Vatrushka (Ватрушка)
Vatrushka (pronounced vat-ROOSH-kah) is a small, personal-sized open pie filled with fresh cheese. Its appearance somewhat resembles that of a cheese Danish, but it is not the same pastry. Cheese-filled vatrushkas can be sweet and used as desserts or unsweetened and served with soup. When the cheese filling is sweetened, raisins or pieces of other dry or fresh fruits can be added to create a more interesting flavor. Occasionally jam, fruit preserves, mashed vegetables, or even ground meat is used as filling instead of cheese although the resulting pastry should not be really called vatrushka. Finally, there are two main methods for creating the vatrushka shape. The first method produces flatter vatrushkas with more filling relative to the amount of dough. It involves rolling the dough out into a sheet, cutting out circles or squares, and rolling up the edges around the filling in the center. The second method gives you thicker vatrushkas with relatively less filling (see the picture at the end). To make that kind of vatrushkas you would need to divide your dough into individual portions, roll each into a ball, somewhat flatten it, and then make a deep impression in the middle with the bottom of a glass or cup. You would then fill the pit in the middle with the cheese filling. As always, the listed amount of flour is approximate; there are many variables that determine the final flour content in any given batch of dough. Here is a recipe to make sweet vatrushkas:
Ingredients
Dough
- ¼ cup water
- 2 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 packet active dry yeast
- 2 cups all-purpose wheat flour
- 1 egg
- ¼ cup milk
- ⅓ tsp. salt
- 2 tsp. unsalted butter
Filling
- 1 Tbsp. unsalted butter
- 1 lb. fresh unsalted cheese (curds, farmers cheese, cottage cheese) or ricotta cheese
- 1 egg
- 2 Tbsp. sugar
- 1 Tbsp. all-purpose flour
- ¼ tsp. salt
- Bits of raisins of other dry fruit (apricots, prunes, etc.) – small amount and optional.
Additional butter to be used after baking.
Directions
Prepare the Dough
- Heat the water to 110°F; add 1 Tbsp. of sugar, yeast, and ½ cup of sifted flour. Stir well, cover, and leave in a warm place for about an hour. The mix should develop a lot of bubbles and rise.
- Separate the egg white from the yolk. Save the yolk in a cup in the fridge.
- Heat milk to 110°F and add to the mix. Stir in the egg white, salt, and the remaining sugar. Gradually add sifted flour while stirring in one direction (a wooden spatula is preferred). While stirring, keep your spatula close to the center of the mixing bowl instead of rubbing the sides of the bowl with it. When the dough becomes too dense to stir with the spatula, start kneading it by hand while adding small amounts of flour at a time. The end point: A ball of dough with a smooth surface that has just enough flour to prevent it from sticking to your hands. Don’t use more flour than necessary! Note that the butter has not been used at this stage.
- Cover the dough and let it rise in a warm place until it doubles in size. After that, press it down and let it rise one more time.
Prepare the Filling
- Melt the butter without making it hot, and then mix all the ingredients. Caveat: if you are using fresh cheese that has lots of water in it such as cottage cheese, squeeze the water out using a mesh strainer or cheesecloth.
Assemble Vatrushkas
- Dust your work surface with flour and roll out the dough into a sheet about ¼ inch thick. Cut out circles about 5 inches in diameter (you can use a tea saucer for that).
Note: You can cut the sheet into squares instead of circles. Squares may be less visually appealing and less traditional but they save you a good deal of time but completely utilizing the entire sheet of dough. If you opt for the round shape, you would have to re-knead and reuse the dough left between the circles. At the very least you should try to cut as many circles as possible out of each sheet of dough to maximize your work efficiency. Brush up on your geometry!
- Place ½ – 1 Tbsp. of filling in the middle of each circle (the exact amount depends on your vatrushka size and your personal preferences). Do not overfill! Carefully roll up the edges making neat, smooth, and even walls about ⅔ inches in height. Even make them a bit higher if you are afraid you are overfilling. Carefully smoothen the surface of the filling making sure it is even and fills the entire space.
Bake Vatrushkas
- Preheat the oven to 400°F.
- Lightly grease a baking sheet or pan. You can moisten it with water instead especially if it has a non-stick surface. Arrange vatrushkas on the baking sheet some distance apart so they don’t stick together when they expand. Checkerboard arrangement will let you safely fit more vatrushkas on a single baking sheet (geometry again). Let your vatrushkas stand for about 15 minutes in a warm place.
- Meanwhile melt the butter without making it hot, and mix it with the saved egg yolk. Stir very well and remove any clumps.
- After vatrushkas have been rising for 15 minutes, carefully brush a thin layer of the egg yolk/butter mix on the top and most importantly, the dough portion of each pie. Don’t apply force or you’ll damage them!
- Let vatrushkas stand for another 10 minutes and carefully puncture the top in 2-3 places with a fork without puncturing all the way to the bottom. Place them in the oven.
- Baking time will vary but it usually takes 15-25 minutes to obtain a smooth brown crust (see the photo). You can preheat the oven to a higher temperature and then turn down the heat right after you put vatrushkas inside. Testing with a toothpick can help: the toothpick stuck into the crust should come out clean.
- After the baking is finished, immediately place vatrushkas on a wooden board or wire mesh for cooling. Brush on a small amount of melted butter for extra flavor (use a clean brush, not the same one used before baking).
- Let the vatrushkas cool for at least 15 minutes before serving. This is important for full flavor development.
- Enjoy!
Russian name: Ватрушка
Literally 5 stars for the recipe. I have researched on vatrushka recipes in another russian websites, but have come across unprofessional recipe instructions. This is the first russian cuisine website where my dough has risen successfully a few times as instructed and all fluffy. Now I have put my vatruska’s in the oven, waiting for them to get ready. I will post a picture on your facebook page just to show how cool they are. Thanks very much, I will definitely come here for more!
How many does this batch make?
About 10-12 pieces.
Approximately, how much time does the dough rise?
The time depends on the type of yeast and room temperature. To be on the safe side, allow two hours for the first rise and an hour for the second. If your kitchen is warm or you are using a proofing box or proofing mode in your oven, the process may take less time.
Do you have the nutritional information?
Unfortunately we don’t but you can search the Internet for an online calculator that analyzes recipes for calorie count.
who cares? they are delicious!
I’m not normally a baker but would like to try these. If i was adding a dried apricot on top of apricot jam when would I do that?
Fran,
Most dried apricots may be too tough for the texture of vatrushka. It would be a good idea to soak them in hot water for at least half an hour to soften them up. You can then decorate each each vatrushka with a soaked dried apricot right after they come out of the oven. If you soak the apricots well, they may stay moist enough during baking, so you should be able to put them on top of apricot jam even before baking.
Mistakes to correct:
1. You mistake quark for cheese, they’re two different products.
2. It’s not necessarily personal-sized.
The recipes here are designed to work with the ingredients readily available in supermarkets in the US. Quark cheese is not commonly found in US supermarkets.
I followed this recipe exactly, and all was well and good until the bake 🙁 425 for 15 minutes left me with burnt tops and bottoms but undercooked insides.
Ovens vary. You’ll have to find the settings that work best for yours.
Hi,
You wrote to use 1 packet of active dry yeast. Can you please write how many tea spoons is this or grams? We have dry yeast in store selling in jars or boxes.
One packet of active dry yeast is 1/4oz or 7g. The potency and behavior of yeast vary between brands, so the amount is approximate. You can experiment and see what works best for you. You can also use fresh yeast. The usual conversion is 3:1 (e.g. you can use 21g of fresh yeast instead of 7g of dry yeast).