You probably recall that I blogged about my lovely friend Zsuzsa’s cottage cheese dough here, and I knew I wanted to try it in the shape of a Danish. It makes a wonderfully flaky pastry and paired with the sweetened creamed leftover cottage cheese I thought I had another winner, but I will admit defeat when I have to; the dough, although very flaky is not a ‘light’ as I had hoped and even though these little pinwheel Danishes are not huge (about 10 cm or 4 inches in diametre) they were very filling, too filling. I loved the creamed cottage cheese filling but I think I’ll try the traditional flaky butter pastry next time. I made only two of these beauties making the remaining dough into the small rugelach the dough was intended for.
Cheese Danish with Cottage Cheese Dough
Please see Zsusza’s recipe here.
Makes 18 small Rugelach, and 2 cottage cheese Danishes
Ingredients:
- 1 cup small-curd cottage cheese (I used fat free)
- 1 cup unsifted flour
- pinch of salt
- 1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
Directions:
- Spoon the cottage cheese into a sieve over a bowl lined with a unbleached coffee filter; drain for at least 2 hours, or overnight
- Remove 1/2 cup of the cheese for the dough; reserve the rest for the creamed cottage cheese filling.
- Pulse the flour and salt just to combine in a food processor (this is why you need not sift it). Add the butter to the flour pulsing on and off until the butter seems to disappear into the mixture.
- Add the cottage cheese in bits to the mixture pulsing to combine until it becomes a relatively loose dough ball.
- Divide the dough into four equal portions and shape each into a flat disc and wrap each in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 4 hours.
Rugelach Ingredients:
- 1 batch of cottage cheese dough
- 1/4 cup strained apricot jam
- 2 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup finely chopped almonds
- 1 egg yolk for glazing
Rugelach Directions:
- Pre-heat the oven to 350°F
- Once the dough is refrigerated and cooled, lightly flour your rolling area. Roll each portion into a circle about 25 cm or 8 inches in diameter. Cut into 6ths like a pie.
- Combine the chopped almonds with 2 tbsp sugar.
- Brush the dough with 1/4 of the apricot jam, sprinkle 1/4 of the almond sugar mixture on top. Starting with the wide end, roll each 6th into a little crescent, pinch the ends a bit and turn into each other. Brush with the whisked egg yolk.
- Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper (you will thank me because the jam will melt out and make a darn mess on your baking sheet). Bake 20-25 minutes until golden. store in an air tight container. These freeze particularly well. Serve either warm or at room temperature.
Creamed Cottage Cheese Ingredients:
- 1/4 cup of the reserved cottage cheese
- 1 tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp lemon zest
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla
- 1 egg yolk
Danish Directions:
- Pre-heat the oven to 350°F
- In the container for the immersion blender, add the cottage cheese, vanilla and sugar and blend until smooth. Add the egg yolk and blend well. Fold in the lemon zest. Refrigerate.
- Once the dough is refrigerated and cooled, lightly flour your rolling area. Roll two small portions into a circle about 10 cm or 4 inches in diameter. Cut as per the illustration. Add half the creamed cottage cheese to the centre and fold up one corner from each cut to the centre and pinch to seal.
- Brush the dough with 1/4 of the apricot jam, sprinkle 1/4 of the almond sugar mixture on top. Starting with the wide end, roll each 6th into a little crescent, pinch the ends a bit and turn into each other. Brush with the whisked egg yolk.
- Line two large baking sheets with parchment paper. Bake 20-25 minutes until golden. Store in an air tight container. These freeze particularly well. Serve either warm or at room temperature.
Eva, I have never heard of Danish, but you have performed once more miracles with this cottage cheese dough! I’m not sure I would have the patience and/or skills to make such a beautifully shaped thing…
I have always loved cottage/fresh cheese in pastry (I remember huge yeast buns filled with sweetened vanilla flavoured cheese similar to turo… or big yeast rolled pastry filled with cheese too…
This is bookmarked, but I will have to wait for my Hungarian friend who loves fresh cheese and who will help me not to finish the whole batch 😉 Oh, and there is also apricot jam! She will love it as much as I will (not my husband though!).
