Soft, golden, and filled with sweet cottage cheese, these protein sochniki are the kind of pastry you can enjoy every day. Made with rice flour and a sugar substitute instead of refined sugar, they are tender, lightly sweet, and surprisingly high in protein. If you love cottage cheese bakes, be sure to try our Strawberry Chocolate Cottage Cheese Bites and the Cottage Cheese Buns with Poppy Seed too.
Ingredients
For the dough
- 100 g (1/2 cup) cottage cheese
- 1 egg
- 130 g (1 cup) rice flour
- 3 g sugar substitute
- Baking powder, a knife-tip amount
For the filling
- 150 g (2/3 cup) cottage cheese
- 3 g sugar substitute
- 1 egg white (reserve the yolk for brushing)
Instructions
- Prepare the dough from the cottage cheese, egg, rice flour, sweetener, and baking powder, then chill it in the freezer for about 10 minutes to firm up.
- Roll out the dough, cut out circles with a glass (about 10 pieces), and fill each with the cottage cheese filling to form sochniki.
- Brush with the reserved egg yolk and bake at 180 C (350 F) for 25 minutes.
Tips
- Chill the dough as directed — cold rice-flour dough is much easier to roll out and cut into neat circles.
- Do not overfill the circles; about a teaspoon of filling per sochniki keeps them tidy and seals well.
- Brush the tops generously with the reserved yolk for a deep golden finish. For more baking know-how with alternative flours, browse the guides at Serious Eats.
Nutrition (per 100 g): 187 kcal, protein 13.5 g, fat 4.3 g, carbs 22.7 g