Cottage cheesecake (zapekanka)
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!)
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
- 300 g of smetana
- 1 egg
- 15 g of honey
- 5 g of vanilla extract
- 1 limejuice
You will need
- mixer
- oven
- 16–18 cm baking form
- food processor (optional)
Directions
To cook the base
- 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 zest of1 lime , 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.
To finish zapekanka
- While the base is baking, prepare the topping. Mix
300 g of smetana ,1 egg ,15 g of honey ,5 g of vanilla extract , and juice of1 lime 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 refrigerate 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”.
Explore ingredients
Ingredients explorer
Name | Kind | Season | Contains |
---|---|---|---|
Butter | Vegetarian | Dairy | |
Corn starch | Vegan | ||
Cottage cheese (tvorog) | Vegetarian | Dairy | |
Egg | Vegetarian | ||
Egg | Vegetarian | ||
Honey | Vegetarian | ||
Honey | Vegetarian | ||
Lime | Vegan | ||
Lime | Vegan | ||
Smetana | Vegetarian | Dairy | |
Smetana | Vegetarian | Dairy | |
Vanilla extract | Vegan | ||
Vanilla extract | Vegan |