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Thank you so much Sissi, you flatter me so. The combo of the fresh cheese dough, apricot jam (how could you not love that?) and lemony, vanilla flavoured cheese is indeed heavenly.i would certainly help you if I lived near!
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I seemed to have missed the posting for this. Loving the “how to” guide. They are my favourite cheesecake in a pastry. Excellent.
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Thank you David, I’ve had WordPress reader skip posts too so fret not, and I understand that we bloggers have a life and can get busy, I know you’ll be back! That’s exactly why I like these flavours! It’s like a mini cheese cake!
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Hi Eva – thanks for the little diagram to make the pinwheel… I’d been wondering how they were made for sometime (sometimes I find it difficult to wrap my head around shapes like that, and I can see now it’s surprisingly simple!). I think I’d prefer square shapes… I like geometric neatness and points… I’m silly like that 🙂
They look amazing, so golden and tempting. These little pastries are something I’ve been meaning to try for so long – I keep seeing them all over peoples’ blogs… you’re all tempting me so!!!
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You’re very flattering Charles, thank you. I loved the shape too and I know I’ll use it again with various pastries. I lived the lemon flavoured cottage cheese too, I know I’ll make it again.
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You know, I’ve never thought to bake with cottage cheese–genius! and I love how cute these are shaped =)
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Thanks SM, Europeans use Quark or ricotta so cottage cheese is a natural.
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Oooh looking really delicious! I love the pin wheel pattern! It just spells out professional!
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Thanks Sammie, I loved the lemon flavoured cottage cheese, I’ll use that filling in something soon for sure.
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Oh my god, Eva! These look ridiculous. Cheese and lemon, yes please
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Thanks Meg.
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i love the shape! You rock my friend. These look amazing
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Thanks so much Jessica. I hope your gluten free recipes are coming along.
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Well, that’s disappointing, eh? The rugelach turned out beautifully and you’ve given us all a great tutorial for making them, so thank you so much. I had a disastrous cookie experience a few weeks ago and it can be so disappointing, I’m glad you saved the day with a different recipe:) xx
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Thanks Barbara, yes indeed the Rugelach was perfect for that particular dough texture. So sorry about your disastrous cookie experience, from your latest post, one would have never guessed!
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It was so bad.. there was nothing to photograph, lol!
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I love your plate Eva!
A beautiful blue hue and I love your pinwheel, it makes for a lovely presentation
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Thank you so much Sawsan. I used to collect plates for our other home which had an original plate rail in the dining room; my dear Mom (I do miss her) brought this back for me from Holland during a trip she made with her husband to visit her cousin. Our current home doesn’t have such a lovely plate rail to show off my gorgeous collection, but one day I will again!
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The diagram for cutting/folding was so helpful Eva. It totally helped me to picture it in my mind. Heavy or not, I could go for a few of these this evening. I’m having a terrible sweet tooth tonight. This would certainly fit the bill. 🙂
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I know how you feel Kristy, I’ve been on a low glycemic diet for the last two weeks and I’m just about ready to burst…not that I’m craving sweets, because the nature of the diet doesn’t do that, it’s texture I’m wanting…like black liquorish, can you believe it? OK, I’d go for the cherry kind too. Damn!
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Whoa, whoa, whoa there with the fancy geometric designs up on the post. You’re making this luddite’s head spin ;-). But seriously, that is one extremely cool design Eva! And even though the texture was not as flaky and light as you would have liked, I bet the overall taste was still yummy from the cheese and lemon. I look forward to your comparison with the butter pastry in the next round. Meantime, I think this is one is pretty darn neat!
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Thank you for your kind words, Kelly. It’ll be a bit before I try my hand at a butter pastry, need to watch those calories for a while!
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Oh, I LOVE the idea of a pinwheel danish (thanks for the drawing!)…especially with a cheese filling. I’ll have to play around with this idea, too! So yummy, Eva.
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Thanks Liz, I’m sure with your baking skill you would do a lot better than I! I’m looking forward to seeing some of your lovely creations.
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They are very pretty indeed Eva! I love the sound of the cheese filling too 😀 And thanks for the clear instructions on how to make the pinwheel shapes!
