Easter Cheese Mold: Pashka
- 2 pounds homemade cottage cheese or farmer's cheese
- 1 1/2 cups sugar
- 8 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature, cut into pieces
- 6 large hard-cooked egg yolks, crumbled
- 1 1/2 cups heavy or whipping cream
- 3/4 cups ground almonds
- 1/2 lemon, zest grated
- 1 teaspoon lemon extract
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 large vanilla bean, split lengthwise
- 1/2 cup golden raisins
- Chopped candied fruits, for decoration
- In a large bowl, combine the cottage cheese or farmer's cheese, sugar, cream cheese, and egg yolks, stirring to mix.
- In batches, process the mixture in a food processor, adding an equal amount of cream to each batch, until completely smooth.
- Transfer back to the bowl.
- Stir in the ground almonds, lemon zest, lemon extract, and vanilla extract.
- Scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean and add them to the cheese mixture along with the raisins.
- Mix thoroughly.
- Line a clean, unused 8-cup flower pot with a double layer of rinsed and squeezed-dry cheesecloth.
- Spoon the cheese mixture into the lined pan, then fold the ends of the cheesecloth neatly over the top.
- Place a saucer on the cheesecloth, then a 2-pound weight, such as a can, on the saucer.
- Put the flower pot in a bowl large enough for the liquid to drain into.
- Refrigerate for at least 12 hours.
- Empty the bowl.
- Unmold the pashka onto a serving plate and carefully remove the cheesecloth.
- Decorate with candied fruit, pressing some of the fruit into the pashka to form the letters XP, which stands for Khristos voskres ("Christ has risen").
s cheese, sugar, cream cheese, egg yolks, whipping cream, ground almonds, lemon, lemon, vanilla, vanilla bean, golden raisins, candied fruits
Taken from www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/easter-cheese-mold-pashka-recipe.html (may not work)