Why are cheesecakes called cheesecakes, although they are prepared from cottage cheese? It turns out that this delicious sweet dish has been known for a very long time, and in the old days it was customary to call cheese cottage cheese. Of course, we now perfectly understand the difference between these two products, but the old name has taken root so much that no one thinks about its origin.
Cheesecakes - this is a dish that is often offered to children, because kids often refuse to eat natural cottage cheese. Therefore, mothers, in order to feed children with such a useful product, often prepare various desserts with its addition.
Classic cheesecakes are fried in a pan in oil. But if we want to cook a dish for children, then this method does not suit us. However, for adults who decide to eat cheesecakes, it is better to exclude frying in order to reduce the amount of fat in the finished dish. So, we will cook cheese cakes in the oven.
This version of the dish is more useful, but no less tasty. To make a dessert, cheese cakes in the oven, we need half a kilogram of cottage cheese. It is very important that the curd is not wet, then you do not need to add a lot of flour, which can clog its taste. If the cottage cheese is too wet, then to remove the excess liquid, it is worth wrapping it in cheesecloth, put in a colander, crush it with a load and leave it for several hours to remove the remaining serum.
We also need 2 eggs, about 150 grams of flour (maybe a little more, it depends on the curd), sugar to taste (about 4 tablespoons), a bag of baking powder for dough or half a teaspoon of baking soda, a little salt.
As flavorings, you can use vanillin, cinnamon, lemon zest. Tasty cheesecakes in the oven are obtained with the addition of dried fruits - dried apricots, raisins or prunes. Dried fruits should be washed well, pour boiling water so that they swell a little, remove seeds from prunes. Then dried fruits should be well dried on a napkin, dried apricots and prunes cut into pieces. Before adding to the curd dough, dried fruits need to be sprinkled with flour a little.
Cottage cheese needs to be kneaded well, you can grind through a sieve. Now break sugar, eggs, salt, aromatic additives into a bowl, beat this mixture well and mix with chopped cottage cheese. If we cook cheese cakes with dried fruits, then add the prepared raisins or dried apricots.
In another bowl, mix the flour and baking powder (or baking soda), add to the curd mass and knead the dough, which should be dense enough to make balls from it.
Since we cook cottage cheese pancakes in the oven, we need to cover the baking sheet with baking paper, grease it with butter and put balls formed from cottage cheese on it. Press them with your hand on top to give them the shape of thick cakes.
Cheesecakes need to be spread away from each other, since during the baking process they will slightly increase in size. To bake cheese cottage cheese pancakes in the oven for about half an hour, setting the thermostat to a temperature of 180 degrees.
You can cook another version of this dish by putting less flour. In this case, the taste of cottage cheese will be felt brighter. But since then the curd dough will turn out to be more liquid, you need to use molds for baking small cupcakes, for example, silicone.
So, how to cook cheese cakes in the oven in molds? The recipe is practically no different from the above, only the flour should be put in half. If there is a desire to put dried fruits in cheesecakes, then it is better not to put them in the dough, but to arrange them in tins on top of the curd dough. You can also use slices of fresh fruit or berries. Cheesecakes need to be baked until they turn golden.
Both the first and second versions of cheese cakes from the oven can be served with sour cream, any sweet sauce or honey.