The post Sweet Cheese Pies. Easy Desserts from Mom’s Recipe Book appeared first on The World Is an Oyster.
]]>Sweet Pockets
Cheesecakes in any form and shape are widely present in international cuisine. The sweet cheese pies I will talk about today are a traditional Moldavian recipe from Northern Romania.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will receive a commission if you purchase through my links at no extra cost to you. Please read the full disclosure for more information. Thank you!
This recipe, as many on this blog, is from mom’s recipe book that was filled with delicious dessert ideas she collected from her friends. If she liked a cake when she was a guest in their house, mom would ask for the recipe, then she baked it herself and improved it or added changes that suited her tastes if it was the case.
Today I own her original recipe book, with countless recipes written with blue ink in her unique handwriting. The pages might be a bit weathered and have some ingredient stains here and there, but the recipes are still impressive, and they still recall beautiful childhood memories every time I bake.
Whether I make her non-bake homemade chocolate, which was the ultimate treat for us kids growing up under a hard to image restrictive communist regime or if I bake her exquisite upside-down apple cake, I always remember with fondness the smell of mom’s kitchen.
I still have lovely memories of how fun it was to watch her bake and lick the bowls of whipped cream when she was not looking (I know now that she was only pretending!)
When I was about twelve years old, mom trusted me to deal with the gas oven and food safety and let me take over from her with the weekly baking. I don’t think I ever stopped since that moment.
Mom’s recipes are easy to make because she never believed in overcomplicating things. Over the years, she made sweet cheese pies or sweet pockets (as we called them) many times – on popular demand.
Since I discovered how easy mom’s sweet cheese pies are to bake, I gave them many a try. My family loves them, and our British friends were incited to learn about these edible pockets’ history (and eat as many as possible!)
A Pie With a Long History
The Romanians have called these pies “poale’n brâu” for centuries. That translates literary to “the bottom of the skirt raised to the waistband”. Why? Perhaps many years ago, women would wear their skirts as improvised bags to carry whatever they would forage in the forest or a small bunch of twigs for the fire. Ever so practical!
When you make sweet cheese pies, you have to stretch the corners and cover the cheese filling as in an envelope or a pocket; perhaps that is visually similar to pulling the rim of the skirt and tugging it under the waistband.
Historically, the great pharaoh Ramesses II, known as Ramesses the Great for his military prowess, seemed to have been addicted to this dessert. So much so that he took some with him in the afterlife. The archaeologists have discovered traces of pies filled with honey in his burial place in the Valley of the Kings. (By the way, the great pharaoh did depart in style, his funerary temple – not tomb! – measures 820 sqm/8800 sq. ft. and included a library with thousands of papyri; if you wanted some non-cheese pies related facts!)
Next in the chronological line of civilisations, the Greeks carried on making pies they filled with fruits.
The affluent Romans, great lovers of lavish banquets, would fill the pies with meats or cheese.
In Medieval Europe, the pies were the favourite dessert of pilgrims and royal heads equally. The latter would have them filled with peacock meat because they could afford it!
The sweet folded pies made it to the Americas simultaneously with the great adventurers who remained in history as the discoverers of the New World (that turned out not to be India, which they were looking for). In fact, the said “new” world had been there for quite a while and was doing just fine.
That is until some intrepid Europeans sponsored by potent kings and queens eager to grab more riches stumbled upon and accidentally “discovered” it. The rest is history, the gift of smallpox and cholera the Europeans bestowed upon the unvaccinated prehistoric civilisations of America set the New World on the road to becoming what it is today.
The filling for the pies adapted to whatever was available on the continent (forest fruit or specific fruit).
To this day, the English fill the pies with meats mostly. In 2018 a large bakery chain that makes pasties at an industrial scale and sells them in many shops around the country was the first to announce a billion-pound profit.
Our pie went a long way from a pharaoh’s table to making someone a billionaire.
I just can’t help a little history dig!
Is There A Time Of The Year For Sweet Cheese Pies?
Traditionally Romanians would bake them around Christmas or Easter time. At our house, mom would bake them often – on popular demand!
Not only do these sweet little pockets make a delicious treat, but they are perfect for a lunch box too or a picnic basket.
Mom made these sweet pockets (as we called them) countless times when I was a kid. Since I discovered how easy the sweet cheese pies are to bake, I gave them many a try as well.
