Looking for something different to make over Easter? Try Pasha, a traditional Easter time’s dessert in Finland. It’s rich and creamy, but umm, I don’t really know how else to describe it. It’s a bit like a no-bake cheesecake, but cheesecake without the biscuit base and some bits inside. Fromage frais, cream and butter are the key ingredients – sounds delish, right?
Easter Pasha
🍴 Servings: 8
🕒 Hands-on: 15 – 20 minutes
🔷 Setting time: Minimum 8 hours
INGREDIENTS
- 100g butter, softened
- 85g (1dl) caster sugar
- 500g fromage frais
- 1 tsp vanilla sugar or ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 70g (4 tbsp) chopped almonds
- 70g glazed cherries, finely chopped
- 7g (5 sheets) gelatine leaves
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 200ml double cream
STEPS
1 Beat the sugar and softened butter together in a mixing bowl using a hand mixer. Whisk until smooth and pale, for about 2 minutes.
2 Whisk in the fromage frais, vanilla sugar/extract, almonds and cherries. Set aside.
3 Next, in a separate mixing bowl, whip the cream until soft peaks form. Also set aside.
4 Then, bloom the gelatine. To do this, simply place the gelatine leaves into a bowl of cold water one at a time. Soak for about 5 minutes until the leaves have softened and then remove from the water squeezing out the excess liquid.
5 While the gelatine leaves are soaking, heat the lemon juice in a mug in a microwave until very hot. Then, stir the gelatine into the hot liquid. Check the leaves have melted and that the mixture is smooth.
6 Next, add the warm gelatine into the fromage frais mixture. Pour it in very slowly, stirring with a spatula as your pour it. Stir the mixture well to ensure the gelatine is properly incorporated.
7 Finally, fold in the whipped cream. Once everything is mixed, transfer the pasha into a dish or mould of your choice (see my notes below). Level the top using a back of a spoon and cover with cling film. Put in the fridge to set overnight.
8 Day 2: you have two options to serve pasha. The easier option is to dish it out into separate servings bowls and serve like that. The other option is to flip the pasha onto a large plate. To do this, run a knife along the sides of the mould to loosen pasha. Then simply flip the pasha onto a plate and lift the mould. Serve pasha as it is or decorate using your imagination!
Notes:
- Gelatine — Using gelatine can be a bit tricky, but there are a couple of key things to know that should help you. First, boiling affects gelatine’s ability to set. Therefore, it is “safer” to add the gelatine into hot liquid rather than heating it in the pan as you cannot accidentally boil it. Second, make sure to add gelatine into very hot lemon juice as the leaves are cold and will cool down the lemon juice. If your mixture feels cold after adding the gelatine, you can always pop it back in the microwave for another 5 seconds. Just do not let it boil! Third, the most important thing is to add the gelatine-lemon juice into the fromage frais mixture when it’s still warm! This is because the gelatine will begin to set pretty quick when it cools down so you want to mix it into your pasha before it starts setting. In the past I’ve added the gelatine when it’s been barely lukewarm, which has then resulted in not-so-nice strings of gelatine in my finished pasha…
- Serving — It’s up to you how you want to serve the pasha. If you just want to scoop it out into serving bowls, you can use pretty much any dish for setting it (you can even leave it in the mixing bowl if you wish). But, if you want to present it nicely, then I’d recommend using a plastic tub or container as it’s easier to “persuade” it out from that. However, the main thing is that whichever dish you are using, being it one big dish or individual ramekins, the capacity should be about 1 litre (I normally use the empty 500g fromage frais tub and two smaller cream, sour cream or creme frâiche tubs)
- Pasha actually originates from Russia, it’s Russian name ‘Pashka’ literally translates as ‘Easter’. Pasha has loads of recipe and ingredient variations, from cooked to uncooked versions, but the common thing with most recipes is pasha is prepared by draining (up to 24 hours in the fridge using a mould and cheese cloth). Instead of using this method, I prefer setting pasha with gelatine as it makes it less dense and sweet
Main equipment:
Mixing bowl (2L)
Kitchen scales
Measuring spoons
Electric hand mixer
Small mixing bowl (1L)
Silicone/rubber spatula
Chopping board + knife
Plus you’ll need:
Dish to soak gelatine leaves in
Mug/ramekin for heating lemon juice
Dish of your choice, for setting pasha (about 1L)