Cheese Casserole (zapekanka)

Zapekanka is a very traditional dish. I remember my mom baking zapekanka every week and family never got tired of it. My favorite was with raisins and drizzled with condensed milk on the top. Fresh berries were not available in Ukraine for the winter season, so my mom would always have canned apricot jam for zapekanka and pancakes. Nothing can beat homemade cheese casserole, especially when you cook for your own family, you do it the best you can. I’ve tried many ideas for zapekanka and this one is my favorite so far. All family loves it. Farmers cheese is very healthy as we all know and this is one of the reasons why I love to make this cheese casserole. If you don’t have farmers cheese in your area, you can use cream cheese as well. I like to bake it at the evening and leave it in the half open oven overnight. Then, in the morning zapekanka is soft and juicy.

Super easy to make with minimum time and skills required, this Cheese Casserole will make your whole family happy about their breakfast, snack or just as dessert.

Ingredients:

1lb+2tbsp farmers cheese or 3 packs 8oz cream cheese ( room temperature)

5 eggs

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

3 1/2 tbsp semolina flour (manka)

2 Tsp baking powder

Condensed milk to drizzle on the top of zapekanka

6 big strawberries sliced + 2 tbsp of sugar (optional for garnish)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

With a bigger spoon mix all ingredients well and let the semolina rise for 20-30 minutes. Don’t mix it with a mixer , we will do that later. For now just mix it with a plain spoon to get all ingredients mixed together.

Only after that, you wanna mix it with a hand mixer.

Mix it for 3 minutes. Make sure you don’t have any chunks or small pieces of cheese.

Using a medium baking pan, round or square doesn’t matter, pour cheese mixture into a pan. Bake for 25 minutes. I usually check my casserole with a toothpick in the middle. I baked this zapekanka for many times, that I found that 25 minutes is the best timing for it. You might take out the zapekanka from the oven and cover it with a clean towel not to get dry ends and wait at least 30-40 minutes for it to cool down or you can do it my way : turn off your oven, open it half way and leave it there overnight. Then in the morning it will be perfect temperature to be served.

Serve each slice drizzled with condensed milk.  Mix sliced strawberries with sugar until juice forms( mix for about 1 min) and pour over zapekanka.