Cookies "Shell" from curd dough: cooking secrets

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

Modern confectionery industry offers customers several types of "Rakushki" biscuits: from shortbread, puff and even unleavened dough. The step-by-step recipe offered to readers in this article is special: in it, this type of cookie is made from cottage cheese dough, but without eggs, which makes it more attractive to those who do not eat them. A distinctive feature: cottage cheese for this baking can be used not only exceptionally fresh (this is important in the preparation of dumplings, casseroles and cottage cheese cakes without baking), but also a little stale: sour, dried out or too grainy. In any case, the cookies will turn out great!

Product description

This cookie is shaped like a shell, which is why it was called "Shell". The cookie recipe is based on cottage cheese dough, which swells well during baking, giving the product a convex shape, and the sugar filling gives the necessary sweetness, because there is no granulated sugar in the dough itself.

Usually the dough for this cookieIt is considered close to sand, although some call it puff for a kind of molding during the manufacturing process. The energy value of such a product is 348 calories per hundred grams, which classifies it as a high-calorie food.

Classic Recipe: Ingredients

The recipe for “Rakushki” cottage cheese cookies contains only four ingredients, although sophisticated chefs recommend adding one egg to the dough to make it more holistic so that the cookie structure does not suffer during baking. So what to take:

• 150 grams of margarine (it is better not to use a spread);
• 300 grams of cottage cheese;
• 0.5 tsp soda, you can add a few grains of citric acid;
• 2-4 tbsp. l. granulated sugar;
• 300 grams of wheat flour (the amount of flour is approximate, depending on how wet the cottage cheese is).

Also, add a pinch of s alt to the dough for taste, you can add vanilla for flavor and an egg if there is uncertainty about the quality of the dough. The egg in such cases provides good adhesion of the ingredients, helps to make the dough more elastic, but is not a required ingredient.

How to knead the dough correctly?

Cooking "Shells" cottage cheese cookies is elementary: chop chilled margarine (you can grate it on a coarse grater, it's very convenient and fast), mix flour with soda and s alt. Grind the margarine with flour with your hands until the state of small oily lumps in the form of crumbs.

Pass the cottage cheese through a meat grinder or mix thoroughly with a blender so that it becomes a homogeneous consistency, and then combine it with margarine, knead a soft, plastic dough. Form a ball, wrap it in cellophane and place in the refrigerator (not the freezer!) for an hour or two. This procedure is optional, cookies can be formed immediately, but when the dough rests, it becomes more friable during baking, and the Shell cookies become more like puff.

Product molding

When the dough reaches the condition, take it out of the bag, roll it out on a floured table to a thickness of 0.3-0.5 cm and use a round mold with a diameter of about 8-10 cm to cut rounds. You can also use a glass or a small cup for these purposes. Dip each circle in sugar on one side and fold it in half so that the grains of granulated sugar are inside.

You need to try not to squeeze the piece of dough too much, so as not to damage its shape. Next, do the same action again, dipping half of the shell biscuit into sugar, and fold it in half again. The result should be a quarter of a circle with a sugar center.

Baking

It is better to cover the baking sheet with parchment or, in extreme cases, generously grease it. Put prepared shell cookies on it at some distance from each other, because during the baking process they will increase slightly in size, which means they can stick together. Place cookies in an oven that has been preheatedto a temperature of 200-220 degrees (depending on the quality of the oven), and bake until golden brown. On average, this takes no more than fifteen to twenty minutes. Ready-made appetizing cookies can be eaten still warm, they are incredibly tasty with milk or cocoa.

If you want a flavor accent

Some gourmets may find this type of “Shell” biscuit to be somewhat insipid, because there is a category of people who love various additives, flavors and flavor enhancers. In such cases, confectioners recommend not to get involved in synthetic (artificially created) ingredients, but to use natural ones. For example, fragrant curd dough cookies can be prepared in this way:

1. Mix two hundred grams of margarine and cottage cheese in one bowl until a relatively uniform consistency, add two cups of sifted flour mixed with 1/2 tsp. soda. Knead the dough and leave it for an hour in a cool place, preferably wrapped in cling film so that it does not wind.
2. In a small bowl, mix 60-70 grams of granulated sugar, one teaspoon of ground cinnamon and one tablespoon of poppy seeds.
3. Roll out the finished dough into a thin layer, cut out mugs with a glass and dip one side into the previously prepared sugar mixture. Then fold in half, dip again in fragrant sugar and fold in half again. Transfer the resulting products to a baking sheet greased with oil and bake in the oven for 15-18 minutes until lightly blushed.

The finished cookie has cute freckles in the formpoppy seeds and a characteristic cinnamon aroma, which gives the pastry a special, homely taste and a slight brown tint inside the layers.