Croatian cheese pie
This is one of my grandmother's favorite pies. I used to eat it a lot during my childhood. It stays fresh 3-4 days. Soaking raisins in rum is optional but much better if you do.
This is one of my grandmother's favorite pies. I used to eat it a lot during my childhood. It stays fresh 3-4 days. Soaking raisins in rum is optional but much better if you do.
- Carbohydrate 28.6319147273611 g
- Cholesterol 159.015 mg
- Fat 22.8888747604567 g
- Fiber 0.993374068191956 g
- Protein 12.2930425524709 g
- Saturated Fat 13.728194518852 g
- Serving Size 1 1 Serving (159g)
- Sodium 379.232945200203 mg
- Sugar 27.6385406591691 g
- Trans Fat 1.5152671964712 g
- Calories 362 calories
Step-by-step
- Make dough following this schedule: flour, breadcrumbs, and lemon rinds, sugar, baking powder, salt, and vanilla flavored sugar and melted butter. Mix everything in a bowl and at the end add egg yolks. Mix some more and add sour cream. Mix more until you get nice greasy dough. If it is too greasy you can add some more flour. When done, put into refrigerator for 2 hours.
- After 2 hours, put the dough out and work a little to make it soft. Cut ¼ of the dough and put aside.
- Prepare the stuffing by mixing well cheese, sour cream, yolks, sugar, and vanilla sugar.
- Soak raisins in plum brandy or rum until swell up (usually 2 hours if you warm it).
- From egg white make “snow” and add into stuffing, and add raisins.
- At the end add grated lemon rinds.
- Roll the rest of dough into ½ cm thin sheet.
- Cover the bottom of 28cm low rim cake pan with butter, and put onto it a dough sheet.
- Make sure that the rim is also covered with dough from inside.
- Pour cheese stuffing on dough.
- Roll the rest of the dough into thin sheet and put over the cheese making sure that it is covered.
- Poke 10 holes with a fork on the cover.
- Put the pie into preheated oven on 170°C and bake 50-60 minutes or until it gets light golden.
Swapping the standard cottage cheese for ricotta alters the moisture balance significantly, requiring a thorough draining in cheesecloth before mixing. Baking projects rely on precise ratios, which makes scaling down this pastry for smaller households a mechanical challenge. Standard batch sizing assumes a 28cm low-rim cake pan. Halving the components demands a smaller vessel, such as a 20cm round tin, to maintain the proper ratio between the crust and the filling. Without proportional pan scaling, thin crusts burn before the center sets.
Managing Dough and Filling Consistency
Working butter directly into all-purpose flour, breadcrumbs, and sugar creates a crumbly base before the egg yolks and sour cream bind the fats. Chilling this fat-heavy dough for two full hours solidifies the butter, making the mass pliable enough to roll to a half-centimeter thickness without tearing. Reserve one-fourth of the dough for the lattice or top sheet, pressing the larger portion firmly up the inner walls of a buttered pan. Fold excess edges inward to seal the dairy filling inside securely. Whipping egg whites separately into stiff peaks incorporates trapped air, lightening a dense cheese mixture. Fold these whites gently to preserve volume, preventing a heavy, flat bake.Baking Parameters and Storage
Poking ten distinct holes into the top crust allows steam to escape during the thermal expansion phase. Bake the assembly at 170 degrees Celsius for fifty to sixty minutes, watching for a pale golden exterior hue that signals proper starch gelatinization and protein setting. Once cooled completely, the pastry maintains optimal texture for three to four days when stored in a sealed container at cool room temperatures. Dense milk solids in the cottage cheese and sour cream require this preservation window to prevent spoilage.
