Apple cheese: recipe, cooking features

2024 Author: Isabella Gilson | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:14

According to its composition, apple cheese is the most boiled, and then pressed and dried fruit jam. But both in taste and texture, this B altic dessert is a unique national dish that is unlike anything else. Today we will bring to your attention this rather simple, but wonderful recipe. Let's build such a traditional Lithuanian dish, which is usually prepared in advance, and cut and eaten at Christmas - apple cheese. It is difficult to say what this fragrant sweetness will look like? Maybe a thick apple marmalade topped with nuts and cinnamon: it's so special and delicious!

How to make apple cheese at home

Actually, in Lithuania, the dish is prepared from the Antonovka variety, as it contains a huge amount of pectin. However, from experience, you just need to take apples of sweet and sour or sour varieties - any. The very preparation of such a dish as apple cheese may look like chopping fruits with sugar, followed by long-term boiling of the resulting puree. When the thick massdecreases in volume significantly and thickens strongly, we introduce nuts and a fragrant component - cinnamon. Then we press the jam in this form and dry it for at least 2 weeks (which is quite difficult to withstand without trying the sweets). But when the Lithuanian dessert - apple cheese - is already fully ripe, it becomes dense and rich in taste, aroma, with an original aftertaste. It is worth trying to cook it at least once - with the help of its smell and taste, fantasy takes you to a European Christmas fairy tale. And although we are not Lithuanians, we also love to eat delicious food!

Ingredients

The process of making apple cheese is quite long, but not at all complicated: anyone, even a novice kitchen hostess, can handle it. For this we need apples. Traditionally, apple cheese in Lithuania, as already mentioned, is brewed from Antonovka.

The ingredients are as simple as 3 cents: two kilos of apples, half a kilo of sugar, a bunch of peeled walnuts, the same amount of almonds and a small pinch of cinnamon. That's all to make real Lithuanian apple cheese. And now - in more detail, step by step!

Apple cheese. Basic recipe

1. My fresh apples, remove seeds and stalk. We do not remove the skin. We cut the fruits into small slices and put them in a thick-walled container (cauldron, pan, duckling). 2 kilo apples - peeled.
2. Introduce granulated sugar, its amount can be adjusted to taste. But even for the sweet tooth: 500 gramsmore than enough.
3. Stir and leave a lot of hours for 8 (at night) in the cool (for example, you can take it to the balcony), the fruits release juices, and the sugar dissolves. Fruit slices sink and decrease in volume.
4. Put the container on a slow fire, simmer for 25 minutes after it boils, covered with a lid. Apple slices should become soft. You can gently stir the contents several times.
5. Now we put a few slices in another bowl - 15 pieces. Then we will add them to the finished apple jam.

Puree

The remaining apples should be completely softened. Let them cool and grind the mass with an immersion blender directly into the container until a smooth smooth puree. You can, of course, pass through a meat grinder if such a blender is not at hand. Again put the mass on a small fire, cook for a long time, stirring hour by hour. At the same time, the lid must be covered halfway, since the jam splashes heavily, sometimes up to the very ceiling. We boil for at least 2 hours, so that the mass evaporates strongly and thickens enough.

Nuts

Next, Lithuanian-style apple cheese is prepared as follows. We deal with nuts - they are peeled and roasted (can be dried). A microwave at high power (literally 2-3 minutes) is good for these purposes. At the same time, we open the doors several times and mix the nuts so that they do not burn. But you can do it on the stove in a frying pan or in an oven. We let the fried (dried) nuts cool slightly, and then chop with a knife rather largein pieces (not crumbs).

Final procedures

How to cook Lithuanian apple cheese at home? The recipe needs to be continued. When the mass of jam becomes very thick, moving away from the walls of the container, you must constantly stir so as not to burn.

1. Add nuts and those apple slices to the container that we left before boiling. Remove the pan from the stove and gently mix the resulting composition so that the apples and nuts are as evenly distributed over the apple mass.
2. Now we take a deep bowl, as well as a piece of gauze, which we fold in several layers. Soak gauze in cool water and wring it well - it should be moist, but not too wet. We put the marlechka in a bowl, spread the boiled mixture on it. Smooth out with a wooden spatula. And in this state, let the semi-finished product cool completely.
3. And after that, carefully fold the gauze so that it holds the apple mass. We put everything on a plank or in a large shallow dish.

