Farmers Cheese Cakes (Tvarohové Rezy)

This website is starting to have a fairly decent collection of main dishes, so I figured that I should spend the next few months primarily learning how to bake the various cakes (koláče) Slovakia is famous for. After all, one of my favorite things to do in Slovakia is visiting my relatives, especially my aunt Soňa, who always has a plate of sweet treats waiting for us. She makes some amazing rezy, which is a Slovak word for cake slices, often layered, that are cut (rezať) out as squares or rectangles out of a single large cake. And since I had some left over farmers cheese (tvaroh), I figured I should make a cake with it as an ingredient. I wanted to try something different from the old fashioned tvarožník or the cheese and fruit slices. So I went online to google.sk image search and looked for cakes that looked interesting. I found a nice recipe on Varecha.sk, and I decided to try it out.

Dough: 220g (1 3/4 cups) all purpose flour, 120g (one stick) butter, 100g (0.8 cups) powdered sugar, 1 egg, 2 yolks, 4 tsp baking powder, 2 heaping tbsp cocoa
Custard: 500g (1.5 cups) farmers cheese, 4 tbsp corn starch, 1 egg, 3 yolks, 4dl (1 2/3 cups) milk, 1dl (~1/3 cup) oil, 100g (0.8 cups) powdered sugar, 1 packet of vanilla sugar, fruit or berries (optional)
Meringue: 5 egg whites, 5 tbsp powdered sugar
Prep Time: About 30 minutes, and then 30+15 minutes for baking at 390F

The ingredients you will need to make this cake. In addition, you will also need corn starch and vanilla sugar, which I forgot to include in this line up.

Make the Dough

First, get your stove going by preheating it to 390F. Then combine all the ingredients to make the dough. I weighed the ingredients on a kitchen scale. This will give you a more precise measurement than going by volume alone, since the density of powdery substances like flour or powdered sugar can vary quite a bit. I also sifted the flour; this should make it less lumpy and help it blend better.

You will need several egg yolks for this recipe. Don’t forget to save the whites, you will need them later. To separate the yolk from the white, crack the egg in the middle so you get two shell cups. Then gently toss the yolk from one half to the other. The yolk will stay in the cup, but the white will drip down to the bowl. Mix the ingredients together by hand until you get a smooth mixture with the consistency of play dough. Place the dough in the fridge while you go about making the custard.

Make the Custard

Combine the ingredients to make the cheese custard filling. The original recipe called for one packet of Zlatý Klas (Golden Corn Ear). I believe this is the same as corn starch so that’s what I used. I didn’t know how big the standard package of Zlatý Klas is so I used 4 tablespoons of starch. The resulting mixture was a bit thin, sort of like a pancake batter. The original recipe specifically called this out, saying that you shouldn’t worry about it being too thin. Well – the filling in the center of the cake was still liquid when the cake was done baking! But it subsequently solidified in the fridge so I am not quite sure if I did this step correctly. In other words, feel free to experiment. Whisk the custard until you start seeing bubbles. You will also need a packet of vanilla sugar. You can usually find these in European grocery stores, or you can make your own.

Fill and Bake the Cake

Next dust a board with flour and roll the cake out to the size of you baking pan. I used the 9×13 one, but a slightly smaller one would probably be even better. I rolled the dough out directly on the granite counter top in my new apartment, it’s awesome! Brush oil over the pan and dust it with flour. Then, roll the dough onto the rolling pin, and transfer it like this to the pan. Make sure it nicely fills the bottom by spreading it with your fingers if needed.

Then pour the filling over the dough. Add berries or other fruit if you like. Stick the cake in the oven and bake for 30 minutes.

Prepare Egg Whites “Snow”

While the cake is baking, prepare the meringue, which in Slovak is called snow (sneh). Add 5 tablespoons of powdered sugar to the 5 egg whites you should have lying around. Beat or use a blender until you get stiff peaks. Try not to each much along the way – this stuff is really delicious!

Finish Baking

Take the cake out after about 30 minutes and top with the egg white “snow”. I ended up with a fairly thin layer so it’s possible that the original recipe poster used a smaller baking pan. Bake for additional 15 minutes until the top turns brown.

Take out of the oven and let cool off completely. Then cut the cake with a wet knife. Top with powdered sugar. Enjoy! By the way, this cake tasted MUCH better the next day after sitting in the fridge overnight.