I love these cheesecakes for their wonderful shape - they are so cute! Once I baked round cheesecakes and such - so first I ran out of these, and only then the round ones. So, as it turned out, the presentation of the dish matters, and even more than it seemed at first.
Kefir - 1.5 cups;
Eggs - 3 pcs. + 1 yolk for greasing;
Sugar - 3 tablespoons;
Dry yeast - 1 heaped tablespoon;
Butter - 150 grams;
Salt - 1.5 teaspoons;
Flour;
Cottage cheese - 300 grams;
Egg - 1 pc.;
Salt;
Dill greens - 1/2 bunch. 
Let's start with the filling. Mash the cottage cheese thoroughly with a fork and beat in the egg. Add salt and mix well. 
Add chopped dill. 
Mix everything well. The filling is ready. You don't have to add dill if you don't like it. 
Dissolve the yeast in warm kefir, beat in the eggs and mix well (you can use a mixer or blender. 
Add salt and sugar and mix again. 
Pour in melted butter, stir. 
Gradually add flour. First add 1 cup. 
Mix with a spoon. 
When it becomes difficult to knead with a spoon, continue kneading with your hands on the table, adding flour. 
The dough should be homogeneous, but not very stiff. Cover and place in a warm place for 1-2 hours. 
Then grease your hands with vegetable oil and divide the dough into small balls. Roll each ball into a small cake and use a sharp knife to make 2 parallel slits along the edges. 
Place the filling in the middle between the slots and insert one edge into the slot on the opposite edge. In turn, pull the opposite edge to the other side. 
Spread the edges nicely. Place the cheesecakes on a baking sheet greased with vegetable oil. 
Separate the yolk into a separate container and break it thoroughly with a fork. 
Brush the cheesecakes with yolk. Can be placed in the oven for baking. 
This will take approximately 30 minutes. Temperature 180 degrees. If you do not eat it right away, it is best to store it in the refrigerator, covered with cling film. You can then reheat it in the microwave until warm - very tasty!
Cheesecakes with cottage cheese and kefir are prepared so quickly that your guests who suddenly appear on the doorstep won’t even have time to blink an eye.
In less than an hour, delicious pastries will already be on the serving platter and beckoning, exuding a breathtaking aroma.
Kefir cheesecakes are formed from dough without yeast or with their presence, but be prepared for the fact that in the second case, baking will require a little more effort and time from you.
After all, everyone knows: yeast dough must rise and become airy, and for this you need to create comfortable conditions around it with a temperature of 25-30 degrees and wait an hour and a half.
Recipe for cheesecakes with cottage cheese and dried apricots
Yeast-free kefir dough is very easily formed into a wide variety of culinary products.
This time we will try to bake cheesecakes from it with curd filling, in which we should put finely chopped dried apricots. Instead, the recipe involves using raisins, marmalade, candied fruits and other sweets.
You can not restrain your culinary fantasies and even add a mixture of additives to the cottage cheese.
Ingredients for the dough: two glasses of kefir; 200 g butter; a pinch of salt; 2 eggs; 2 full spoons of sugar; 0.8 kg regular flour; 1 teaspoon of baking powder (can be replaced with soda - 0.5 teaspoon, extinguishing it with vinegar).
The filling consists of: half a kilogram of cottage cheese; half a glass of chopped dried apricots; 3 tablespoons of sugar and two eggs.
Recipe for making cheesecakes with cottage cheese:
- Remove the butter from the refrigerator and cut it into cubes directly in the bowl.
- Add granulated sugar and rub the mixture with a spatula.
- Beat in the eggs, then add slightly warm kefir.
- When the mass becomes homogeneous, as in the photo, start adding flour. Be sure to sift it so that the dough is more airy and has no lumps.
- Cover the bowl where you place the dough with cling film and place it in the refrigerator. After lying there for half an hour, the dough will become elastic and easy to mold.
- While the dough is resting, make the filling. To do this, pass the cottage cheese (it should be dry to the touch) through a meat grinder or blend it with a blender. Beat in the eggs, then add granulated sugar and mix until smooth. Wash the dried apricots, dry them and chop them into small cubes with a knife. Combine all components.
The next stage of preparation begins with kneading the kefir dough and dividing it into small pieces. Then:
- Use your hands to form a cake.
- Make a well in the center and place a spoonful of curd filling into it.
- Cover the baking tray with baking paper, it will prevent the baked goods from sticking to the bottom, lay out the cheesecakes.
- To give baked goods a shiny crust, I recommend brushing the surface with egg yolk mixed with a little water.
- The products are baked on the middle shelf in an oven preheated to 200 degrees. Watch the bottom of the baked goods; if they burn, move the baking sheet to the upper position.
