The modern confectionery industry offers customers several types of “Shells” cookies: from shortbread, puff and even fresh types of dough. The step-by-step recipe offered to readers in this article is special: in it this type of cookie is made from cottage cheese dough, but without eggs, which makes it more attractive for those who do not eat them. A distinctive feature: the cottage cheese for this baking can be used not only exceptionally fresh (this is important in making dumplings, casseroles and cottage cheese cakes without baking), but also slightly stale: sour, dried or too grainy. In any case, cookies from it will turn out well!
Product Description
This cookie has a shape remotely resembling a shell, for which it was called the “Shell”. The cookie recipe is based on cottage cheese dough, which swells well during baking, giving the product a convex shape, and sugar filling gives the necessary sweetness, because there is no granulated sugar in the dough itself.
As a rule, the dough for this cookie is considered close to shortbread, although some call it puff for a peculiar molding in the manufacturing process. The energy value of such a product is 348 calories per hundred grams, which ranks it as a high-calorie food.
Classic Recipe: Ingredients
The recipe for “Shells” curd cookies contains only four ingredients, although sophisticated chefs recommend adding one egg to the dough to make it more holistic so that the structure of the cookies does not suffer during baking. So what should be taken:
- 150 grams of margarine (the spread is better not to use);
- 300 grams of cottage cheese;
- 0.5 tsp soda, you can add a few grains of citric acid;
- 2-4 Art. l granulated sugar;
- 300 grams of wheat flour (the amount of flour is approximate, depending on how wet the cottage cheese is).
You should also add a pinch of salt to the dough for taste, you can introduce vanilla for flavor and an egg if there is uncertainty about the quality of the dough. In such cases, the egg provides good adhesion of the ingredients, helps to make the dough more elastic, but is not an obligatory ingredient.
How to knead the dough?
Cooking cottage cheese cookies “Shells” is simple: chopped margarine (you can grate it, it’s very convenient and fast), mix flour with soda and salt. Grind margarine with flour with your hands to the state of small oily lumps in the form of crumbs.
Pass the cottage cheese through a meat grinder or mix thoroughly with a blender so that it becomes a homogeneous consistency, and then combine it with margarine, knead a soft, plastic dough. Form a lump, wrap it in cellophane and place in the refrigerator (not a freezer!) For an hour or two. This procedure is optional, cookies can be formed immediately, but when the dough lies, it becomes more loose during baking, and the Shell cookie becomes more like puff pastry.
Product Forming
When the dough comes to condition, remove it from the bag, roll it on a table sprinkled with flour to a thickness of 0.3-0.5 cm and use a round mold with a diameter of about 8-10 cm to cut round. Also for these purposes, you can use a glass or a small cup. Dip each circle in sugar on one side and fold it in half so that granules of granulated sugar are inside.
It is necessary to try not to squeeze too much a piece of dough so as not to damage its shape. Then again do the same action, lowering half the biscuit-shell into sugar, and fold again in half. The result should be a quarter circle with a sugar center.
Bakery products
It is better to cover the baking sheet with parchment or, in extreme cases, grease it with plenty of fat. Put prepared shell cookies on it at a certain distance from each other, because during the baking process they will slightly increase in size, which means that they can stick together. Place the cookies in the oven, which was previously heated to a temperature of 200-220 degrees (depending on the quality of the oven), and bake until golden brown. This takes an average of no more than fifteen to twenty minutes. Ready-made mouth-watering cookies can be eaten still warm, it is incredibly tasty with milk or cocoa.
If you want a taste accent
For some gourmets, this type of “Shell” cookie may seem somewhat bland, because there is a category of people who adore various additives, flavors and flavor enhancers. In such cases, confectioners recommend not to get involved in synthetic (artificially created) ingredients, but to use natural ones. For example, flavored cookies from cottage cheese dough can be prepared this way:
- Mix in one dish two hundred grams of margarine and cottage cheese to a relatively uniform consistency, add two cups of sifted flour mixed with 1/2 tsp. soda. Knead the dough and leave it for an hour in a cool place, preferably wrapped in cling film, so as not to wind.
- In a small bowl, mix 60-70 grams of granulated sugar, one teaspoon of ground cinnamon and one tablespoon of poppy seeds.
- Roll out the finished dough into a thin layer, cut a glass of mug and dip one side in the previously prepared sugar mixture. Then fold it in half, dip it again in the aromatic sugar and fold it in half again. The resulting products are transferred to a baking sheet, oiled, and baked in the oven for 15-18 minutes until a slight blush.
The finished cookie has cute freckles in the form of poppy seeds and a characteristic cinnamon aroma, which gives the baking special, home-like taste and a light brown tint inside the layers.