Estonian Sweet Curd Pudding that melts in your mouth (Estonian: Suus sulav kohupiimavorm)

Estonian sweet curd pudding melts in your mouth

A long Easter weekend in Switzerland with two public holidays, enough time to colour eggs, eat fish and meat, make some curd desserts. The farmers´ market on Saturday morning was full of beautifully decorated eggs. The lady at my usual egg stand almost charged me double for my plain white eggs, thinking I had filled my carton with their painted masterpieces. The most common Estonian way is to dye Easter eggs with onion skins. You can find other Estonian Easter recipes on NAMI-NAMI food blog, written by another Estonian food fan.

Sweet curd desserts are quite popular during Easter in some countries. In Switzerland probably less so, but further north definitely. This year, Easter is so early that winter is still in its full arctic reign across most of Europe. I want to share a simple secret recipe for the irresistible indulgence for two in front of the fireplace or under the duvet during the snowy and rainy days. If you are generous, the recipe will stretch itself to be divided into three portions but four would be pushing it. For a party of four double the quantity.

These pudding bites disappeared in less than 5 minutes

Sweet Curd Pudding 
Ingredients:

750g low fat curds (German: Magerquark)
180g  sour cream (12-15% fat)
3 eggs
4 tbsp fine wheat semolina
1 tbsp flour
0.5 teaspoon baking powder
6 tbsp sugar
vanilla extract or contents of half the pod

Preheat the oven to 175° Celcius (350F).

Mix everything in a big bowl. Select either a round, square or a loaf shape baking tin. Prepare the baking form covering the bottom and sides with baking paper.

The shape of the baking form is totally up to you

Bake for 45-60 minutes or even longer until the pudding has hardened. The cooking time depends on the thickness, the thicker the dough in the form the longer the baking time.

Serve hot or cold, for an extra portion of sweetness dust with sugar (and cinnamon) or serve with some fresh raspberries or black currants.

Serve most of the curd pudding warm or cold, but definitely try a hot slice straight from the oven

More curd dessert ideas:
Sweet curd balls (Estonian: kohupiimapontshikud)

Cinnamon and apple rolls

Cinnamon and apple rolls

Cinnamon rolls have a certain cult status in the North of Europe. Whether it comes from the childhood experience or reading Astrid Lindgren´s books or just from having a whole raft of baked sweet cinnamon and yeast dough combinations as part of the everyday life, they are definitely on the list of "Happy foods". Perhaps like the famous Argentinian "alfajores" are for the Argentinians and wider South Americans. A similar feel good smily feeling arises with the well known "pasteis de nata" from Portugal.

Hereby I allow myself a brief digression from food to language. Namely, there is a word "küpsetis" in Estonian that denotes anything baked. I could use it as "kaneeliküpsetis" meaning anything baked with cinnamon without specifying the form of it. I struggle to find an appropriate quivalent in English. It is fine to be specific with "cinnamon rolls, cinnamon loaf, cinnamon cake, cinnamon-apple rolls, cinnamon biscuits, cinnamon sticks, etc, etc. The trouble arises when I am short of a word thinking I would like something baked with cinnamon when I haven´t quite yet decided in what form that baked someting with cinnamon should look like today. This is four words in the attempt of just wanting to say "kaneeliküpsetis". I suppose the dilemma is another example of the Estonian language being rather economising and not wasteful of words and therefore not as lavish in synonyms.

Cinnamon and apple rolls
Ingredients (makes 8-10)
25g fresh yeast
2 tsp sugar
a pinch of salt
1 dl warm (not hot) milk
1dl warm water
1 dl rape seed oil
200g + 80g flour (plain or whole wheat/German "halbweiss")
1 egg, beaten

Filling:
20g soft butter
2 sweeter apples, seeds removed, grated
cinnamon
10 tbsp sugar

Mix yeast, sugar and salt until the yeast becomes liquid. Add warm milk, warm water, cooking oil and fold in the flour for a few minutes until a smooth dough is formed. Leave to raise under two tea towels in a warm place without draft. When the dough has raised for an hour fold in the rest of the flour and leave to raise again under the towel for 45 minutes.

Yeast dough

Preheat the oven to 200° Celcius.
 
Place the dough on a floured surface and spread it thin either by hand or using a rolling pin.The dough should be about 5-7mm thin. Not too thin as you want to spread the soft butter on the dough now without breaking it. Then sprinkle sugar and a generous amount of cinnamon on the dough. spread the grated apples on the dough and from one seide lengthwise start to roll the dough into a long roll.Cut the long roll into 3-4cm thick slices and place them on a baking tray or into small baking forms. I buttered the forms slightly. leave to raise for 10 minutes.
Brush the rolls with egg.

Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes until golden on the top.

Generous amount of cinnamon is key in these apple rolls

Enjoy warm or cold.

More from the Cinnamon Bakery:
Red Beetroot Cinnamon Rolls
Cinnamon Loaf

Carrot and fresh goat´s cheese pie

Carrot and goat´s cheese pie

I took a trip to the farmers´market to get my next dosage of carrots.  The farmer with the Egyptian pyramid hat has such sweet carrtos, even though they are stored over winter they are addictively fresh and crunchy even at the end of March. The decision of a carrot pie with goat´s cheese was taken when the young cheese maker handed me the piece of fresh goat´s cheese. I had been eyeing that cheese for a few times thinking what to pair it with. Some stronger and saltier cheese and herbs de Provance type of flavours would do the trick...with some darker flour.

Ingredients for the pie filling

Ingredients:
15g fresh yeast
1 tsp sugar
a pinch of salt
1 dl warm milk
1 dl warm water
0.5 dl rape seed oil
150g dark wheat flour ("Ruchmehl" in Switzerland)
80g whole wheat flour 

Filling:
400g boiled carrot, crushed
200g fresh goat´s cheese
50g hard cheese like Grana Padano or Parmesan, grated
black pepper from the mill
thyme leaves

0.5 egg, beaten

Mix the yeast with sugar and salt until liquid, then add the water, milk, oil and flours and combine. Cover the dough with kitchen towels and leave the dough to raise for about one hour.

Boil the carrots in salt water, cool down, remove the peel and crush with a fork. I like a rustic slightly coarser bite. For a smooth filling crushing the carrots in a food processor will do the job.

Heat the oven to 200 degrees Celsius
Cut the goat´s cheese into small pieces, and together with the grated hard cheese, pepper and thyme add to the carrots. Taste for salt.

The filling spread on the dough

Spread the dough on a flour dusted table or counter and place the carrot mix on the dough. Roll lengthwise together. Cover the baking tray with baking paper and place the pie on the tray. Brush the pie with the egg mixture and bake in the oven for 30 min.

Carrot pie with thyme, and two cheeses

Serve the pie warm or cold with tea or milk

For more try also  Carrot pie with chunky parmesan