Pressing and ripening

Next, the apple-nut mass needs to be well compressed. To do this, we put a flat plate on top of the cheese and put a press (a plastic bottle of water or an eggplant is well suited - 2-3 liters). We leave in this position for 1 day at normal temperature, without heating or cooling the product. When a little liquid comes out of the apple cheese being prepared, soak it with a napkin or toilet paper.

At the right time, remove the gauze,free the head from it. It must hold its shape well. If this does not happen and the apple mixture sticks to the cheesecloth, then you have not reduced the apple puree sufficiently. In this case, it is necessary to leave our blank under the press for another day inside the refrigerator (place a couple of paper napkins under the head: they will absorb excess liquid).

Further, the apple dish from Lithuania must be sufficiently allowed to dry and infuse, that is, to ripen. It is best to use a grate for this purpose, so that the head of apple cheese on each side can “breathe”. We cover it with a piece of gauze or canvas from dust and small particles that always fly around the apartment. We leave the head of cheese alone (as if even “forgetting” about it) for at least 14 days - longer is better. The temperature should be room temperature. This process can also be carried out at the bottom of the refrigerator, but it is still too damp there, and the cheese should dry thoroughly. But, by the way, if the jam is perfectly boiled, then nothing will happen to it: mold will not appear.

Ready

Fragrant Lithuanian apple cheese with nuts and cinnamon is considered ready when, when pressed (for example, with a finger) on the head, the surface springs. And Lithuanian home cooks "feel in their gut" when the sweetness is ready - by its appearance. Such another little secret: the crust of the cheese should become dryish, but inside it is dense and perfectly cut without sticking to the knife. By tradition, apple cheese for the winter must be prepared in advance, and served at the table for Christmas or other holidays. This is a great treat for family and friends,and it's amazingly delicious!

In the slow cooker

Apple cheese in a slow cooker is very easy to prepare. Since a modern housewife in the kitchen will surely have a similar, very convenient and life-simplifying device. To make jam from apples (as a raw material for cheese), we take sour apples, sugar according to personal understanding and taste (usually, in a ratio of 2: 1).

Apples are peeled and seeds are removed, the stalks are removed. We send the raw materials to the multicooker (baking mode 1 hour). We skip the baked apples through a large sieve or grind with a blender to a puree state. Mix with sugar. At this stage, we try the mass several times to adjust the sweet-sour ratio. But it should be remembered that the more sugar you put in, the denser the cheese will become later.

We return the prepared mixture to the multicooker and put it on the same mode (but for 20 minutes). We repeat this procedure several times. It will take several such cycles, after each - mix the apples. The mixture is ready when it thickens a lot.

Add nuts and cinnamon, put the resulting mass on a board covered with gauze, let it cool for a couple of hours. By the way, if you do nothing else, you get an excellent marmalade. After cooling, it will harden, and you can cut it, serving, for example, with tea. But if you want to get exactly Lithuanian apple cheese, then the process must be completed (see the basic recipe above) - that is, put under a press to remove excess liquid, and then let it ripen for sometime.

Pie

With the participation of Lithuanian cheese (which is usually served at the table as a separate delicacy) you can cook a delicious dish: apple pie with cheese. To do this, we need: a pound of flour, s alt on the tip of a knife, a good piece (200 grams) of apple cheese, a pack of butter, three large apples, sugar to personal taste, a pinch of starch, a little milk, the juice of half a lemon.

Cooking easy

Grate cheese and mix it with flour. We add s alt. Finely chop the butter, add to the mass and knead the dough, gradually adding water. We form a ball. We put it in the refrigerator for about an hour. Peel the apples and cut into small pieces. Sprinkle with lemon juice. Mix sugar + starch, carefully introduce into the mass to the apples. Take out the dough and cut it in half. We roll out one part with a layer and put it in a mold so that the edges hang down. We spread the apple filling. And the rest of the dough is rolled into a layer and put on top of the filling, pinching the edges with the bottom. We make cuts crosswise for air flow. Lubricate the cake with milk or sour cream. Bake in the oven for 20-25 minutes at 220 degrees, then reduce to 180 and bake for another 30-40 minutes.