Zapekanka (запеканка) is a Russian village cheesecake made of cottage cheese (tvorog, творог) and smetana (сметана). It's less sweet and smooth than the New York cheesecake and makes a great breakfast (if you cook it the evening before) topped with some marmalade and fresh berries. (And don't forget to brew a cup of café de olla!)
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Ingredients
Yields 4 portions
For the base
- 550 g of cottage cheese (tvorog)
- 2 eggs
- 35 g of honey
- 15 g of corn starch
- 5 g of vanilla extract
- 1 limezest
- 100 g of smetana
- butterroom temperature, for greasing
For the topping
- 100 g of smetana
- 2 eggs
- 35 g of honey
- 5 g of vanilla extract
- 1 limejuice
You will need
- mixer
- oven
- 16 cm baking form
- food processor (optional)
Directions
Before you start: warm butter to room temperature.
- Preheat oven to 170 °C.
- Mix cottage cheese (tvorog) using a food processor or push it through a sieve to smoothen the grains.
- In a big mixing bowl, combine
2 eggs and35 g of honey until you have fluffy light beige mass, using a mixer. - Add the cottage cheese of step 2,
15 g of corn starch ,5 g of vanilla extract , and lime zest, then mix using a silicone spatula. - Add
100 g of smetana and mix again. - Put baking paper onto the bottom of the baking form and butter its sides.
- Pour the mixture into the baking form.
- Bake
10–20 minutes. - While the base is baking, prepare the topping. Mix smetana, an egg, honey, vanilla extract, and lime juice using a mixer.
- Pour the topping on top of the base, and bake for
30–40 minutes more. - Cool down the cake in a turned-off oven and then in the fridge for about 1 hour.
Notes & tips
You could buy both cottage cheese (tvorog) and smetana in any Russian store.
You could replace honey and vanilla extract in the base with 35 g of date syrup.
Smetana (сметана) is a type of sour cream similar to crème fraîche.
This recipe is based on a recipe from Viktoria Melnik’s book “Food as it is”.
