buns. These are also delicious pies, cheesecakes, casseroles and many other sweet treats. I suggest you try the amazing Nesterka cottage cheese and poppy seed pie, which is made with chopped dough. Surprise your guests at the table with such spectacular, tasty, aromatic and satisfying pastries!
All ingredients in this cottage cheese pie are quite accessible, so if you wish, you can always prepare it and pamper your family. Regarding the necessary ingredients, I described everything in detail in a step-by-step recipe to avoid complications and additional questions. The only thing I would focus on is cottage cheese. It must be fatty, then the filling will turn out tender, juicy and very tasty.
One more thing: if you don’t like a large amount of poppy seeds in the finished pie, you can reduce all the ingredients for this layer by exactly half. Or, as an option, proportionally increase the ingredients for the curd layer - one and a half or two times. True, in this case you will have to assemble and bake the Nesterka cottage cheese-poppy seed pie in a mold larger in diameter (24-26 centimeters).
Ingredients:
Shortbread dough:
Curd filling:
Poppy filling:
Cooking the dish step by step with photos:
To prepare this tasty and satisfying pie, we take wheat flour (I used high-grade, but first-grade will do), butter (fat content of at least 72%), medium-sized chicken eggs (45-50 grams each), fat cottage cheese (at least 12% fat content), granulated sugar, poppy seeds, milk of any fat content (I use 2.5%), potato starch (or corn starch - it’s even better), salt, vanillin (you can use vanilla sugar to taste) and chopped lemon zest. All products (except for butter and chicken eggs in the dough) should be at room temperature.
The first step is to prepare the chopped (also shortbread) dough. You can do this by hand, but in a food processor (attachment is a metal knife) it turns out much faster, simpler and easier. Sift 250 grams of wheat flour into a bowl, add 80 grams of sugar, as well as a pinch of salt and vanillin. Mix everything thoroughly with your hands (if you are making the dough by hand) or for 30 seconds in a food processor.
After this, add 125 grams of cold butter, cut into cubes, to the flour. It is best to put the butter in the freezer for an hour beforehand so that it hardens properly.
We punch everything into fine butter crumbs - this will literally take 20-30 seconds in a food processor. If you make the dough with your hands, rub everything quickly between your palms or chop it with a knife. Now add 1 cold chicken egg and quickly mix it into the crumbs with your hands while kneading by hand.
In a food processor, we punch everything through (preferably in pulsating mode) to get this kind of fatty crumb. Try to put it together. If it still falls apart, add another spoonful of ice water - it depends on the moisture content of the wheat flour. Personally, I don’t need water, but you look at the consistency and texture of the dough.
We take a springform baking dish - I advise you to choose a volume of no more than 18-20 centimeters (in my case, just 18 centimeters, since I like tall pies). Place the dough in the mold and make the bottom and high sides in an even layer. Just press the crumbs tightly with your fingers. Additionally, I covered the bottom and sides of the mold with baking paper, since the mold was new and I wasn’t 100% sure of it yet. For now, let's put the workpiece in the refrigerator, and at this time turn on the oven to warm up at 180 degrees.
Let's move on to preparing the poppy seed filling. To do this, wash 200 grams of poppy seeds under cold running water (I use a fine-fine sieve) and let the liquid drain. Transfer it to a suitable size saucepan or saucepan.
Fill the clean poppy seeds with 150 milliliters of milk. Place over medium heat and bring the contents of the pan to a boil. Turn the heat to low and cook the poppy seeds in the milk (without a lid), stirring occasionally, until the seeds swell and the liquid evaporates. This took me about 15 minutes.
Remove the saucepan from the heat and add 50 grams of butter, a teaspoon of chopped lemon zest (if you don’t have it, you don’t have to add it, but it gives a very pleasant aroma) and a pinch of vanillin (you can replace it with a teaspoon of vanilla sugar). Stir everything until the butter melts from the heat of the poppy seeds.
All that remains is to grind the boiled poppy seeds in any convenient way: through a meat grinder, in a food processor or using an immersion blender. I like the last option best. As a result, crushed poppy seeds will become softer, tastier, more aromatic, and they won’t get stuck in your teeth. Let the poppy seed filling cool to a lukewarm state or room temperature - it doesn’t matter.
Now let's move on to the curd filling. It can be made using either a regular tablespoon, a whisk, a mixer, an immersion blender or a food processor (the attachment is a metal knife). If you do not use electrical devices, you will need to rub the cottage cheese (!) through a sieve, preferably twice. I like to make the filling in the bowl of the food processor, then it turns out tender, smooth and completely homogeneous. Place 600 grams of full-fat cottage cheese, 2 chicken eggs, 120 grams of sugar, 100 grams of soft butter, a level tablespoon of starch and a pinch of vanillin in a bowl.
