Savory Hungarian Cheese Biscuits Pogácsa Recipe

My husband Andrei is an avid baker. Being born in Hungary he has close ties with this country and occasionally bakes Hungarian pastry. We would like to share a recipe of Pogácsa our favorite Hungarian savory cheese biscuits.



Ingredients:
- 250g cottage cheese
- 100 ml milk
- 1 level tablespoon of sugar
- 2 tsp salt
- 2 tsp yeast
- 600g flour
- Two sticks (250g) butter
- 1 cup sour cream
- 2+1 egg yolks
- 200g shredded cheddar cheese plus some more for topping



- Microwave the milk for 20-30 seconds until warm, but not hot. Add the sugar and yeast, mix, let stand for 5 minutes.
- Mix the salt into the flour.
- Mix two egg yolks with the sour cream.
- Mash the cottage cheese with a potato masher, add the milk and sour cream and mix into an even mass.
- Cut the butter to 5mm (1/4 inch) cubes, then mix it into the flour. Crumble the butter pieces with hands or with a pastry blender, until you get pea-sized pieces.
- Add the cottage cheese-milk-sour cream mass, mix quickly and make a dough ball. Don't knead or overmix. If the dough is not coming together, add more sour cream, one tablespoon at a time. Don't over-moisturize the dough.
- Let the dough stand for an hour at room temperature.
- Roll the dough out into a square ~1cm (1/2 inch) thick.
- Spread the cheese evenly over the dough.
- Roll it up tightly and let stand again for 30 minutes.
- In the mean time, preheat the oven to 200C (400F), line two cookie sheets with parchment paper and lightly grease with spray oil.
- Roll the dough out into a long rectangle ~2cm (1 inch) thick.
- Cut out the pogácsa biscuits using a 4-5 cm (1.5-2 inch) round pastry cutter and carefully place them on the sheets.
- You can collect and combine the leftover dough, roll it out and cut again. The resulting "second round" biscuits won't be as pretty as the first ones, but they will taste just as great!
- Brush the biscuits with the remaining egg yolk.
- Top each biscuit with a pinch of shredded cheese (optional).
- Bake the pogácsa the hot oven for 20-25 minutes, until golden brown.

Enjoy!

Orange poppy seed cake recipe

While living in New York City we became huge fans of Sweet Melissa cafe located in Carroll Gardens, Brooklyn. It turns out there is a book that has all the recipes of the amazing pastry we used to eat in Sweet Melissa. We couldn't resist buying the book. My husband Andrei is an avid baker. The first recipe from the book he tried was orange poppy seed cake. Coming from Eastern Europe we love pastry with poppy seeds!

To bake the cake we will need:
1 whole orange; 1 cup of sugar; 3 eggs; 12 tablespoons (1 and 1/2 sticks) of welted unsalted butter; 1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour; 2 and 1/4 teaspoons of baking powder; 3/4 teaspoons of salt; 1 tablespoon of poppy seeds

After we bake the cake we will cover it in a glaze. To make the glaze we will need:
2 tablespoons fresh orange juice; 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice; 1/4 cup sugar

We start with cutting an orange into pieces and removing the stem. In a bowl mix the orange (skin and pulp) pieces with 1/2 cup of sugar until pureed. Make sure no large pieces of orange remain.

In a large bowl whisk together the remaining 1/2 cup of sugar and eggs then add the orange puree and the melted butter. In a separate bowl whisk together the flour, baking powder, salt and poppy seeds. Gently combine both mixtures.

Preheat your oven to 350F.

Pour the mixture into the loaf pan. Bake for 50 - 60 minutes until a wooden skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean. Remove from the pan and let the cake cool.

For the glaze simmer orange juice, lemon juice and sugar in a small saucepan for about 3 minutes. With a pastry brush apply the hot glaze over the cake while the cake is still a bit warm.

Enjoy!

Coconut Macaroons recipe

These yummy and simple to make coconut macaroons were baked by Andrei Utkin. An inspiration came from David Lebovitz recipes book "Ready for Dessert".

You will need:
8 egg whites
2 and 1/2 cups sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons honey
5 cups dried unsweetened shredded coconut
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a large saucepan we mix together egg whites, sugar, salt, honey, coconut, flour and vanilla. We cook the mixture gently over a medium-low heat until the bottom just begins to sizzle. Let the mixture cool a bit.

Preheat the oven to 350 F. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or silicone baking mats. With your fingers form 1 and 1/2 inch pyramids out of the mixture and place them on the baking sheets.

Bake, rotating the baking sheets midway during baking, until the macaroons are evenly deep golden brown, about 20 minutes. Let macaroons cool on the baking sheets.
The recipe makes about 60 macaroons.

Sponge Cake with custard and fruits on top

I would like to share a recipe for a very easy, yummy and beautiful sponge cake with custard and fruits.

For the sponge cake you will need:
- a few kiwis
- a pack of strawberries
- a pack of Dr. Oetker's organic custard
- 4 eggs
- 1 cup of sugar
- 1 cup of flower

I start with mixing eggs, sugar and flour together. Since my recipe is an easy one I don't complicate the process by mixing eggs with sugar first and later carefully adding flour. I mix everything right away. You won't get a pie 5 inches tall but you'll still get a nice cake! It takes good 15 minutes to mix everything up well. The goal is to double or triple the original volume of the mixture.

I bake the mix for around 30 minutes at 365F and when the pie is ready I let it cool and cut it horizontally in half. While my mix is in the oven I cut fruits and prepare Dr. Oetker's custard.

After the pie is cool and cut I pour warm custard on one half, cover it with the second half, pour the rest of the custard on top and nicely arrange pieces of fruits on the very top. After 30 minutes our cake is ready! Bon Appetite!



For those who like baking I would like to share a link to a recipe of a pizza with anchovies and blue cheese . I recently came across the recipe on a blog of Lana living in Argentina. I've never bakes anything like that before. It sounded super yummy and will be my next baking project!