Vatrushka with Cottage Cheese: Sweet Yeast Buns Recipe

Name: Vatrushka with Cottage Cheese: Sweet Yeast Buns Recipe
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 3 h
Total time: 3 h 30 min
Cuisine: European
Ingredients: Wheat flour 4 cups; Eggs 5; Butter 100 g; Milk 1 cup; Instant yeast 1 packet (11 g); Cottage cheese 400 g; Sour cream 0.5 cup; Raisins 0.5 cup; Sugar, salt, vanilla to taste

It's hard to believe anyone here hasn't tried vatrushka with cottage cheese. For some reason, people from abroad call vatrushkas mini pizzas. And, fair enough, there is a resemblance. The way they're made is similar too.

Do you like cottage cheese vatrushkas? I simply adore them, ever since childhood. I have to admit I've never seen a square vatrushka. A vatrushka should be round and golden, with a wide rim, rich, soft and definitely sweet.

Remember those pictures in children's books: a rosy-cheeked merchant's wife by an enormous samovar, drinking tea with a huge golden vatrushka? I don't know why, but I always thought a vatrushka should be huge, big enough to hold with both hands. That goes back to early childhood, when the vatrushka our neighbours treated me to was the size of a saucer, and I took it as an insult.

Vatrushka recipes are alike and yet all different. These beloved rich buns of old Slavic and Ukrainian cuisine aren't made by the book: everyone has their own unique recipe. Vatrushkas are often called open pies, like rasstegai. The filling is cottage cheese, although you'll sometimes find mashed potatoes, berries, jam, fruit butter and even condensed milk.

The word vatrushka probably comes from “vatra”, meaning bonfire, fire, hearth. There are similar pastries, such as shanga, an open pie with potatoes or porridge, and kaymak, a sour cream pastry from Kazan.

This cottage cheese vatrushka recipe may not be unique, but the buns turn out really tasty and disappear in no time, especially with an evening cup of tea with lemon.

Ingredients

10 vatrushkas

Wheat flour 4 cups
Eggs 5
Butter 100 g
Milk 1 cup
Instant yeast 1 packet (11 g)
Cottage cheese 400 g
Sour cream 0.5 cup
Raisins 0.5 cup
Sugar, salt, vanilla to taste

Step-by-step recipe

Vatrushkas with cottage cheese are just a dough base and a cottage cheese filling, nothing complicated.
Any dough will do for vatrushkas, but yeast dough is still the best choice.
Be sure to sift the flour for vatrushkas. Flour often contains bits of grain, husks and other curious things. Sifting also makes the flour lighter and fills it with air, which matters for the dough to rise well later.
Measure out 3 cups of flour. Add 0.5 tsp of fine salt, 3 tbsp of sugar (or even more) and the yeast (instant yeast that is mixed into dry flour). Stir the flour with a fork to spread everything evenly.
In a separate bowl, mix 2 eggs and 150-160 ml of slightly warm milk.
Pour the mixture into the flour and knead the dough.
Now an important point: melt the butter, but don't let it get hot, and pour it into the dough. Keep kneading, gradually adding flour in small portions.
The dough should not stick to your hands at all and should be very elastic. Roll the dough into a ball and put it in a bowl. Cover with a thick cloth and leave in a warm place for 1 hour. During this time the dough will double in size.
Then knead the dough well and leave it under a towel for another 45 mins.
Next, divide the dough into 8-10 pieces, one for each vatrushka.
Roll each piece into a ball and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. It's worth brushing the paper with a little vegetable oil. Leave plenty of space between the pieces of dough, at least 10 cm.
Use the bottom of a glass to press a hollow into each piece of dough, aiming to end up with a flat, round shape.
In a bowl, mix the cottage cheese, vanilla, 3 tbsp of sugar, 1 egg and the washed raisins. Homemade cottage cheese is best, or full-fat store-bought. But never dry, fat-free cottage cheese.
Fill the hollows in the vatrushkas with the cottage cheese mixture so that it sits slightly higher than the dough but doesn't spill over.
In a small bowl, mix half a cup of sour cream and 2 egg yolks.
Carefully brush the whole surface of each vatrushka, filling and dough alike, with the sour cream mixture. I've often seen recipes recommend brushing the dough with egg yolk, supposedly so it browns better. Whatever you prefer.
Let the vatrushkas rest for 15 minutes while the oven heats up.
Put the baking sheet with the vatrushkas into an oven preheated to 180°C and bake for 40 minutes. Then raise the temperature to 220°C and bake for another 10 minutes so the vatrushkas turn golden. But try not to overdo it, or you'll end up eating burnt, tasteless dough with scorched filling.
I don't know whether you should wait for the cottage cheese vatrushkas to cool down. We couldn't. We made tea straight away and ate every single one. I wish you the same! Enjoy!