Russian Food & Recipes - Desserts

News (30/08): 2 new recipes - Russian fruit cake and pumpkin oladi

Desserts are usually eaten after the main course or at breakfast. The favourites are:
Pancakes (bliny) – served with soured cream, honey or jam
Oladi – same as pancakes, but thicker and more feeding.
Pastries (pirozhky) – the pastries with apple are most popular
Honey (med) - honey from Altay region is considered to be the best
Tvorog - cottage cheese (or quark), usually served with honey or berry jam
Syrniki - can also be called "tvorog burgers" because they are made of tvorog and fried on a sauce-pan after. Usually eaten with honey, sweet dressings, or jam.

Dessert Recipes:
Abbreviations: ea - Each, tb - Table spoon, sm - Small, c - Cup, ts - Tea spoon, lg - Large. Recipes courtesy of RusCuisine.Com

Zapekanka
600 grams of cottage cheese, 1 egg, 6-7 table spoons of semoline (or
flour), half a glass of sugar, 1 tea spoon of baking soda neutralised with
vinegar, a bit of salt, 50 grams of sour cream, vanilla, raisins
Mix the cottage cheese with all the ingredients and put everything on a
cooking plate spread with butter. Spread sour cream on top. Cook for 40
minutes.


Russian Fruit Cake
Ingredients: 3/4 c raisins, rinsed and chopped, 3/4 c dried apricots, rinsed and chopped, 1 c mixed candied fruits, chopped, 1/2 c sherry, 1/2 c sugar, 1/2 c brown sugar, 1/3 c butter, 1 egg, beaten, 1/2 c sourdough starter, 1/2 c flour, 1/2 ts baking soda, salt, cinnamon, nutmeg, sliced almonds, 3 tbs sherry.
Method:
Combine all fruits with sherry and let stand overnight.
Cream sugars, butter and spices together until fluffy. Beat in an egg and then stir in sourdough starter. Stir in fruit mixture and almonds.Sift flour, baking soda and a pinch of salt together into batter and mix thoroughly.
Turn into a prepared loaf pan (lay a loaf pan with baking paper and grease it with oil). Bake in a preheated oven center (about 275 degree F) until done. Remove from a pan and cool well before removing paper. Sprinkle 3 tablespoons of sherry over a cooled loaf before serving.

Pumpkin Oladi
Ingredients: 500 g flour, 500 g pumpkin (grated), 2 ea eggs, 1 tb sugar, 1 ts salt, 1/2 ts baking powder, 2 tb oil
Method:
In a large bowl, combine grated pumpkin, eggs, salt, sugar, flour with baking powder. Mix thoroughly the batter. Bake olady on a preheated pan until light golden.

Syrniki recipe
Ingredients : 250 cottage cheese (tvorog) , 75 g oil to fry, 2 tb semolina flour ,3 tb sugar , 2 tb wheat flour,, 2 ea eggs
Method:
Combine all the ingredients, except flour, and knead stiff dough. Shape small balls and roll in flour. Fry in oil for 3-4 minutes every side until bright golden.

Cake "Napoleon"
Ingredients : 500 g flour , 250 g margarine , 1 ea egg , 1 tb vinegar . Icing: 1 sugar , 0,5 l milk , 2 ea eggs , 2 tb flour , 200 g butter , vanilla.
Method:
Icing: Mix sugar, eggs, flour and then pour over milk. Cook on low heat, stirring regularly, until dense. When icing cools down a little, add butter and vanilla.
Dough: cut margarine into small pieces and toss with flour until smooth. Mix egg, vinegar in 1 cup of water and add it to flour. Knead the dough until elastic and smooth. Divide the dough into 8 parts and put in the fridge for 40-60 minutes. Roll out every part very thin, put in a baking form, cut out remains, pierce with a fork and bake in a preheated oven until light golden. Bake the remains of dough until golden colour.
Spread the icing on every shortcake and on the top. Crumb the dough remains and sprinkle all the cake with them. Puy in a fridge at least for a couple of hours.

Pirozhki recipe
Ingredients : 2 1/2 c Unbleached All-Purpose Flour ,1/4 lb Butter; 1 Stick, 1/2 c Sour Cream , 3 lg Egg Yolks , 1/2 ts Salt, 1 lg Egg White; beaten with a little water for glazing
Method:
Combine the flour and cold butter in a processor or cut the butter with a
pastry cutter into coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolks, salt, and cream and
process or knead lightly until the dough forms a ball. Cut in half,
wrapping each have in plastic wrap, refigerate for at least 2 hours or
overnight. Roll out half the dough on a lightly floured work surface, to
about 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into rounds with a 3-inch cutter or wine
glass. Place a spoonful of the filling on one side of each round, fold
the top over, brush with a little of the egg glaze and seal with a fork or
pastry cutter for a fancy edge. Place each turnover on a lightly greased
or non-stick baking sheet and brush with the glaze then sprinkle with the
sugar crystals. Bake in a preheated 375 Degree F. oven for about 20 minutes. Cool on wire racks.

Grandmother's Kulich recipe
Ingredients : 1 c milk ,1/2 yeast stick, 200 g sugar, 200 g butter, 3 ea eggs, vanilin, cardamom , nutmeg , salt, white raisins , 4 c flour (more if needed)
Method:
Dissolve yeast and 1 teaspoon sugar in a small quantity of milk. As soon as the yeast mixture rises, pour in the rest of milk, beat in eggs and whip carefully. Add sugar, combined with cardamom and nutmeg, and melted butter to the mixture. Then pour in flour slowly, stirring carefully, so that there aren't lumps. It the end, stir in raisins. Then divide dough in loaf cakes, depending on the quantity and size of molds, and put in molds. Cover with a clean towel and leave to rise in the mold. It the dough is good, it usually takes 2-3 hours. After that put in a preheated oven and bake on average heat until light brown. Don't open the oven often; otherwise Kulich won't be light and fluffy. Check the readiness with a wooden stick - put it in the Kulich. If the stick is clean, the cake is ready and can be taken out.
Russian Bliny recipe
Ingredients: 1 kg flour, 2 tb sugar , 4 c milk, 1 ts salt, 3 tb butter , 40 g yeast , 2 ea eggs Method
Dissolve the yeast in 2 c of warm water and adding 500 g flour. Mix until smooth, cover with a cloth and set aside in a warm place for about an hour, or until the batter becomes bubbly. Add salt, sugar, egg yolks, melted butter and mix thoroughly. Add the rest of the flour gradually and beat up until smooth. Pour in warm milk gradually, and mix the batter thoroughly. Cover with a cloth and set aside in a warm place to rise. After the batter rises, beat until it is settled and then stir in beaten egg whites. As soon as the batter rises, cook the pancakes on a hot griddle. The batter should rise no less than 3 times.

The recipes above are taken from the website RusCuisine.Com.