[Sca-cooks] Russian food- vatrushki

[Stephanie Ross]

Vatroushki to Serve with Borsch

Filling:
1 lb pot cheese (I used ricotta, but you could also sieve cottage cheese)
1 tbsp sour cream
2 eggs
1/2 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt


Wrap the pot cheese in a cheesecloth and place it in a sieve with a plate
on the cheese and a weight on the plate. Leave it three or four hours to
press out the excess water. When the cheese seems quite dry, rub it through
a fine sieve. Add the sour cream. Stir until smooth. Add the sugar, salt
and eggs. Mix thoroughly. Set aside to chill one hour.

Short Pastry
2 c sifted flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 c butter
1/2 c ice water (approximately)

Sift flour and salt together; work in the butter, which should be very
cold, using the fingertips or a pastry blender until the flour resembles
course meal. Add the water to the flour mixture and stir. The dough should
be rather stiff, but this will depend somewhat on the quality of the flour
used. It may require the full cup of water. Roll out to 1/4" thickness.
Stamp out rounds about 3" across. On each round of pastry put 1 1/2 tbsp of
the cheese filling. Pat the filling flat, leaving a border of pastry. Turn
the border up and pinch in scallops. These vatrushki are like small open
tarts. Brush the cheese filling with an egg yolk diluted with 1 tbsp water,
then prick lightly with a fork and place on a lightly greased cookie sheet.
Bake 15 minutes in a hot oven, 400 degrees. Serve immediately.



I cheated and used ricotta instead of cottage cheese and used philo dough
tart shells instead of making my own. I ran out of time after making a
couple hundred piroshkis and so cut corners where I could. This recipe is
supposed to use a sour cream dough which is also used for piroshkis. I
didn't like the dough however. It was heavy but rose puffily and seemed too
doughy for my taste. Next time I will use short pastry instead. The philo
was wonderful, just not authentic.

~Aislinn~
Et si omnes ego non.

"The care of human life and happiness and not their destruction is the
first and only legitimate object of good government." --Thomas Jefferson to
Maryland Republicans, 1809.