Štrukle, also štrukli, is a north Croatian type of pastry traditionally filled with cottage cheese (fresh cheese, svježi sir in Croatian). If you are familiar to Turkish cuisine, one could say they are Hırvat peynir böreği, Croatian börek with cheese, but as far as it is known their origin is not influenced by Turkish cuisine. This is in contrast to many dishes from Eastern and Southern Croatia that were for one or more centuries under Ottoman rule – štrukle are from the part of Croatia that was never conquered by the Ottomans.

They are particularly famous in the Zagorje region north of Zagreb, and related to the Slovenian štruklji, a similar, but not identical dish. They may both have started from one dish centuries ago, but later they developed into separate dishes, both among the most traditional local foods in their respective countries. If necessary to avoid misunderstandings, for the Croatian štrukle sometimes zagorski (from Zagorje) is added to the name of the dish. As of 2007 štrukle are listed in the Croatia’s intangible cultural heritage list.

There are two basic serving variants of štrukle. One is boiled (kuhane štrukle), often served sprinkled with butter and roasted breadcrumbs. The other is baked with cream (zapečene štrukle). We will give a recipe for the second type below, but first a word of warning about what I mean by cream here, as cream in different countries has many forms used in cooking and not all are suitable to replace the Croatian style kiselo vrhnje, sour cream. Best is if you find thick sour cream, with fat content around 20 %. Not creme fraiche though! In German-speaking countries Sauerrahm or the slightly fatter Schmand are good choices. Liquid cooking cream can be used, but only mixed with proper sour cream. For example, in Türkiye one can only get the liquid cream (krema), but not proper sour cream – there I would substitute sour cream with a thick fatty yoghurt (süzme yoğurt) and mix it with the liquid cream to achieve a reasonable alternative.

Now, off to the recipe!

Suitable for: Zapečene štrukle are vegetarian, but not vegan. They are halal and kosher.  They contain glutene, eggs and lactose, but they do not contain nuts, soy nor shellfish.

🇭🇷 🇭🇷

🌱🌞🍂☃️

⌚ Ca. 2 hours

Ingredients 🛒 (for 1 baking tray, ca. 35 cm x 25 cm, i. e. ca. 15 small štrukle)

3 eggs, ca. 4 tbsp sunflower oil, 4 tbsp butter, 4 tbsp coarse flour, ca. 15 tbsp soft flour, 200-250 g fresh/cottage cheese, 400 g thick sour cream, ca. 50 g fluid cooking cream, salt, water

How to 🍳

Whisk 1 egg. Add 1/2 a glass of lukewarm water, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tbsp sunflower oil. Stir well, start adding flour. First add 4 tbsp coarse flour, then continue adding, while mixing and kneading soft flour, about 15 tbsp. Knead well untill you get a semi-firm smooth dough. Form into a ball, spread some oil over it. Wrap in plastic, leave half an hour to rest.

Mix the cottage cheese with a few tbsp sour cream, 1 egg and a little bit of salt.

Melt the butter. Spread a little bit on the dough, use the rest to grease the baking tray.

Roll out the dough on floured surface, not as thin as for yufka, about 1 mm thickness is perfect.

Put heaps of the cheese mix in equal distances, roll into a sausage, cut with a plate. If necessary, press the open ends together.

Preheat oven to 180°C.

Bring salted water to a boil. Precook the pillows for ca. 2-3 min (don’t cook more than 3 or 4 at the same time).*  Drain, arrange in the tray.

Bake for 20 min. Take out, turn the oven heat up to 220°C (upper grill, if available).

Pour a mix of the well-stirred rest sour cream with fluid cooking cream and 1 egg over your štrukle.

Bake for about 20-30 min more, until they turn golden in color with darker spots. Enjoy them warm!

* If you want to make cooked štrukle, cook longer, about 5 minutes, until they float, and serve sprinkled with more melted butter and roasted breadcrumbs.