Traditional Croatian baked Cheese Štruklji

I made this the other day, and it was such an epic accomplishment that I felt the need to share it with you, my faithful readers (if there are any of you left after my long hiatus). My mom (who’s from Croatia), makes this all the time, so I figured what the heck, why not try it. little did I know, it is a lot harder than it looks! However, I think my final product came out pretty good, so here it goes.

This is my mom in Croatia when she was about a year old:

First, you need to make the dough. You will need

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup warm water
• 1/4 cup oil
• 1 tsp salt
• 3- 4 cups flour

Mix wet ingredients together, then slowly add the flour, one cup at a time, using either an electric mixer or the good old fashioned way, with your hands. Here’s what it should look like:

Let the dough rest for ten minutes. Now you are ready to make your filling. I like cheese strudel, but you can also make apple strudel. We’ll just go with cheese for now.

• One 24-oz container cottage cheese
• One 24-oz container ricotta cheese (my own little change from my mom’s recipe)
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup sugar

Cover a big round table with a tablecloth, or if you don’t have a tablecloth, use wax paper. Cut the dough into two balls.

Next, roll the dough as thin as humanly possible. This is the difficult part. See that jar in the middle of the table? That’s what I used because I don’t own a rolling pin. And I did it, so you can too. Basically, you will roll out the dough for a while until you think it’s pretty darn thin, then you will call your mom and she will be like, “you think that’s thin? Keep rolling!” Just keep rolling it out until your wrists are on fire, or until you just can’t take it anymore. Then use your hands and gently pull the dough until paper thin. It will crack and break, but just patch the cracks and keep rolling.

At this point, you will need one of these:

After a much needed break, spread the filling on the dough.

From opposite ends, roll the dough with the tablecloth (or wax paper) until the rolls meet in the middle.

Cut in half and place in two 9″x 13″x 2″ pans that have been buttered generously. Getting in into the pan is fairly difficult because the dough is so thin. It probably will break and leak out on the bottom. Don’t panic. Just get it into the pan, it will taste good either way. Press the dough together where it was cut so the filling doesn’t leak out. Lastly, bake in a 375 deg oven for 35 minutes or until golden brown.

If you can make it this far without tasting it, (which I couldn’t), cut the baked roll down the middle, then cross-wise into small pieces. Add some powdered sugar and serve!