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.