My family loves them, and our British friends were incited to learn about this treat’s history (and eat as many as possible!)
Below is some kitchen equipment that would be helpful in baking sweet cheese pies and not only:
This was the story of sweet cheese pies, now, the recipe. Please give it a go and leave a comment to share your baking experience!
Sweet Cheese Pies
Equipment
- Two large bowls
- Small bowl
- Rolling Pin
- Baking tray/parchment
- Large spoon
Ingredients
- 700 g plain flour (2 ½ cups)
- 2 eggs
- 1 tbsp coconut sugar
- 1 tsp dried yeast
- 400 ml milk (1 ½ cup)
- 10 tbsp melted coconut oil
- lemon zest
- a pinch of salt
For the filling
- 500 g cheese – homemade or similar to cottage cheese (not salty!) (2 pots)
- 3 egg yolks (save the whites for later use)
- a handful of raisins
- orange zest
- rum oil essence
- 1 tbsp semolina (optional/if needed)
Instructions
- Making the dough is similar to ciabatta bread; the main difference is that for the pies, we use milk and sugar. Also, the rising time is a lot shorter for this dough.
- Mildly heat the milk and melt the coconut oil. Mix the wet ingredients and, while still warm, pour the mix over the dried yeast combined with sugar.
- Allow a few minutes to activate the yeast, then sieve the flour over and box it until you obtain a firm but easy to manipulate dough. Let it rise for about three-quarters of an hour (or until it doubles in quantity).
- Meanwhile, prepare the filling. Place the cheese in a large bowl (the cheese has to be dry; remove any excess liquid before use). Add the egg yolks, sugar, raisins, orange zest and rum essence. Mix well until you obtain an even composition.
- If you believe it is too soft, add the semolina (increase the quantity if necessary; it will absorb the excess humidity.) The filling has to be balanced, not too soft, but not too hard either.
- Preheat the oven(180°/356°F/gas mark 4) and place a parchment sheet in the baking tray.
- Using a roller pin, spread half of the dough on the flowered worktop. Cut the dough sheet in squares of about 10-15 cm/5-6 inches. With a spoon, place a dollop of the cheese filling in the middle of each square.
- Gently pull out each corner of the dough and fold it to the middle until you cover the entire filling. I always make sure to pinch the edges softly and glue them together so that the cheese does not spread out in the oven. Also, compress the middle of the pie to help distribute the cheese evenly inside the pocket.
- Beat the egg whites with a little bit of sugar. Use a brush to splodge the top of each pie. The purpose of this step is to create a shiny and sweet film.
- Alternatively, use only the eggwhites for coating and sprinkle powder sugar when the pies are ready to obtain a snow effect.
- Bake for 10-15 minutes – or until the pies turn golden.
- Allow to cool before serving.
Notes
Make yourself a nice cup of coffee to have with a sweet cheese pie; you deserve it after all the work!
Enjoy!
Sweet Pockets
The post Sweet Cheese Pies. Easy Desserts from Mom’s Recipe Book appeared first on The World Is an Oyster.
]]>The post Biscuit Salami. Easy to Make Goodies From Mom’s Recipe Book appeared first on The World Is an Oyster.
]]>The Taste of Childhood
I was eleven years old when I made my first biscuit salami. In the good old days, the parents would go to work, and the children would spend the three months long summer holiday at home doing whatever they wanted.
This post may contain affiliate links, which means I will receive a commission if you purchase through my links at no extra cost to you. Please read the full disclosure for more information. Thank you!
We would mostly go outside to play with other kids (we had a key we wore on a necklace), come back for lunch (yep, we were taught from an early age how to heat a soup without burning the house down) and go back outside until the parents would return from work.
To a tablet/mobile phone/ PC /console owner kid today, it might sound alien, but to us, it was immense radiation-free fun (until Chernobyl happened!)
On one sunny summer day, I announced to my younger sister that we were making biscuit salami for breakfast, but we should not eat anything sweet on an empty stomach. Instead, I cut (butchered, actually) a giant watermelon so we could start with a healthy breakfast.
Then the biscuit salami was ready, and I was quick to skip the refrigeration part. I stuffed my face, as usual with this dessert, to the brink of explosion!
Of course, my pre-teen body did not need much to react to the stupid combination, and indigestion struck.
It was so annoying to hear the other kids playing and having fun outside while I was in bed in agony, close to passing out and with a nasty tummy ache!