In general, cheesecakes with cottage cheese should be ready in 20-25 minutes.
Homemade recipe for cheesecakes made from yeast dough with curd filling
At home you can bake a delicious treat for tea, just knead the dough correctly and buy high-quality cottage cheese. It should not be wet, otherwise the cheesecakes will not bake well or even fall apart at high temperatures.
Prepare the necessary products, which include: 100 ml of water; 250 ml kefir; 10 g dry yeast; 500-550 g white flour; 60 ml oil; 40 g sugar; half a teaspoon of salt and 1 egg.
Filling: 500 g cottage cheese; egg; sugar.
You will also need: vegetable oil to grease the baking sheet and an egg to apply to the surface of the products before baking.
Cooking recipe:
First make the dough: heat the water, add yeast and granulated sugar. Stir the mixture and leave it to ferment for 15 minutes. When the surface of the dough is covered with a foamy “cap,” it is ready and you can continue working with it. The procedure is as follows:
- Heat the kefir, mix it with vegetable oil, salt and beaten egg.
- Pour in the dough.
- Sift the flour and add it little by little into the bowl with the rest of the ingredients.
- Knead a soft dough and place it in a warm place, placing it in a bowl and wrapping it in cling film.
- After an hour and a half, the kefir mixture will become airy and increase in volume. It needs to be kneaded and left alone for another 40 minutes.
- Without wasting time, prepare the filling by mixing mashed cottage cheese, granulated sugar and egg.
- Remove the dough from the bowl, punch it down and divide into portions.
- Give each of them the shape of a flat cake, press the center with your fingers (see photo) and put the curd filling in the recess.
- Place the cheesecakes with cottage cheese on the deco and place in a warm place without drafts, give them time to proof. After half an hour, the deco can be sent to the oven, which do not forget to preheat to two hundred degrees. Take care of the appearance of the finished baked goods and brush the cheesecakes with a raw egg before putting the baking sheet in the oven. To ensure that it lays on the surface in an even thin layer, beat it a little with a fork.
The cheesecakes with cottage cheese will be ready in 25 minutes, make sure that they are covered with a golden crust.
My video recipe
There are several assumptions why cheesecakes are called that way, but none of them has confirmed evidence. The main version is that the name comes from the word vatra - in many Slavic languages it means fire or hearth, and vatrushka means small fire or daughter of fire. However, this is probably not that important. The main thing is that the recipe for making this simple, but tasty and satisfying pie has reached us.
Cheesecakes are baked from almost any dough - puff pastry, shortbread, unleavened. But the classic is considered to be yeast bread prepared without steaming. The most popular filling is cottage cheese. If it is sweet, raisins, vanilla sugar, dried apricots, berries or fruits are added to it. Fried onions or fresh herbs are mixed into the unsweetened filling. If the cottage cheese is wet, you must first squeeze it out and then mix it with eggs or yolks. Cheesecakes are greased with sour cream, egg or milk-egg mixture and baked. Plump, rosy pies, taken out of the oven, look very attractive and appetizing.
Cheesecakes with cottage cheese - food preparation
In order to bake real Russian cheesecakes, you need to use premium flour with a high gluten content. You need to sift it, and then knead the dough, then the cheesecakes will turn out more fluffy and bake faster. Only fresh ingredients are used for baking. But if the cottage cheese is slightly sour, the situation can be corrected. It must be mixed with milk, left for a couple of hours and allowed to drain. To do this, transfer the cottage cheese into cheesecloth and put it under a press.
Cheesecakes with cottage cheese - the best recipes
Recipe 1: Classic cheesecakes with cottage cheese
The classic cheesecake is an open pie made from rich yeast dough and curd filling. You can buy the dough or make it yourself. This recipe makes the cheesecakes delicious the first time. Yield approximately 10-12 pieces.
Ingredients. dough 400g flour, 1 egg, glass of milk, ½ tsp. salt, 50g butter, 2 tbsp. lie sugar, packet (7-10g) of dry yeast. Filling: 0.3 kg cottage cheese, 50 g butter, ¼ cup. sugar, 2 yolks, 2 tbsp. lie sour cream.
Mix the yeast with a spoon of sugar and add warm milk. Let them come to life, they should foam. At this time, mix the egg, sugar, salt, melted butter and flour. Pour in milk with suitable yeast and knead the dough. You need to knead it for so long until it comes off easily from your hands. Leave it alone and let it rise. After an hour and a half, knead the risen dough, i.e. stir by pressing lightly. When it rises a second time, knead it again and you can cut it.