We punch everything at high speed for about 2 minutes until the mass becomes completely homogeneous. The consistency of the raw curd filling should not be too thick, moderately fluid and not hold its shape - approximately like low-fat sour cream.
Now is the time to take the mold with the chilled dough out of the refrigerator. Additionally, I advise you to wrap the bottom with food foil, since during the baking process the butter in the dough will begin to melt, drip onto the bottom of the oven and smoke.
Place the first layer of poppy seed filling and smooth it out with a spoon or spatula.
Prepare products for the test.
Combine flour, sugar and baking powder.
Add pieces of cold butter, egg and sour cream.
Knead soft and tender dough.
Divide the dough into two parts, placing each part in a bag. Place one part in the freezer and the second part in the refrigerator.
To prepare the filling, combine cottage cheese, sugar and sour cream.
Mix the filling and add poppy seeds.
Mix the curd and poppy seed filling for the pie thoroughly.
Lightly grease a springform pan (I have a mold with a diameter of 20 cm) with vegetable oil, put the dough from the refrigerator into the pan and spread it over the bottom.
Place the filling on the dough and smooth it out.
Grate the dough from the freezer on a coarse grater over the curd and poppy seed filling.
Bake the pie with cottage cheese and poppy seeds in a preheated oven at 180 degrees for about 50 minutes. The top of the pie should have a beautiful golden crust. Cool the finished pie completely in the pan (I leave the pie in the refrigerator overnight). Then remove from the mold and cut into pieces. The pie filled with cottage cheese and poppy seeds holds its shape perfectly and tastes simply great.
Fans of cottage cheese dishes have probably long known the widest variety of casseroles with and without additives. Therefore, a real gastronomic discovery for them will be a cottage cheese casserole with poppy seeds - syromak, which is also called “Polish cheesecake”.
Syromak pie is a national dish of Polish cuisine, which has long gained fame throughout the world. The poppy seeds in the composition make the baked goods weighty and high in calories. However, the pie turns out to be very tender and airy in taste. It is even compared to the famous cheesecake. And not only because syromak contains cottage cheese, but also because it is as capricious in preparation as the famous American dessert.
For syromak, be sure to use the fattest cottage cheese so that the baked goods do not turn out dry and crumbly. If you use classic cottage cheese, then you definitely need to season it well with butter.
A recipe for cottage cheese casserole with poppy seeds is simply unthinkable without an impressive amount of poppy seeds, which, for ease of preparation, must be soaked in hot water for several hours.
It is better to prepare the dough base for cottage cheese casserole with poppy seeds in the oven the day before baking, so that it rests in the refrigerator overnight. And at every stage of working with it, it must be cooled - starting from the cold ingredients and the bowl in which the dough will be kneaded, ending with keeping the dough in the mold for half an hour before sending it to the preheated oven. Cottage cheese casserole with poppy seeds “Syromak” requires strict adherence to the recipe. In the oven it needs to be baked only in a water bath!
Required Products
Pie base:
- Premium wheat flour - 356 g
- butter - 187 g
- powdered sugar - 126 g
- almond flour (you can make it yourself, grind peeled almonds in a coffee grinder or blender) - 45 g
- Chicken eggs – 1-2 pcs.
Poppy layer:
- poppy seed – a little more than ½ cup
- sugar – ½ cup
- honey - 3 tbsp. with top
- eggs - 1 pc.
Curd layer:
- cottage cheese - 625 g
- butter - 210 g
- heavy cream – 1 cup
- granulated sugar - 150 g
- zest of 1 lemon
- Eggs (yolks) – 2 pcs.
- Vanilla
Sauce:
- full-fat sour cream – 1 cup
- sugar – 3 tbsp. with top
- egg – 1 pc.
Preparation
- Prepare the dough. First add the dry ingredients into the bowl of a food processor or blender, then add the chopped butter. After mixing you should have fine crumbs. Break an egg into it and quickly knead the dough. Cover it with film and put it in the refrigerator for a couple of hours.
- Take out the dough and quickly knead again (lightly flour your work surface before working), then roll out into a thin rectangular layer and cool again for a quarter of an hour. Then take it out, place it in a baking dish, pierce it in several places with a fork and put it back in the refrigerator. After half an hour, remove and place in the oven at 180°C for fifteen minutes. The finished base should be golden in color.
- Now make the poppy seed filling. Throw the poppy seeds pre-soaked in water into a fine sieve and let the water drain.
- Grind the poppy seeds in a blender or food processor, mix thoroughly with honey, sugar and the yolk of one egg.
- In a separate bowl (it should be clean and dry), beat the egg white and carefully add to the poppy seed mixture.
- Prepare the curd mass. Beat the cottage cheese until smooth, add zest, vanilla and yolks to it and mix thoroughly.
- In a separate bowl, beat the butter and sugar until fluffy (add it gradually). Then, without ceasing to beat, add the curd mixture to the mixture in parts. At the end, also add cream in parts.
