I was supposed to be talking of alphabet S today, but I am still at R. Will share the reason at the end of the post. Coming to R, I chose to do a pastry from Russia. Russia, officially Russian Federation, is the largest country in the world which covers 1/8 th of the earth’s inhibited area. It is in Northern Eurasia. It shares its boundaries with Norway, Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Belarus, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Kazhkhstan, China, Mongolia and Norht Korea. It also shares its maritime borders with Japan and US state of Alaska (WIKI). I am running out of options for cookies from other countries. Any recipe I see, looks so much like a previous cookie I made and I didn’t want to repeat them. So I went in search of pastries.
While growing up, I had a Russian Folk Tale book which my Dad bought from a road side shop. Not like the children of today who sit in front of TV or computer, I grew up reading books. My most favourite book was the Russian folk tales. I was so mesmerised by the name Ivan, Alyonushka and so on. Even by 30, I was reading that book with the same interest. And when I got married and came here, I missed that book a lot. One day when I was going through some books in a road side shop, I saw a Russian Folk tale book similar to that one. I at once grabbed it and I don’t know how many times I have read through it. And to my utter surprise, Sruti has taken a liking to read books and she has completed that large book. I am so proud that she is so much like me in reading books.
OK, lets move on to today’s recipe. Vatushka (vat-roo-shka) ( isn’t it a cute name?) is a pastry made with yeasted dough and filled with cottage cheese. You can serve it along with a cup of coffee for your morning breakfast. I felt that the rolls can have an extra sugar. So I am giving you the recipe according to my taste. I loved the sweet cheese filling in the rolls and I love the cute look of these pastries. Try it and you will not be disappointed. I got up at4am this morning and made the dough, filling and while it was rising, I was drafting the post. When the pastries were baked, I was ready with my post and within 1 hour, all the images were edited and the post is onlie now. Wow! I am releived…
Recipe Source: Cooking Melangery
Makes 4 pastries
Ingredients:
For The Pastry:
Flour-2 cups
Sugar-3 tbs
Instant Yeast-1 tsp
Butter-1/4 cup, melted
Warm Milk-2/3 cup
Salt-a pinch
For The Filling:
Cottage Cheese/ Paneer-120 gm
Sour Cream/ Curd-1 tbs
Vanilla Essence-1/2 tsp
Sugar-1 tbs
Curd-1/8 cup
Procedure:
For The Dough:
In a bowl mix together flour, yeast, sugar, salt and melted butter.
Add warm milk and mix to form a sticky dough.
Dust counter with a little flour, transfer dough to counter and knead for 2-3 minutes until soft and elastic.
Place it in an oiled bowl and cover and let it double. It may take fro 30 minutes to one hour depending on the temperature.
For The Filling:
Process all the ingredients in a mixer jar until well combined and smooth.
Baking The Vatrushkas:
Divide dough into 4 equal portions.
Shape each into a ball, place on a greased baking tray and press it to flatten it.
Allow it to double for another 30 minutes.
Preheat oven to 175°C.
Now press the centre of the doubles pastries with a glassto make an indent in the centre.
Fill it with the cheese mixture.
Apply milk on the pastries.
Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
Enjoy warm with a cup of coffee.
And here is what happened the past two day. I have never done a cake for cinema personalities and I was on cloud nine, when I got this order. This was for a celebration for the cinema Sigaram Thodu and they wanted the cake to say everything about the film’s logo to the producer and director. I designed a cake, there was so much calculating, baking, mixing and designing going on for the past two days and here is what I came up with.
I was dead tired yesterday after the completion and delivery of the cake. That is why this much late posting. Sorry!!

Eggless Vatrushka
Ingredients
For The Pastry
- Flour-2 cups
- Sugar-3 tbs
- Instant Yeast-1 tsp
- Butter-1/4 cup melted
- Warm Milk-2/3 cup
- Salt-a pinch
For The Filling
- Cottage Cheese/ Paneer-120 gm
- Sour Cream/ Curd-1 tbs
- Vanilla Essence-1/2 tsp
- Sugar-1 tbs
- Curd-1/8 cup
Instructions
For The Dough
- In a bowl mix together flour, yeast, sugar, salt and melted butter.
- Add warm milk and mix to form a sticky dough.
- Dust counter with a little flour, transfer dough to counter and knead for 2-3 minutes until soft and elastic.
- Place it in an oiled bowl and cover and let it double. It may take fro 30 minutes to one hour depending on the temperature.
For The Filling
- Process all the ingredients in a mixer jar until well combined and smooth.
Baking The Vatrushkas
- Divide dough into 4 equal portions.
- Shape each into a ball, place on a greased baking tray and press it to flatten it.
- Allow it to double for another 30 minutes.
- Preheat oven to 175°C.
- Now press the centre of the doubles pastries with a glassto make an indent in the centre.
- Fill it with the cheese mixture.
- Apply milk on the pastries.
- Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown.
- Enjoy warm with a cup of coffee.
BM# 44
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That’s a beautifully done pastry Gayathri..and your efforts on the cake is awesome..
Droolworthy pastry, they came out extremely stunning Gayathri.. Wow, this cake rocks, well done and beautifully shaped for the movie celebration.. Congrats.
lovely!
The pastry looks so similar to a Danish. Very nicely done.
Wow, that cake came out good and now you have become a celebrity baker! 🙂
The pastry is perfectly baked. The cheese on the pastry is tempting.
beautiful new pastry and the cake looks so good. I wish I was good at icing. Waiting to learn when I next go to Bangalore or London.
Love everything about this post. The delicious looking pastry and then that cake..wow hats off Gayathri..if I admire you..I am totally justified. Kudos ..we shall celebrate this at the B M meet.
Beautifully done Gayathri! Love the paneer filling there!!
Congratulations on getting a famous cake order. I’m sure it must have been tiring and exhilarating at the same time. Cake looks great.
Russian pastry looks yummy!!
Gayathri, I envy your patience, creativity and enthusiasm. 🙂
You woke up at 4 to finish the dish and that is incredible and love that cake too though i couldn’t read what is written on it.
And these pastries are real stunning.
Those cheese pastry look like thump print cookies & of course with variation, but the filling is tempting in this pastry. The cake you made looks awesome, though I didn’t understand what was written on it.
congrats. So impressive to be getting such high level cake orders . You are such a skilled baker!!!
Congrats on that cake order Gayathri and it looks awesome and perfect for the theme. Wishing you many more such orders and fame :).
And this is such a nice bake and I would love to make it for the kids…
Congrats on the cake order and your execution of it is awesome.
May you have many more milestones similar to this one.wont be long when it playing up on my mind I try it out.
Cheese pastry looks so delish. Congrats or the cake order .you bake like a pro.