I was tempted the other day to try a recipe for творожный пудинг, which is sort of a Russian cheesecake. Today I decided to give it a try. It's tricky because the instruction for temperature was vague, and my local stores didn't stock farmer's cheese. So here's how I adapted the ingredients:

Divided up into 4 portions, that's nearly 400 calories per serving. Not something you want to eat at every meal.

Procedure

1. Heat milk. Mix cream of wheat carefully. Heat ten minutes. Cool.
2. Knead ricotta, egg yolks, raisins, vanilla, lemon zest.
3. Knead cream of wheat mixture into ricotta mixture.
4. Beat egg whites and sugar till sugar is dissolved and some air has been incorporated.
5. Fold eggs with ricotta mixture.
6. Pour into greased baking dish.
7. Bake at 375°F for 40 minutes

The result was okay. The beaten eggs gave the result a light texture. The taste was not overly sweet. I should have greased the pan better, or better yet place paper in the bottom of the dish.

What to do for next time?

• Possibly use cottage cheese.
• Possibly raise heat to 400° and reduce time
• Possible only use warm milk so that cream of wheat doesn't congeal before incorporating with ricotta.
• Possibly use finely chopped instant oatmeal instead of cream of wheat so that I can eventually serve it to family members with Celiac disease.
• It took 40 minutes to cook instead of 20, which might be due to the amount of water in the ricotta. Consider using queso blanco, queso fresco, or paneer next time. Or find some place in Phoenix that has farmer's cheese. Or maybe buy творог at Yasha from Russia.