Easy ricotta doughnuts Túrófánk

February is the awaited doughnut (fánk) season in Hungary. There are lots of Farsang parties and fancy dress parties for the kids the whole month. There is no such celebration without some form of the deep fried sugary goodness of doughnut and it is always something to look forward to! There are lots of different types, but the most loved one is the Viennese style yeasty dough doughnut I made last week. It is a tricky one and it didn't turn out as attractive as it should, although my family still polished it off! It needs more practise! But there is a much easier and lighter doughnut made with curd cheese túró hence its name túrófánk. Here in England I make it with ricotta and it's just perfect. There is no yeast involved so it is much quicker and no anxiety over collapsing dough and shapeless end result. And it's a lovely light dessert with the scent of vanilla and lemon, you can serve with apricot jam traditionally or with anything that takes your fancy. My family suggested chocolate, dulce di leche, whipped cream filling, all sound delicious. This quantity makes 25 golf ball size doughnuts and they are great as a dessert or brunch or an afternoon snack. 

250g ricotta cheese

3 eggs

2tbsp caster sugar

150g plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp grated lemon zest

few drops of vanilla extract

sunflower oil for frying

caster sugar to coat

apricot jam to serve

Beat the eggs and the caster sugar, add the ricotta, vanilla extract, lemon zest and mix well. Add the bicarbonate of soda and the flour and mix until smooth. Let it rest for 30 to an hour. Heat the oil to medium temperature, I used a smallish pan with about 3cm of oil so not really deep frying, but enough to give a good depth for the doughnuts. With the help of a couple of teaspoons, scoop and drop little dough balls into the oil and fry for 2-3 minutes each side until dark golden doughnut colour and cooked through. Lift onto kitchen paper and roll around in a ball of caster sugar. I filled them with apricot jam or serve it on the side.

Rákóczi Túrós Baked meringue cheese cake

Here is another good old curd cheese cake recipe. There are thousands in Hungarian baking! This one is a huge favourite with everyone and one of the staples you can get in any cakeshop. I have been planning to make Rákóczi túrós for a while, and recently found a Polish curd cheese/cottage cheese in Asda that is very similar to the one you get in Hungary. I was very excited to try it (Saddo). You could use ricotta too. This cake is named after the French trained János Rákóczi, the Hungarian royal master patissier. He created this cake for the 1958 World Expo in Brussels as part of a selection of Hungarian dishes to represent what is quintessentially magyar in our cuisine. Rákóczi's recipe has been changed and altered by many over the years to suit changing tastes, but I followed his basic original recipe as I think it is the best and tastiest of all. He suggests a lettuce pattern of meringue and apricot jam on top, which I think is very retro in its looks and takes too long to fiddle with. So I made a plain meringue topping that I drizzled with jam (using my new drizzling gadget I got from my aunt). You could add more filling or more meringue as you wish.

For the pastry base:

250g plain flour

60g icing sugar

2 egg yolks

grated zest of half lemon

100ml sour cream

pinch of bicarbonate of soda

pinch of salt

For the filling:

500g curd cheese (or strained cottage cheese, ricotta)

3 egg yolks

2 egg whites

200ml sour cream

grated zest of half a lemon

few drops of vanilla extract

100g icing sugar

4 tbsp semolina and more for sprinkling

For the meringue topping:

4 egg whites

150g caster sugar

Mix the pastry ingredients together until you get a shortcrust pastry type of dough and rest it for half an hour in the fridge. Preheat oven to 180C and roll out the pastry to about 5mm thickness and place in a baking tray, I used a 20x30cm tray with 3cm sides. It doesn't need lining and I cut the pastry to the size of the tray base. Prick it with a fork in several places. Bake it for 10 minutes, it doesn't need to be fully baked, just dry enough for the filling to go on top. Let it cool and make the filling.

Push the curd cheese through a potato mincer. Mix the egg yolks with the icing sugar until smooth an pale, add the vanilla etxract, curd cheese, sour cream, semolina, lemon zest.  Beat the egg whites until stiff and gently fold into the filling. Sprinkle the pastry with semolina and spread the filling on top evenly. Turn the oven down to 160C and bake it for about 20 minutes or until the filling has cooked through and when tested with a wooden skewer, it comes out dry. Take it out of the oven and make the meringue topping. Beat the 4 egg whites until stiff peaks form then add the caster sugar gradually. Spread the meringue mix on top of the cheese cake and bake it ready in the oven. I turned the oven up to 180C to start with to get that crisp meringue coat going, then turned it down to 140C to let the meringue centre bake a little but still keeping that lovely marshmallow texture. It really only needs to dry up a bit. When ready, cool it down and cut into squares or slices, drizzle with apricot jam.

Túrós batyu - Sweet ricotta parcels

This is a delicious breakfast pastry to go with your morning coffee. Available in all patisseries and pastry stalls wherever you are in Hungary. The filling is traditionally made of the creamy cow's curd cheese that is used in so many Hungarian desserts. This is not available in the UK so I used a mixture of ricotta and strained natural cottage cheese instead, which worked really nicely. 

This recipe makes about 25 parcels. It freezes well or keeps in the fridge for a few days. Warm it up in the oven before serving and sprinkle with icing sugar.

For the pastry:

600 g plain flour

320 ml milk

1 egg, beaten

pinch of salt

2 tbsp caster sugar

80 g melted butter

2,5 g fresh yeast or 1 packet (7g) dried yeast

Dissolve the yeast in luke warm milk and leave it for 10-15 minutes until it melts and starts to activate. If using dried yeast, you can add this straight to the flour. Sift the flour, salt, sugar in a mixing bowl, mix well. Add the egg, milk and yeasty milk to the flour mix and knead it for a good 10 minutes with a dough hook or by hand until you get a sticky dough. Add the melted butter and knead it for another 5 minutes or until the butter is well mixed in and the pastry has a nice, smooth, elastic texture. Cover it with a wet tea towel or clingfilm and leave it in a warm place for about an hour until it has doubled in size.

In the meantime make the filling.

For the filling:

200g ricotta cheese

200g natural cottage cheese (strain through a sieve if too watery)

4 tbsp semolina

3 tbsp caster sugar

few drops of vanilla essence

grated zest of 1 lemon

3 tbsp sultanas

1 egg, separated

Mix the ricotta, cottage cheese, semolina, sugar, vanilla essence, lemon zest and sultanas and the egg yolk in a bowl. Beat the egg white until firm peaks form then gently fold into the ricotta mix. If it feels too runny, add a bit more semolina. It should have a creamy but not runny texture.

Tip the dough on to a floured work surface and punch once or twice to knock it back. Roll it out with a rolling pin to about 3mm thick and cut into 10cmx10cm squares. Put a tablespoon of ricotta mix on the centre of each one, pinch all 4 corners together and give it a twist to close the parcel. Carefully place them on some parchment paper on a large baking tray, cover with a damp cloth and leave it in a warm place to rest and prove again (20-30 minutes). While you are waiting for the parcels to prove, preheat the oven to 180C/gas mark 6. Once they have risen, lightly glaze each parcel with a little beaten egg and bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes.

Allow to cool on a wire rack then dust with some icing sugar.