Pască with cheese and sour cream

Name: Pască with cheese and sour cream
Ingredients: 450 g flour; 100 g sugar; 150 ml lukewarm milk; 2 egg yolks; 50 g melted butter; 45 ml oil; 1 packet (8 g) vanilla sugar; grated zest of 1 lemon; 7 g Dr. Oetker dried yeast; 400 g cottage cheese; 200 g sour cream; 100 g sugar; 100 g raisins; 2 tablespoons flour; 3 eggs; 1 packet (8 g) vanilla sugar; grated zest of 1 lemon; 1 tablespoon semolina; 1 egg yolk; 15 ml milk

Dessert - Pască with cheese and sour cream by Marcela J. - Recipia

Pască with cheese and sour cream, a Romanian Easter bread, has a braided sweet bread dough around the filling. In the middle is a soft cottage cheese and sour cream filling with raisins, vanilla and lemon zest. I usually use Pilos cheese from Lidl, but the loose cottage cheese I bought instead was wetter than it seemed; next time I’ll add semolina. Prep: 30 minutes. Cook: 50 minutes. Rest: 3 hours and 50 minutes. Total: 5 hours and 10 minutes. Servings: 12. Approximately 410 kcal and 11 g protein per serving.

Ingredients

For the dough

450 g flour
100 g sugar
150 ml lukewarm milk
2 egg yolks
50 g melted butter
45 ml oil
1 packet (8 g) vanilla sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon
7 g Dr. Oetker dried yeast

For the filling

400 g cottage cheese
200 g sour cream
100 g sugar
100 g raisins
2 tablespoons flour
3 eggs
1 packet (8 g) vanilla sugar
grated zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon semolina

For brushing

1 egg yolk
15 ml milk

Preparation

1. Put the lukewarm milk, melted butter, oil, 2 egg yolks, sugar, vanilla sugar, lemon zest, flour and dried yeast into the bread machine pan, in that order. Choose the kneading and rising program, for 1 hour and 30 minutes; the dough should rise and become airy. 2. Mix the yolks from the 3 eggs with the sugar and vanilla sugar. Add the cottage cheese, sour cream, flour and semolina and mix until smooth, then fold in the raisins and lemon zest. Beat the egg whites until stiff and fold them in last. 3. Heat the oven to 180 °C. Line a round cake pan with baking paper. Divide the dough in two: roll half into a circle and place it in the pan, then divide the other half in two, shape each piece into a rope and braid them around the edge. Cover the pan with a tea towel and leave the dough to rise for 20 minutes. 4. Pour the filling into the middle. Mix the egg yolk for brushing with the milk and brush the braid. Bake for about 50 minutes at 180 °C; after 40 minutes, if the edge is too brown, cover it with aluminum foil or baking paper and bake for another 10 minutes. The filling should be set and the edge golden brown. 5. Leave the pască to cool for 2 hours before cutting; if you can, wait until the next day.

Notes

A 26 cm cake pan leaves room for the braid and filling; in a smaller one, the pască will come out taller. Cottage cheese varies a lot in moisture; if it releases whey, drain it before mixing, as the filling may stay too soft. In my area, pască meant Jewish unleavened bread or the savory version made with bread dough; I only made and tasted the version with sweet bread dough later on. After the program ends, if the dough still seems dense, leave it in the bread machine pan until it has visibly risen; the time also depends on how warm the kitchen is. Sometimes the filling seems soft while the pască is warm; it sets as it cools. Keep covered in the fridge for up to 3 days. I slice it and serve it with black tea. The raisins can be replaced with 100 g dried cranberries. Pască contains gluten, dairy and eggs.