What is famous for curd Easter? Cottage cheese according to Christian canons is an integral element of the festive table, symbolizing the "milky thickened" of the promised land. In ancient times, cottage cheese was a sacred dish, eating which, people worshiped the deities of fertility. Since it is customary to celebrate Easter for 40 days, our recipes will add variety to the daily menu, becoming a table decoration.
More than food
In ancient times, not a single main rite was complete without cottage cheese, be it the first plowing of the land or the rites of salutation. Cottage cheese was considered the highest creation, the essence of food and the crown of good for man. In addition, our ancestors do not beg for cottage cheese as a daily meal. Hence the tradition to eat this royal meal exclusively on holidays. Over the years, priorities have changed, but the symbol of blessed food, which is a curd Easter, remained.
Oven baked Easter recipe
This type of Easter is baked in the oven like an Easter cake and has a taste reminiscent of cottage cheese pudding. It is better to purchase a pasochnitsa - a special form for holiday pastries. The dish in it turns out beautiful and festive. If for some reason there is no form for the curd Easter, you can replace it with special paper molds for Easter cakes. However, in this case, you need to be prepared for the fact that the paper adheres strongly to Easter. When it comes to slicing a festive dish into portions, all the beauty will have to be ruined. In the meantime, baked Easter can spend several days in the refrigerator until the holiday.
Curd Easter
Ingredients:
- fat cottage cheese - 1.250 g;
- wheat flour (semolina) - 150 g;
- granulated sugar - 1 cup;
- perfect eggs - 10 pieces;
- high fat cream - 80 g;
- raisins, candied fruit - 4 tablespoons each.
Cooking dough
Since fresh natural cottage cheese has characteristic grains, wipe it through a sieve or try to give uniformity with a blender. When the lumps are broken, add sugar to the cottage cheese, pour a cream, and also the sifted flour. Mix everything thoroughly. Those who love semolina can safely substitute flour for it.
We take the eggs and separate the yolks from the proteins. Curd Easter in the oven, the recipe of which we are now mastering, will turn out to be especially tender and enriched with oxygen, if we whip and knead the yolks and squirrels for the festive baking.
First, beat the yolks to lush foam and add half of the resulting curd mass to them. Then we will do the same with proteins. We will build a thick mass of them and add the remains of the curd dough. Proteins, unlike yolks, will have to be mixed with the rest of the ingredients with extreme caution.
We connect the contents of both containers and gently knead with a wooden spatula. Then add candied fruits and raisins. The more air bubbles penetrate into the curd mass when kneading - the better for the finished dish.
Put the dough in the form
So, the time has come to put the resulting tender dough in the pasochnitsa or in special paper cups. Before laying the dough, the form for the curd Easter should be greased with butter. When we pour the dough, it is necessary to ensure that the conical shape or paper cups are not filled more than ¾ of the volume. During baking (40 minutes per one large form), the mass will just rise to the top of the mold. The oven should already be preheated to 180 degrees, we will not need a higher temperature. If your form is paper and the capacity is small, then, accordingly, the baking time can be reduced to 30 minutes. Curd Easter, baked in paper form, reached the point where when you press your hands on the sides you feel a solid density. It so happens that the top of the Easter cake begins to acquire a characteristic golden hue long before the expiration of time. In this case, you can resort to a little trick: cover the cake with foil. Plain parchment white paper will also work. In this case, the curd Easter in the oven will have time to bake properly, but the top will not burn.
After the time specified in the recipe for cooking expires, and the cake is removed from the oven, do not rush and immediately remove it from the mold. Ready-made Easter cottage cheese should stand in the mold for at least another hour and a half. Until this moment, it is categorically impossible to disturb and decorate Easter cake.
How can I decorate?
We have come to the final stage. Curd Easter in the oven thoroughly rose and baked, even managed to cool. Now you can decorate our holiday dish. There are an incredible number of options for decoration, it all depends on the imagination of the chef and his creative inspiration. For glaze, melted sugar, as well as white and dark chocolate, are suitable. On top of the glaze, the holiday dish is additionally sprinkled with crushed nuts, candied fruits or culinary colored sprinkles. Also on sale there are various decorations for Easter cake made of colored glaze. Go for it and decorate!
Curd Easter before serving should stand and soak properly, so the dish should be prepared on the eve of the holiday, at least one day in advance. To make festive pastries especially soft and airy, it is better to store them in the refrigerator.
