Sunday, August 29, 2010

Raspberry Cottage Cheese Danishes





I'm not Jewish and I'm ashamed to say that I'm not sure what the rules around Kosher eating are. That is a whole world I've never been exposed to. Regardless, I picked this book up because it had one of my favorite bakers' names on it: Marcy Goldman of betterbaking.com and a CANADIAN!!! I didn't pay much attention to the food rules of the recipes and their Kosherness, I just tried the ones that looked good to me, as I would any other recipe book.

I was pretty impressed with this recipe that uses cottage cheese both in the dough and in the filling. She calls for "Dry Curd Cottage Cheese" which I have sometimes heard referred to as Baker's Cheese. I didn't have that so I strained regular cottage cheese in a sieve in the fridge for a few hours and it worked well.

The pastry is scone-like and the filling is danish-like. You don't even need the jam if you prefer, however, I think it adds a pretty splash of color. These are lower in fat than regular danishes because isn't cottage cheese 2% fat max? The best part - you won't even be able to tell there's cottage cheese in there.



Raspberry Cottage Cheese Danishes
Makes 24 | Treasury of Jewish Baking

2 1/2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 cup sugar
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butter, very cold, cubed
1 cup dry cottage cheese (I drained it for a few hours in a sieve)
2 tsp lemon zest
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp lemon juice

4oz cream cheese
1 cup dry cottage cheese
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp lemon zest
1 egg
pinch salt
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp flour
1/2-3/4 cup raspberry jam

1. Dough: In a food processor pulse dry ingredients together. Pulse in butter cubes to form pea sized chunks. Add cottage cheese and process to form a soft dough. Blend in zest, vanilla and lemon juice then transfer to a bowl, wrap in plastic and refrigerate 3 hrs or up to overnight. No need to wash the food processor bowl before the next step.
2. Filling: In a food processor, process cottage cheese and cream cheese until very smooth. Stir in remaining filling ingredients. It will be thick. Refrigerate.
3. Assembly: Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment or silicone liners.
Roll out 1/2 of chilled dough into a 10" square. Cut both squares in half - you will have 4 rectangles of dough. Transfer rolled dough onto the cookie sheet then spread filling down the centre of each rectangle, leaving a 1 inch border. Dot raspberry jam down the middle on top of the cheese filling.
Bring the edges up around the filling and pinch together. You will have 4 rolls in all. Freeze for 10-15 minutes to firm the dough up then cut into 2-3" pastries. Be gentle so the filling doesn't spill out. Separate them slightly on the baking sheet so they are not like a log.
4. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. The seams where you joined the pastry might split but they will still look pretty and taste great.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a great recipe Tia, I love that cottage cheese was used. I look for Canadian cookbooks too. Thank you for participating in my Cookbook Sundays. These look scrumptious!!!

Unknown said...

They are perfect little danishes, thanks for sharing

Anonymous said...

These look so good! Thanks for the tip on straining the cottage cheese.

Unknown said...

Wow Tia, these look really good

scrambledhenfruit said...

Yum! These would be delightful with a cup of tea- thanks!