Croatian Cheese Pie Recipes

CROATIAN CHEESE PIE

Steps:

• Make dough following this schedule: flour, breadcrumbs, and lemon rinds, sugar, baking powder, salt, and vanilla flavored sugar and melted butter.
• Mix everything in a bowl and at the end add egg yolks.
• Mix some more and add sour cream. Mix more until you get nice greasy dough. If it is too greasy you can add some more flour.
• When done, put into refrigerator for 2 hours.
• After 2 hours, put the dough out and work a little to make it soft. Cut ¼ of the dough and put aside.
• Prepare the stuffing by mixing well cheese, sour cream, yolks, sugar, and vanilla sugar.
• Soak raisins in plum brandy or rum until swell up (usually 2 hours).
• From egg white make "snow" and add into stuffing, and add raisins. At the end add grated lemon rinds.
• Roll the rest of dough into ½ cm thin sheet. Cover the bottom of 28cm low rim cake pan with butter, and put onto it a dough sheet. Make sure that the rim is also covered with dough from inside.
• Pour cheese stuffing on dough.
• Roll the rest of the dough into thin sheet and put over the cheese making sure that it is covered.
• Poke 10 holes with a fork on the cover.
• Put the pie into preheated oven on 180°C and bake 50-60 minutes or until it gets light golden.

GREEK CHEESE PIE

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Grease two 9-inch round cake pans.
• Mix feta cheese and eggs together in a bowl for the filling; set aside.
• Lay out 1 sheet of phyllo on a work surface and brush liberally with olive oil. Top with another sheet and brush with oil. Repeat for a total of 4 sheets, but do not brush the top of the fourth sheet. Transfer the stack of oiled sheets to one of the greased cake pans. Drape over the bottom of the pan, trying not to be too perfect about it; you want some folds and wrinkles in the phyllo.
• Spread 1/2 of the filling over the phyllo in an even layer. Fold the overhanging phyllo over the filling, again letting natural folds and wrinkles occur. Loosely lay 1 sheet of phyllo over the top, brush with oil, and use the oiled brush to pat down the sides all around the circumference of the cake pan.
• Repeat with remaining phyllo, oil, and filling to assemble the second pie.
• Bake the cheese pies in the preheated oven until the tops are a deep golden brown, 45 to 60 minutes. Let cool for 20 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature.

CROATIAN APPLE PIE

Steps:

• Make dough out of flour, breadcrumbs, and lemon rinds, sugar, baking powder, salt, and vanilla flavored sugar and melted butter.
• Mix everything in a bowl and at the end add egg yolks. Mix some more and add sour cream.
• Mix more until you get nice greasy dough. If it is too greasy you can add some more flour. When done, put into refrigerator for 2 hours.
• After 2 hours, put the dough out and work a little to make it softer. Cut ¼ of the dough and put aside.
• During this, peal the apples and grate them in a bowl. Don't put sugar yet or apples will loose juice (put sugar last). During a day, assuming you have planned to make a pie, soak raisins in rum. When raisins get swelled put them into apples and add cinnamon. Be grateful with cinnamon. Now add sugar.
• Roll the rest of dough into ½ cm thin sheet. Cover the bottom of 28cm low rim cake pan with butter, and put onto it a dough sheet. Make sure that the rim is also covered with dough from inside.
• Pour apple stuffing on dough. Roll the rest of the dough into thin sheet and put over the apples making sure that it is covered.
• Poke 10 holes with a fork on the cover. Put the pie into preheated oven on 180°C and bake 30-40 minutes or until it gets light golden. Before serving sparkle with caster sugar.