Description
Beautiful individual little almond cheesecakes wrapped in leaves of a sweet yeast dough
Ingredients
Scale
for crust:
- 3 egg yolks
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1/3 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 3/4 cup milk
- 4 cups flour
- zest of 1 lemon
- 1 packet dry yeast
- 7 tablespoons butter, melted
for filling
- 1 1/4 cups Twarog, farmers cheese
- zest of 1 orange
- 1/2 cup finely ground almonds (almond meal)
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- 1 egg yolk
- 1 egg beaten for egg wash
- thinly sliced almonds for garnish
- powdered sugar for garnish
Instructions
for dough
- Add 3 egg yolks and salt to a bowl, whisk to combine
- Stir in 1/3 cup sugar and 1 teaspoon vanilla
- Add milk
- Stir in flour, lemon zest, and yeast
- Add melted butter and knead until uniformly incorporated
- Cover, let rise in a warm place for 40 minutes
for filling
- Preheat oven to 375 F
- Combine twarog, orange zest, and ground almonds
- Stir in sugar and vanilla
- Add 1 egg yolk
to assemble
- Divide dough into 12 equal portions
- Roll each piece into a circle approximately 6 inches wide
- Take 1/12 of the filling (approximately 2 tablespoons), shape it into a ball and place in the center of the dough circle
- Make four cuts in the dough from the edge, almost up to the filling, at 12:00, 3:00, 6:00, and 9:00.
- Dip your fingertip in water and lightly moisten the outside edge of the dough
- Fold one petal up on the filling, securing the edges at the bottom of the dough
- Repeat with the three remaining petals, the filling will just peek out of the center
- Use your hands to round out the bottom of the bundles
- Place on a parchment line baking sheet
- Brush with beaten egg
- Press a few almond slices into the sides of the dough petals
- Bake for 25 minutes, until golden brown
- Cool, dust with powdered sugar
Notes
My health food/farmers market style store had tubs of farmers cheese, but I opted for ricotta because it was cheaper and closer to the quantity I needed. I figured once I added all the other things, any difference would not be noticeable. But the texture of the mixture was a little runny, so I popped it in the freezer for a few minutes to firm it up and make it easier to form a golf ball shape for the filling.
I warmed a bit of lingenberry jam, put a spoonful on the serving plate and gave it a smear to add a bit of color to this yummy but beige dessert.