10 minutes to prepare, 15 minutes to cook)
This is a traditional Romanian recipe. It is so traditional that in fact these days if you ask people on the street what is “papanasi” 99% will tell you a kind of donut with sour cream and confiture. Because this is how it is sold by the restaurants. But traditional recipe is different.
These days my wife made me a surprise after making some order in the fridge, where a box of low fat cottage cheese was on the brink of expiring (we are not fans of low fat dairy products). The smell in the kitchen was so good, I had to guess what is cooking, but I failed. When I was allowed to look through the oven glass I saw the “papanasi” – one of the tastes from the childhood. Made from cottage cheese not from flour. My wife added an exotic touch by adding some coconut flakes and a healthy note by choosing to cook them in the oven instead of frying. They were so good that the entire tray was finished in minutes.
If I have raised your curiosity or triggered some childhood memories, let’s see the ingredients for 4 servings and the steps to prepare:
- Cottage cheese 375-400g / 13-14oz; should be with low water content (otherwise you can press it with a towel).
- 2 eggs
- 3-4 tablespoons of wheat flour
- Coconut flakes 30g / 1oz or upon your taste.
- 2 tablespoons of raw/unrefined sugar (not too full 😊)
- One tablespoon of oil (we use sunflower first press filtered type for cookies due to its neutral taste vs cold pressed unfiltered one and a higher smoking point)
- A pinch of salt
Nutritional info: 235 calories per serving of 4 papanasi (150g), of which:
- Fats: 10g of which saturated 6g
- Carbohydrates 16,5g of which sugars 10g
- Proteins: 17 g
- Fibers: 0g (if white wheat flour is used)
Steps:
- Pre warm the oven at 150°C (300°F).
- Mix the cheese with salt, sugar, coconut flakes and the eggs yolk.
- Mix the egg whites until a foam is obtained and add it to the above composition, mixing slowly.
- Add the flour to the composition mixing slowly
- Put the baking paper in the oven tray and grease it with very small amount of oil
- Using a spoon put from the composition on the baking paper, you will get some mounds.
- Grease the mounds with oil (just a little bit only) .
- Put the tray in the preheated oven (150°C /300°F), bake for 10 minutes then remove the tray, turn the papanasi on the other side with a spatula and let them baking for another 5 minutes.
Of course, you can adapt the composition in many ways so you can satisfy your own preferences. Curious to see if you liked it or whether you tried also other variations.
