This dill and cottage cheese pie was my grandma’s favorite dessert. It’s a real peacetime recipe from her hand-written cookbook. In fact, it can be regarded as a distant relative of the English cheesecake. The cottage cheese filling is soft and creamy, and the dill makes it fresh.

Ingredients:
For the dough:

• 300 g (~2 1/2 cups) flour
• 120 g (~4 1/4 oz) lard
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 20 g (~3/4 oz) fresh yeast (2 tsp dry yeast)
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 3 heaping tbsp sour cream

For the filling:

• 750 g (~1 2/3 lbs) cottage cheese
• pinch of salt
• 50 g (~1/4 cup) butter, softened
• 4 tbsp sugar
• 3 eggs
• 2 tbsp semolina
• 1 heaping tbsp sour cream
• a bunch of dill, finely chopped

For the topping:

• 200 g (~7 oz) sour cream
• 2 tbsp sugar
• 1 egg yolk

Size of the baking pan: 32×30 cm / 11×12″

Preheat the oven to 180°C / 356°F.

For the dough place all ingredients in a bowl and knead into a smooth and pliable dough. On a floured surface roll out the dough into a rectangle and place in a greased baking pan.

For the filling separate the eggs. Whip the egg whites until stiff peaks form. Combine cottage cheese with egg yolks, salt, butter, sugar, semolina, sour cream and finely chopped dill. Gradually fold the beaten egg whites into the cottage cheese mixture. Spread the filling over the dough evenly.

For the topping add one egg yolk and sugar to the sour cream and stir to combine. Spread on top of the cottage cheese filling. Slide the pan in the preheated oven and bake the cake for about 45-50 minutes.