Cottage cheese ( ricotta) crumbcake

I was tempted not to post this one. For we use hungarian "túró" in it, which is similar to cottage cheese, but not the same. Anyway, i thought the result would be also nice with ricotta (especially if you put lemon or orange zest in it) so i changed my mind.
If you can lay your hand on some fresh eastern european "cottage cheese" try that version. It is sour a bit, giving a nice contrast to the chocolate.

Ingredients:
pastry:
400 g all-purpose flour
150 g sugar
250 g ice cold butter
1 egg yolk (save the white)
4 tablespoon unsweetened cocoa powder
2 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
a pinch of salt

filling:
500 g cottage cheese or ricotta
2 eggs
125 g sugar
grated zest of 2 lemon or orange (you may put more according to your taste)

Preheat oven to 200 celsius degree.

Mix the ingredients of the pastry until you can form a ball. Put it in the fridge.
Mix the sugar with the egg yolks until pale and fluffy. Stir in the zest and the cottage cheese or ricotta. Whip the egg whites (all 3 of them) and combine with the cheese mixture.

Put baking paper in a smaller baking dish (i used an 18×25 cm one) and crumble half of the pasty in it. Layer the filling on it. Crumble the other half of the pastry on top.

Bake 40 minutes.

Pogacsa with pork rind (Tepertos pogacsa)

I have to admit I thought pogacsa was genuinly hungarian. As I browsed the internet i found out just the opposite. Anyway, this version is so-so hungarian that almost every hungarian fables and folk stories include it. Usually this is the bread the youngest son of the tales takes with him for his journey. It used to be baked in hot ashes and packed in a kitchen towel.

My father in law just turned to 60 this weekend. I was about to bake him Pierre Herme's lemon tart. As we talked, he mentioned that no pastry or cake can compete with this traditonal pogacsa. So i gave in and made them. They need little work but lots of time (as puff pastry) but they worth!Ingredients:
500 g all-purpose flour
30 g fresh yeast or 7 g instant yeast
200-300 g buttermilk or yoghurt (or half yoghurt half sour cream)
salt and freshly ground pepper
300-350 g pork rind
2 eggs

1. First put the pork skins in a blender and mix until creamy. Stir in one teaspoon of salt and pepper to taste.
2. Mixt the buttermilk and yeast, stir in one egg (slightly beaten) and a teaspoon of salt. Add spoonfuls of four and mix, antil the dough forms a ball. Sprinke flour on the counter, transfer the dough to the counter, and knead. Add more buttermilk or flour as needed to form the dough into a soft, but not sticky, ball. Knead approximately 4 minutes. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
3.Roll out the dough with a rolling pin into a rectangle. Spread the pork rind cream evenly on the top, then fold it like a business letter: Fold the bottom third of the dough over the middle third, then fold the top third over so it meets the edge of the folded dough. Cover it with plastic wrap and let it rest for 30 minutes.
4.Repeat this folding 5 times in 30 minutes intervals.


5.After the last folding, roll the dough into 1 inch thick. Score the top with a sharp knife like this:
6. With a round cutter (2 inch in diameter) cut the dough, and put the pogacsas on a baking parchment. As the grow in the oven put then 3 inches apart. Beat an egg and brsh the top of the pogacsas with it.

7. Preheat oven to 220 celsius degree and bake them until dark golden.
They are best served while warm.