There are days when there are still many days left until the salary, nothing worthwhile from the products is gone, but painfully you want sweets. It is in such cases that the Poor Student pie comes to the rescue, like a magic genie from a famous advertisement: a few light passes and voila - pastries on the table. The preparation is so simple that even a schoolboy can easily bake it, and a set of products fully justifies the name of the cake.
Name history
According to the unspoken version, this simple baking was named so because in the difficult days of perestroika, it was difficult for students of higher educational institutions (especially nonresident) to buy food. Food problems were very acute. But when you consider that student ingenuity and optimism are unlimited, sometimes amazing ideas were born on the sidelines of the community, even in the kitchen, and the Poor Student cake with jam is proof of this.
From simple and frankly cheap products, resourceful experimenters built a cake that was amazing in taste and simplicity, which can easily turn into a cake if the cream is additionally used.
Essential Ingredients
The recipe for the Poor Student pie is absolutely universal, as its main components can be replaced by similar ones.
- 1 glass of any pitted jam, jam and jam will also work. Also, the variety of jam will determine the color of the future cake: plum, blueberry, currant will give a darker shade, and raspberry, apple or cherry - lighter. Fans of this unpretentious baking claim that apricot jam produces the most delicious result.
- 1 cup of kefir, if not, then you can replace with fermented baked milk, yogurt and even sour milk. Some users tried to cook the dough even with fresh milk: the cake seemed to be not bad, but not as lush as on kefir.
- about 3 cups of wheat flour. The amount depends not only on gluten in the grain of wheat, but also on the density of jam.
- 1-2 eggs.
- 120-150 grams of granulated sugar.
- 1 tsp without top soda.
Cooking dough
Mix the jam with sugar in a wide bowl, add soda and mix well. Literally immediately, the mass begins to foam, rise, this is an indicator that the acidic environment of the jam has reacted with alkaline - soda, thanks to this the cake becomes splendid when baked.
Let the mass stand for five minutes, and then pour in the milk product and mix again. It is on kefir that the “Poor Student” pie turns out to be the most magnificent and airy, to match the biscuit. Beat the eggs in a small bowl with a fork to a uniform consistency, add to the dough, and then send the sifted flour there: 1/2 strass from the whole portion, and then a little the rest. This is done so that the dough does not turn out too thick or, conversely, liquid, because its condition depends on the density of the jam and the dairy product. Ideally, the dough for the Poor Student pie should look like thick sour cream: swim slightly, but not be as liquid as jelly.
The subtleties of baking
It is better to take the baking dish with the hole in the middle - the cake will bake faster and will have a beautiful appearance, also figured silicone molds are well suited for this. Baking is easily removed from them and does not stick. Lightly grease the mold with oil, place on a baking sheet and pour the dough into it, if necessary, leveling the surface of the future Poor Student pie with a spoon.
Send to the oven, preheated to a temperature of 180-190 degrees. Baking time depends on the thickness of the cake, so after the first forty minutes it should be checked periodically with a wooden toothpick, piercing the dough to the bottom: it should be dry. It is also not recommended to open the oven doors in the first half hour of baking, as the airy and tender dough can settle, turning a delicious cake into a “rubber” layer. Cool the finished cake on a wire rack, and then decorate as you wish.
Decoration of the finished dish
When the cake is completely cooled, it can be plentifully sprinkled with powdered sugar, justifying the name. If the assortment contains thick jam (orange or strawberry), then you can put it in a thin layer on top of the cake. A “poor student” can become richer if the cake is cut lengthwise into two layers and interlayed with sour cream.
It is also simple to prepare it: beat one glass of sour cream or heavy cream with a mixer into lush foam, gradually adding 1/2 cup of powdered sugar mixed with a pinch of vanilla. Cover the top of the pie with the rest of the cream and sprinkle lightly with chopped walnuts. Not a pie, but a sight for sore eyes!
“Very poor student”
How to make a pie if there is not even milk, not to mention eggs and sour cream? The answer is for vegans who do well without these foods:
- Brew 1 tbsp. l black tea in 250 grams of boiling water, after 5 minutes strain through a strainer and dissolve in it 150 grams of sugar and 4 tbsp. l any jam.
- Mix 280 grams of wheat flour with 1 tsp. baking powder, add ground cinnamon (1 \ 3 tsp) and the same amount of ginger.
- Combine the sweet tea leaves with 90 grams of vegetable oil, add the flour and spices to them and knead the dough. If there are nuts or dried fruits, add a whole handful, the taste of this will become even better.
Transfer the dough into a greased form and send to the oven to bake at a temperature of 180 degrees. This takes about forty minutes (we check as usual: with a wooden stick). Pie in this interpretation is less lush than kefir, but at the same time quite tasty. A special privilege of this dessert is that the pie can be prepared during the days of Christian Lent, when the fermented products of animal origin are not eaten.