I already have a recipe for choux pastries with buttercream, and today's recipe is their close cousin. Many people love choux pastries filled with cottage cheese cream — often even more than the pure buttercream version. These pastries turn out incredibly tender, with a lovely creamy cottage cheese flavor and aroma. For the cream, I used soft 9% fat cottage cheese combined with buttercream, and I also added a little condensed milk for extra flavor and a softer texture. If you like a generous amount of cream in your rings — like I have here, where it peeks out from the sides — increase the cream quantity by one and a half times. This recipe made 20 rings.
Ingredients:
- Dough:
- 200 ml water
- 150 g flour
- 100 g butter
- 3-4 eggs
- a pinch of salt
- Cream:
- 300 g cottage cheese (9%)
- 170 g butter
- 100 g powdered sugar
- 50 g condensed milk
- 1 tbsp. cognac
- vanilla powder on the tip of a knife
How to cook choux rings with cottage cheese cream
Add all the flour at once and start stirring. Once the dough comes together into a ball, continue stirring for another minute so the flour is fully cooked. Then remove from heat and let cool until warm (about 10 minutes).
Beat the first three eggs into the dough one at a time, mixing well after each addition. Beat the fourth egg in a cup and add it gradually. The dough should become smooth and pliable, but not too runny. You may need slightly more or fewer eggs. I needed 3 and a half eggs (large size).
Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a tip and pipe rings onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper. You can smooth down any tails with a wet finger. The rings will puff up about 2–3 times in size during baking, so don't make them too large. If you don't have a piping bag and tips, you can squeeze the dough from a sturdy zip-lock bag with a corner snipped off.
Bake in an oven preheated to 200°C (390°F) for about 20–25 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 170°C (340°F) and bake for another 5–10 minutes. Let the finished rings cool completely.
Make the cream. For this cream, it's essential to use powdered sugar, not granulated sugar. Granulated sugar won't dissolve when beaten into butter, so the cream will stay grainy instead of becoming light and fluffy. For the same reason, avoid vanilla sugar — vanilla powder works much better here. The butter must be at room temperature and soft (take it out of the fridge ahead of time). Beat the butter and powdered sugar together very thoroughly until the mixture is pale and fluffy. Add the cognac, condensed milk, and vanilla powder, then beat again.
Press the cottage cheese through a fine-mesh strainer or sieve beforehand. This step is non-negotiable — it's the only way to get a smooth, silky filling. Add the strained cottage cheese to the whipped buttercream and beat thoroughly until completely smooth and homogeneous.
Fill the choux rings. If you have a narrow tube tip, you can fill them by poking a hole through the side if you like, though the cream is fairly thick and this can be quite tricky. In commercial bakeries, choux pastries are filled under pressure, which is hard to replicate at home. The easiest and most accessible method is the one I use here: slice each ring in half, then pipe the cream from a pastry bag.
I strongly recommend refrigerating the filled choux rings for at least 1–2 hours in a covered container — they taste so much better chilled! The cream sets up beautifully, the cottage cheese flavor becomes more pronounced, and the choux pastry itself gets much softer and more tender as it absorbs moisture from the cream. Dust with powdered sugar through a fine sieve just before serving. These choux rings with cottage cheese cream are incredibly tender, soft, and creamy! Absolutely delicious!
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