Easy Russian Vatrushka Recipe: Delicious, fluffy and healthy farmer's cheese individual sweet buns look impressive and take a bit more than an hour to make! They make for a great tea-time treat, breakfast or Thanksgiving dessert.
Make the dough:
1 Sift the flour into a large bowl and create a well in the middle. Mix yeast with milk and 1 tablespoon of demerara sugar and pour the mixture into the well. Let rest covered for 10 minutes or until the surface is bubbly.
2 Add the rest of sugar, butter and egg yolk and knead until smooth. Let rest for 30 more minutes.
Make the filling:
1 You want your cottage cheese to be as dry as possible. If yours is rather creamy, wrap it in a cheese cloth and hang over a sink or a big bowl to strain the liquid. You can use it afterwards instead of milk for pancakes for example.
2 Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Mix farmer's cheese with egg, honey and vanilla extract.
Roll the dough:
1 When the dough has doubled in size, knead it once again and divide into 8 balls. To do this, you can cut the dough ball in halves with a very sharp knife, then in quarters and then in eighths. Form eight balls. Preheat the oven to 390 F or 200 C.
2 Using a rolling pin, roll each ball, working from the center - outwards, until it is about 16 cm or 6 inches in diameter. Fold the edges inwards to form a well in the middle for the filling. Transfer to a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Assemble and bake:
1 Add the filling into the wells, one tablespoon at a time. Sprinkle with cranberries, lingonberries or other berries. You can also use cranberry sauce, apple sauce or jam for the topping.
2 Bake in the preheated oven for 15-20 minutes or until golden brown. Let cool and enjoy with tea!