Royal dishes
We have already said that in the old days cottage cheese as the main dish, as well as as an ingredient in various pastries, was exclusively available to royal people. Nowadays, cottage cheese is available to everyone, without exception, but the name of some dishes has been fixed for them since those time immemorial. Now we will learn how to cook such a dish as royal cottage cheese Easter, with the usual components, but with an unusual name.
One of the main attributes of the festive table
It is impossible to imagine a festive Easter table without the three main attributes: colored eggs, Easter cakes and Easter cottage cheese. If you are not strong in the “royal” baking, we offer you what’s called to get your hand up, work out and hone your culinary skills. Here is a list of the ingredients we need:
- fat cottage cheese -1 kg;
- chicken egg - 5 pieces;
- sour cream - 400 g;
- granulated sugar - 1/5 cup;
- butter - 200 g;
- vanillin - 1 sachet;
- walnuts or almonds - 50 g;
- candied fruits, raisins - 50 g each
Curd custard Easter is prepared, as we see, without flour. All the ingredients, like pudding, will be cooked in a saucepan. The festive dish will have an unusually delicate and sweet taste. We get the oil in advance from the refrigerator and bring it at room temperature to a state of softness.
Cooking mass
So that the curd custard Easter gets a homogeneous structure, wipe the curd through a sieve and get rid of the lumps. Add the softened butter, eggs, granulated sugar and sour cream to the cottage cheese. Knead the mass to a state of uniform consistency.
Preheating process
Now comes the most crucial moment, from which you should not be distracted even for a minute. We spread the tender curd mass in a stewpan or in another enameled bowl and put on fire. We begin to stir the composition to avoid burning. The royal cottage cheese should go to a boil, but at the same time not lose its taste. As soon as the mass begins to boil, immediately remove the composition from the fire and cool. If we did everything right and stirred regularly, then there would be no sign of burning at the bottom of the pan.
When the Easter curd (royal) has cooled, you can add the rest of the ingredients: vanillin, crushed nuts and raisins with candied fruits. Not everyone likes to use candied fruits in the preparation of such a dish. In this case, you can omit this component.
We form Easter
Now let's give our holiday dish a beautiful shape. To do this, take the pasochnitsa and put inside a moist sterile gauze. On top of the cheesecloth, put the curd into the mold , thoroughly crushing it. In order for the Easter curd to form, you must place a load on top. This can be an ordinary saucer, on which an additional glass of water is placed. A custard festive dish also needs to be prepared the day before, since it takes at least a day to give it its original form.
Ease of preparation
Easter cottage cheese royal does not take much time from the hostess in the kitchen. This dish is both tasty and significant for all Christians at the same time. In addition, such an Easter is not a sin to show guests, let them be surprised.
Great-grandmother's recipe
In every home, Easter cottage cheese in the oven is baked according to its own traditions. For years, people have adapted well-known recipes to their taste preferences. We bring to your attention one of these many adaptations. As ingredients you will need:
- fresh cottage cheese - 1 kg;
- starch - 1 cup;
- granulated sugar - 1 cup;
- egg yolks - 5 pieces;
- chicken eggs - 5 pieces;
- butter - 150 g;
- sweet raisins - 1 cup;
- walnuts -1 cup;
- lemon zest;
- vanillin.
We remember that curd Easter is prepared only from soft butter. Therefore, we get oil from the refrigerator in advance. At this time, prepare the ingredients used in the dish. To begin with, well wash the raisins in a colander. Then chop the walnuts in a mortar or using a rolling pin. Cottage cheese can be rubbed through a sieve or scrolled through a meat grinder.
Cooking dough
Curd Easter is cooked in a certain sequence. First, in the grated curd we introduce the oil, which stood at room temperature. Mix the mass properly. In a separate bowl, beat the chicken eggs with sugar. You can use a mixer or blender. In the process of whipping, pour a pinch of vanillin, lemon zest and starch into the mass. All the time we do not stop whipping. We combine the egg and cottage cheese masses, add raisins and crushed walnuts. Do not whisk, but mix with a wooden spatula.
The curd Easter in the oven, the recipe of which we offer you, will turn out to be very magnificent, so we will fill the mass in the form only half the volume. Do not forget to grease the form with butter. Ideally, oily parchment paper should be placed under the dough - so the finished Easter cottage cheese will be easily removed from the mold. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees and infuse depending on the volume of the form from an hour to a half. We hope you will like our curd Easter (photo is in the review) and will become the main element of the annual holiday table.