Cottage Cheese Apple Pie

For those who don't like cottage cheese casserole but ready to give it a second chance!

This pie will surprise those people who don't like cottage cheese casserole but who are brave enough to give it a second chance!

The code name for the pie is "Bednodemyanovsky" (I can totally see how my readers are now googling it :))) I'll give you a clue: it is the town which gave me many wonderful memories when I was a child, and so the recipe comes from this town as well, thanks to my great aunt! It seems to me that due to these family recipes the memory remains, relatives don't lose each other and the very concept of family is still alive. You must agree that it's much more pleasant and reliable to call your mom and talk to her while asking about this recipe than to search for it via the Internet.

But now let's get back to the pie - well, to the recipe. From the one hand, its crust is chopped dough, not the rough puff pastry one but its variation: such a dough doesn't have liquid so the cooking process accelerates. In this way, the dough doesn't become wet but just soaks with the sweet cottage cheese filling. From the other hand, the filling is the cottage cheese casserole, the one from my childhood. And crunchy crumb topping makes this pie really magical!

Ingredients:

Dough:

• 2 cups flour,
• 125 g butter,
• 1⁄3 cup (70 g) sugar,
  It's better to use small sugar because it dissolves and doesn't crunch in the teeth.

Filling:

• 2 eggs,
• ½ cup (100 g) sugar (you can put less if apples are sweet),
• 300 g cottage cheese,
• 100 g sour cream,
• 500 g apples (4 small and 3 medium),
• 1 tsp cinnamon,
• 1⁄4 tsp salt.

Additionally:

Butter to grease a baking dish.

Process:

An oven and a baking dish:

• grease the baking dish with butter and set parchment paper on top,
• preheat the oven to 170° C.

Filling:

• wash the apples, cut it into quarters and remove the core,
• slice each of these quarters in half and cut it into thin slices,
• in a large bowl beat together the eggs, salt and sugar,

• add cottage cheese, sour cream and cinnamon into the egg-sugar mixture, whisk until smooth,

• mix the apples with the cottage cheese mix.

Dough:

• chop flour, butter and sugar but remember that its crumbs should stay cold. Don't make the crumbs by hands: if the butter melts, it will soak the flour and the crust of your pie will be rough.

"Put together" the pie:

• put the half of the crumbs into the baking dish,
• press the crumbs into the bottom and up sides of the baking dish, it's the crust of the pie,

• fill the crust with the pie filling,
• sprinkle the crumbs evenly over the pie.

Baking and serving:

• bake for 45 minutes at 170° until the pie is golden brown,
• when the pie is done, take it out of the oven and let cool for 1 hour.