Prepare the filling. Rub the cottage cheese or mix with a mixer or blender. Add yolks, sugar, melted butter and sour cream. You can add raisins (steamed) and vanilla sugar.
Roll the dough into balls approximately the size of a chicken egg, let them rise, and transfer them to a baking sheet. Then press each ball in the middle with the bottom of a glass or mug to create a flattened recess where you will need to put the curd filling. To prevent the glass from sticking to the dough, its bottom must first be dipped in flour.
Let the cheesecakes rise for about ten minutes. Mix an egg with a spoonful of milk and brush the cheesecakes with this mixture. Bake for about thirty minutes (180-190C).
Recipe 2: Cheesecakes with cottage cheese from puff pastry
You will need yeast puff pastry. You can make it yourself, but it’s less troublesome to just buy it. It is sold frozen in almost every store. You can make square cheesecakes, sealing the edges tightly, like an envelope, so that the filling does not leak out, or cut out circles and bake them in small cupcake or muffin tins.
Ingredients. yeast puff pastry 0.5 kg, cottage cheese 0.3 kg, 2 eggs, 1/3 cup sugar (a little more or less, to taste), optional raisins and flavorings - citrus zest, vanilla sugar, fruit essence.
While the dough is defrosting, prepare the filling. Grind the cottage cheese thoroughly, mix with sugar and eggs - they help the filling not to spread. You can add raisins, vanillin or berries.
The dough is usually rolled. Unroll this roll and cut into squares, without rolling out the dough, about 10x10 cm. Place a tablespoon of filling, gather the ends of the square at the top and pinch the edges to close all the cracks.
If you plan to bake the cheesecakes round, you need to use muffin tins. Lightly roll out the dough, cut out circles with a glass and place them inside the mold so that they extend beyond the edges. Place the filling inside.
Leave the cheesecakes to proof for about fifteen minutes, then brush the top with egg and bake. First, ten minutes at (220C), then reduce the heat to 180C and keep in the oven for another ten to fifteen minutes.
Recipe 3: Cheesecake pie with cottage cheese
A delicious cheesecake recipe with curd filling and biscuit dough with sour cream. It is baked in the form of a large round open pie, with filling in the middle. You can call it a royal cheesecake, or a giant one. In order for it to be a great success, to be fluffy and not to spread over the baking sheet, you need to take a baking pan with a diameter of about 25 centimeters, with high edges. This could be a frying pan or a special baking dish.
Ingredients: dough with a glass of flour and sour cream, half a glass of sugar, 2 eggs, 2 table. lie butter, ½ tsp. lie soda The measuring device is a glass with a capacity of 250 ml. Filling: half a kilo of cottage cheese, 3 eggs, half a glass of sugar, 1 table. lie semolina cereals.
Prepare the dough. Beat the eggs, gradually adding sugar while beating. Add flour, melted butter, soda and sour cream to the whipped foam. Mix the mass. The dough will be relatively liquid.
For the filling, grind the cottage cheese with sugar, you can beat it with a blender. Add eggs and semolina. Mix.
Grease the mold, sprinkle with flour and pour out the dough. Place the curd filling on top along the entire diameter, not reaching the edges by about 1.5-2 centimeters. It's like putting toppings on a pizza crust. There is no need to make sides from the edges; they will rise on their own, and the cottage cheese will fall down under its own weight. If you wish, you can add fresh currants, cherries, cranberries or steamed raisins to it.
Place the mold in a cold oven. Turn it on and bake the cheesecake for 35-40 minutes (180C). Cool slightly, and then you can remove it from the mold.
— To ensure that the cheesecakes do not dry out during baking, but remain soft, you need to place a small pan of water on the bottom of the oven.
— To make the cheesecake look more ruddy and appetizing, not only the dough, but also the filling is brushed with egg.
To prepare the dough, dilute the yeast in 100 ml of warm water, add sugar and mix. Leave the dough in a warm place for 15 minutes. In a deep bowl, combine warm yogurt, vegetable oil, egg, dough, salt and mix thoroughly. Add sifted flour and knead soft, tender dough. Cover the dough with cling film and leave for 1.5 hours in a warm place. The dough should double in size. Knead the dough well and leave for another 30-40 minutes to rise.
To prepare the filling, thoroughly mix the cottage cheese, egg and sugar.
Place the cheesecakes on a baking sheet greased with vegetable oil and leave in a warm place (no drafts!) for 30 minutes to rise.
Preheat the oven to 200 degrees. Brush the surface of the cheesecakes with whipped yolk and place in the oven.
Bake for about 20-25 minutes until a beautiful golden color (use your oven for the time). Cheesecakes with cottage cheese prepared according to this recipe are delicious both hot and cold. 
Bon appetit!
