Lithuanian Farmer Cheese Fried Pastry Strips / Varškės žagarėliai

Updated at: Thu, 17 Aug 2023 08:00:48 GMT

Step 1

Mash farmer cheese with eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt in one bowl using a fork.

Step 2

In another bowl, mix together 200 g (1 2/3 cup) of flour with baking powder.

Step 3

Sieve in half of the flour to the farmer cheese batter, mix, then sieve in the other half of the flour and knead the dough. If the dough is very sticky on the hands, then add a little more flour. The amount of flour depends on the moisture of the farmer cheese. My used farmer cheese was quite dry, so I used just a little more than 200 g (1 2/3 cup) of flour. The dough should be soft, slightly sticky on the hands. If you add too much flour, then the pastries will be hard instead of soft.

Step 4

Sprinkle the table surface with flour, take 1/3 of the dough, roll out ~1 cm (~0.4 in.) thickness dough sheet, cut it into 3-4 cm (1-1.5 in.) thickness long strips, and cut them into smaller strips ~10-12 cm (4-4.7 in.) in length. In the middle of each strip, make a ~6-7 cm (2.3-2.7 in.) hole in length. Then grab one end of the strip, fold it, put it through the hole and you’ll have a nice dough pastry (žagarėlis). When you form all the pastries, put them on floury table surface or cutting table.

Step 5

Preheat the oil in a medium size pot or in a large skillet over medium heat. You’ll need as much oil that pastries could float in it.

Step 6

Place the pastries in a preheated oil (fry 5-6 pastries at a time, depending on the size of the pot or skillet). Fry them until one side is nicely golden, then turn over and fry the other side. Then put pastries on a plate with a paper towel to absorb the oil. When the pastries cool down – place on a serving plate and sprinkle with confectioner’s sugar. Enjoy!

Step 7

>> In order to keep pastries soft for longer time – keep them in an airtight container or cover the plate or bowl with a plastic bag.

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