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Thank you for your kind and lovely words Lorraine, as usual. I will try this method again using a more traditional butter pastry for sure.
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I’m very tempted to use this recipe the next time I make my rugelach. My nephew actually commented (complained) that the regular ones I make were too ‘heavy’. 😦
It’s a shame that the pinwheel design made too large a danish for your purposes. I suppose the more traditional rectangle with the center third filled with the cheese and fruit preserves down the center (while the 2 edges are notched and folded over alternately over the filling … giving a braided look) which would require slicing into portions weren’t what you were looking for.
On a positive note, my sponge cake experiments are getting more successful.
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Thanks so much Maria, I’d be very flattered if you tried this dough that I borrowed the recipe from Zsuzsa. Your nephew sounds like he’s become a real gourmet!
I’m so glad that your sponge cakes are working out, I’m excited to see your blog posts (we’ve just had such a busy weekend!).
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Those pinwheels look perfect, and I guess, deceptively light! I can imagine how wonderful this dough would taste as rugelach, especially with the touch of apricot in there. You don’t really cook if you don’t have some failures, but your failures turn out a lot prettier than mine! 🙂
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So true, Betsy, and thank you for your lovely and encouraging words. I’ll stick to Rugelach in the future for sure.
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Well it was a good try Eva. Thanks for checking it out. I was going to do something similar and then life called and now I am dieting.
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Thanks Zsuzsa, hope your change in your diet is going well, I’m sure you can make a tasty dish even without the regular indulgences. I wish you all the best.
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I like both flakey and cottage pastries (the cottage one is very much like German Quark dough). The pinwheel looks very pretty.
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Thanks Angie, I must explore the German Quark dough and see the similarities. Thanks so much.
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Oh, poor, Eva, ending up with homemade cheese danish AND rugelach. You talented bakers suffer so! 😉
Too bad the dough didn’t work out as planned. I could just see your kitchen brimming with cheese danish and rugelach after one productive afternoon. And thanks for the pinwheel tutorial. Your pastry looks professionally made.
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Thanks so much John. I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to come off sounding like a spoiled brat, but I must say I was disappointed. On top of it all JT didn’t rave like he usually does so it was a fail. Sigh, I wouldn’t learn a thing if it wasn’t for these experiences, so I don’t mind at all.
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Eva, I was only joking, You certainly didn’t sound spoiled! Cheese Danish is my absolute favorite and although these didn’t meet your standards, I would have been thrilled with them. And then you decided to make rugelach, another favorite. Cheese Danish and rugelach, freshly homemade, on the same day. Pinch me, I must be dreaming! 🙂
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Oh I know that John! I was just teasing. I would have loved to offer you a few, because it would mean that we are close enough proximity to have coffee together and chat about our last cooking experience. This cheese dough does indeed make a lovely textured Rugelach pastry, which will be back in my kitchen soon!
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Like Barb and Maureen, I too like the pinwheel, so pretty and impressive.
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Thanks Norma, hope your weather has warmed up; our’s did and now it’s chilly and rainy again, not pretty at all. I wouldn’t blame the bulbs if they tucked back into the ground.
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I love the pinwheels and not only haven’t I made cottage cheese pastry, I’ve never heard of it. I can’t wait to play in the kitchen and try it out.
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Thanks Maureen, it’s a relatively easy pastry to make. My Mom used to make something like it so I think it’s probably European in roots.
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Very interesting. I havent made cottage cheese pastry
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It’s quite an easy pastry to make KS.
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I think cottage cheese has sometimes the false impression of being very light, when in some combinations it’s actually quite heavy. But if I had these presented to me now, I’d be happy with a few 🙂
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Thanks so much for your lovely compliment. They were tasty but I guess I had expected them to be a lot lighter.
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The pinwheel pattern sure looks pretty. I also love that blue plate Eva. Is it from somewhere special??? Great to see you on Saturday night. We both really loved the restaurant.
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Thanks Barb, yes, my Mom brought me back that plate when she and Geo went to Holland to visit her cousin. I used to have a plate rail in our old house, but this one doesn’t so I only bring it out to do special photos on!
Glad you enjoyed the restaurant. John and I really loved seeing you both too.
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