Traditionally, round dairy dishes would be served on Palm Sunday (Pūpolsvētdiena) and Easter (Lieldienas). You could make cottage cheese pancakes, or go up a step and make a cottage cheese and semolina cake. It will be similar to Latvian traditional biezpienmaize in flavour, but it is much denser in texture. This cottage cheese cake comes together really quickly and it would be a great treat for breakfast or lunch. Serve the cake with jam or sour cream.
Biezpiena plācenis (Cottage cheese and semolina cake)
Ingredients
- 800g/1.7lbs dry cottage cheese
- 4 large eggs
- 3 tbsp softened butter
- 8 tbsp sugar
- 1 cup/150g raisins/sultanas
- 1 1/4 cups/ 200g fine semolina
- ½ cup milk
- Optional: jam for serving
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 180C/350F. Take a 21cm or 8in springform pan and grease the bottom and sides with a bit of butter.
- Combine cottage cheese, eggs, butter, sugar in a food processor. Process until smooth.
- Transfer the mixture to a medium sized bowl. Add sultanas, semolina and milk. Mix well.
- Place the dough in the prepared pan. Cover the pan with foil and bake for 45 minutes. Remove the foil and bake for additional 15 minutes until the top is golden brown.
- Let the cake cool completely before slicing.