I could not eat anything for two days, and I decided the watermelon was the culprit, for being such a heavy fruit with lots of sweet water in it! So I did not eat watermelon for eight years after that moment.
Of course, biscuit salami saw many repeats in those eight years, with perhaps less greedy gulping. What can I say? I was wise from a young age (NOT!)
I’m telling this story more as a precaution: it might be tempting to exaggerate because this dessert is so incredibly yummy, but it would not be a good idea. A couple of slices with a cup of steamy coffee are just heavenly! Luckily, my wiseness level has improved slightly with age…
In my adult years, the gears shifted a bit, of course. I would eat watermelon on any occasion. But I still make biscuit salami at least once a year, especially since a little and enthusiastic helper loves to do the step I find the most tedious: crushing the biscuits.
In time, I made some variations of mom’s recipe. I added butter or milk, which changed the taste a tiny bit. To this day, I still prefer the simpler version.
In my opinion, rum oil extract and cacao are the primary flavours. I always replenish my stack of rum and vanilla oil extract whenever I visit Romania. If you cannot find the same thing, use rum extract or rum essence (perhaps you will need an extra spoon since it is not as concentrated as the oil extract).
This post contains the simple, Romanian version of the biscuit salami recipe, as it was handwritten in my mother’s book. The same book where I found this incredibly successful apple cake recipe.
In Italy, a similar variant of it is called Salame di cioccolato (chocolate salami), and it is the traditional Christmas and Easter dessert in many regions of the country. The recipe is slightly different, and it may include raw eggs.
There are too many health restrictions on consuming raw eggs, and this is another reason I go for the easy method.
Since all the recipes I’m publishing here are specific to a different county, I usually end the article by wishing you bon appetite in the respective language. Today, it’s time for your first Romanian language lesson: Poftă bună, everyone!
This recipe contains allergens! If necessary, replace the nuts with any dry fruit.
Biscuit Salami
Equipment
- Large bowl
- Tablespoon
- Roller pin
- 45 cm/20 inches long cling film (Saran wrap/plastic wrap) sheet
Ingredients
- 2 packs Rich Tea biscuits (600g)
- 2 tbsp coconut sugar
- 3 tbsp cacao powder
- 500 ml water
- 2 vials rum oil extract
- 1 handful raisins
- 1 handful chopped mix nuts (optional)
- 1 tbsp cocoa nibs (optional)
- 100 g shredded coconut (to decorate only)
Instructions
- Crush the biscuits to various degrees using a rolling pin. You could break them by hand, but it will take longer, and your fingertips will get sore easily. I tried the method before I discovered mom had a roller pin in the cupboard!
- Place the crushed biscuits in a large bowl, add all the other dry ingredients EXCEPT the shredded coconut and mix with a large spoon until they incorporate nicely.
- Separately, pour the rum oil extract in the required quantity of water and give it a slight stir. It will not blend, but just do this for the sake of obtaining some even distribution.
- Pour the water over the dry ingredients in the bowl and mix, using a spoon at first. As the biscuits and the rest of the dry ingredients will absorb the water, it might become too hard to use the spoon. At this point, you can continue mixing with your hands until you obtain an even composition.
- Even if the composition seems a bit too hard or dry, there is no need to add extra water. The biscuit salami needs a certain firmness so that it will not crumble when you slice it.
- Cut a 45cm cling film sheet and with a wet hand, spread the moisture over the entire surface. It will prevent the salami from sticking and staining the plastic sheet before you decorate the dessert.
- Transfer the mix onto the sheet and start modelling until obtaining a salami shape you can cover completely with the plastic and roll on the worktop. You might need to wash the excess composition off your hands before this step.
- The last stage of preparation is decorating the biscuit salami. For this, unwrap the cling film and simply pour the shredded coconut onto one side, then lift the other end of the plastic sheet to roll the salami into the coconut. If necessary, repeat, spreading more shredded coconut where needed and rolling the salami to the other side.
- Make sure the salami has a firm consistency and no air gaps by slightly pressing down while rolling and shrinking from the ends if required.
- Refrigerate it for an hour or for as long as you can wait until you slice it. I rarely manage to respect this step, although the result is much better! Enjoy!
The post Biscuit Salami. Easy to Make Goodies From Mom’s Recipe Book appeared first on The World Is an Oyster.
]]>