Russian Season

To sum up things, our Christmas was wonderful. It was a very white Christmas, yet not too cold; we had a delightful dinner with my and Stano’s parents; our Christmas tree was beautiful; we all got great presents (Ivanka got the most - she’s now supplied with clothes for years ahead). Of course about one half of my gifts were food-related. I got another two Slovak cookbooks (one of which is solely about desserts and baking, wahoo), a pastry tube, funky muffin liners, and Stano gave me… maple syrup! I was in seventh heaven, because I had never seen maple syrup in Riga. And I’ve been craving crepes with maple syrup!! Well, Stano also gave me a much valuable gift, but I guess I was most emotional about the syrup… haha.

My humble collection of Slovak cookbooks

And here’s our perfect holiday morning treat: cottage cheese and apricot rolls, served warm for Christmas breakfast. We made tons of these, so we had to freeze the excess rolls - you can thaw them and easily re-heat them any time later. I loved the combination of cottage cheese and vanilla pudding in the filling - it made the filling very smooth and creamy. There’s a belief in our countries that you have to be in a good mood while baking; you could even try singing as you knead your dough… Apparently we felt very happy while kneading, because our dough kept rising and rising and rising…

Ingredients
500g all-purpose flour
40g fresh yeast
50g + 2tbsp sugar
250ml milk
75g butter, melted
1 large egg
1 small egg, slightly beaten
250g creamy cottage cheese
700ml canned apricots /home-made apricot preserves
1 tsp vanilla sugar
1 pack dry vanilla pudding (40-50g)
Pinch of salt

Makes 16 rolls

In your mixing bowl, combine yeast and a few tablespoons lukewarm milk. Stir well.

Reserve 3 tbsp melted butter for later.

Add 50g sugar to the yeast mix. Blend with a fork. Add butter, the large egg, and salt, and whisk with a fork. Add remaining milk, mix until well incorporated. Fold in flour and knead the dough until smooth. Leave the dough, covered, in a warm place to rise.

In a separate bowl, mix cottage cheese, pudding powder, 2 tbsp sugar, and vanilla sugar, and slightly whisk with a fork until smooth.

Cut apricots into halves or quarters, depending on size.

When the dough has risen, roll it and brush it with melted butter. Make a large roll and cut it into 16 slices. Place the rolls onto prepared baking sheet and make a depression in centre of each. Spoon the cottage cheese filling onto the rolls and top with apricots. Brush each roll with beaten egg. Bake at 160C/320F for 20 minutes or until ready.

Serve warm, dusted with powdered sugar.