- For the sauce, beat sour cream, sugar and egg with a mixer until the sugar grains are completely dissolved.
- Assemble the cheesecake: place poppy seeds in an even layer on the base, curd mixture on top, and sour cream sauce at the end. Carefully level all layers.
- Place the mold with the preparation in a baking tray, pour boiling water into it so that it half covers the mold with the cheesecake. Bake for about an hour at 170°C. The sour cream filling should become creamy in color - only then can the cheesecake be taken out of the oven, cooled and allowed to sit in the refrigerator for several hours.
The finished syromak must be allowed to brew. When hot or even warm, it is difficult to cut into pieces. But when chilled, it is more pliable and incredibly tasty!
Lovers of delicious baked goods with a delicate curd filling will love the simple step-by-step recipe for curd and poppy seed pie. The rich taste that the product with cottage cheese and poppy seeds provides due to various fillings will appeal to absolutely everyone. It makes it so easy to turn an ordinary tea party into a real celebration, and preparing it is not difficult at all.
To prepare the pie you will need:
- flour – 200 gr.;
- ghee – 100 gr.;
- sugar – 200 gr.;
- baking powder – 1 tsp;
- egg – 3 pcs.;
- curd mass – 500 g;
- poppy – 120 gr.;
- starch - 2 tbsp. l.;
- vanillin - to taste.
Preparing the filling
Preparing the dough
Beat the mixture of melted butter with sugar and 1 egg. Add flour portionwise and mix. Let it sit in the cold for about half an hour.
Baking a pie
Cottage cheese with poppy seeds in a slow cooker
Cottage cheese filling
- curd mass – 500 gr. (preferably from 10%);
- sugar – 100 gr.;
- eggs – 2 pcs.;
- kefir – 100 gr.;
- starch - 1 tbsp. l.;
- vanillin – 0.5 g.
Poppy filling
- poppy – 150 – 170 gr.;
- milk – 250 ml;
- sugar – 70 gr.;
- butter – 30 gr.
For shortbread dough
- butter/margarine – 200 gr.;
- sugar – 160 gr.;
- eggs - 2 pcs.;
- baking powder – 10 g;
- flour - 3 cups;
- vanillin – 0.5 g;
- a pinch of salt.
Cooking the pie
Preparing the filling
Preparing the dough
- Grind margarine with sugar. Add eggs, baking powder, vanillin and mix.
- Add flour portionwise and mix.
If the dough is not dense enough, you can add a little more flour.
- Yeast-free shortcrust pastry must be refrigerated for 30 minutes. in a refrigerator.
Baking a pie
- The first step is to place the dough on the slightly oiled bottom of the multicooker and form small sides on the walls.
- Then we distribute first the poppy seed mixture, and then the cottage cheese mixture.
- Place the bowl in the multicooker and set the “Baking” mode. The poppy seed curd will bake for an hour and a half.
- After baking, turn off the multicooker and leave the pie in it for another 20 - 25 minutes. Using a steamer basket, remove the product and serve.
Calorie content is 300 – 350 Kcal.
To make the pie more tender, you need to beat the cottage cheese with a blender. And to make its taste multifaceted, add 2 - 3 tbsp. l. coconut flakes. If desired, the finished dessert can be decorated with several cherries.
For a more impressive presentation, you can form a striped filling. To do this, place the curd and poppy seed fillings alternately in the center of the mold on the dough, and then use a toothpick to draw rays from the edges to the center.
Bon appetit!
Beat softened butter with sugar and a pinch of salt until light cream, add the yolks and beat well again. Add flour and stir quickly to form a soft dough. If necessary, add 1-2 tbsp. l. cold water or milk.
Place the dough in a springform pan with a diameter of 26–28 cm and smooth the surface with your hands. Place in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
Prepare the poppy seed filling. Grind the poppy seeds in a coffee grinder or grind them in a mortar. Peel the apples and grate them on a coarse grater. Soak the raisins in warm water for 10 minutes, then drain in a colander and dry.
Separate the eggs into whites and yolks. Beat the whites to stiff peaks. Grind the yolks with sugar until white. Add poppy seeds, apples, semolina, baking powder and butter, stir well and add raisins. Gently fold the whipped whites into the resulting mixture.
Prepare the curd filling. Separate the eggs into whites and yolks. Beat the whites to stiff peaks. Grind the yolks with sugar until white. Beat the cottage cheese until creamy, add vanilla extract, yolk mass, starch and condensed milk, stir well. Gently fold in the beaten egg whites.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Remove the pan with the dough from the refrigerator and prick the dough with a fork. Pour in the poppy seed filling, then add the curd filling and smooth out. Place the pie in the oven and bake for about 1 hour; the curd layer should rise well and brown. Turn off the heat in the oven and open the door slightly, leave the cake in it for another 20 minutes. Then remove the pie from the oven and cool completely. Sprinkle with powdered sugar before serving.