Festive for Shavuot: Yeast pastry with sweet cheese and fruit

For the holiday evening itself, or maybe for an afternoon coffee, it really doesn’t matter with this fragrant and wonderful pastry.

 Yeast pastry with sweet cheese and fruit (photo credit: NIMROD SAUNDERS, Styling: Talia Hadar)
Yeast pastry with sweet cheese and fruit
(photo credit: NIMROD SAUNDERS, Styling: Talia Hadar)

Some people love crumbly cheesecake, and in recent years, the Basque cake has taken over this niche. But for others, the Shavuot holiday is a great excuse to make a yeast pastry with sweet cheese, known as "geviniot" in old-school bakeries. This is an impressive single pastry full of various kinds of berries.

Ingredients:

500 grams yeast flour

70 grams sugar

1 container yogurt (200 grams)

2 eggs

120 grams soft butter, cut into small cubes

A pinch of salt

For the filling:

350 grams cream cheese

3 tablespoons instant pudding powder

1 egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Zest of one lemon

1 cup berries you like—you can mix different kinds, and frozen ones are fine too

Preparation instructions:

1. In a mixer with a dough hook, mix all the dough ingredients except the butter for one minute.

2. Add the butter and continue kneading for about 8 to 10 minutes on medium speed.

3. Cover and let rise for one hour at room temperature or overnight in the fridge.

4. After rising, divide the dough in half and roll each half into a thin rectangle.

5. Prepare the cream – mix all cream ingredients in a bowl until smooth (you can do it by hand or with a mixer).

6. Generously fill the dough with the cream and place the berries on top, then roll into a roulade.

7. Cut the roulade into spirals and place them on a baking tray.

8. Let rise again for about an hour.

9. Brush with a beaten egg and bake in a preheated oven at 185°C for about 40 minutes. When done and still hot, generously glaze with cold sugar syrup (half a cup sugar and half a cup water boiled in a small pot over high heat for 10 minutes into a thick syrup).

Rotem Liberzon, in collaboration with Sugat