Russian Buttercream - Three Ingredients For A Quick Fix

Vanilla Sponge Cake with Russian Buttercream
Garnished with Macerated Strawberries & Strawberry Sauce

Russian Buttercream

One day I was looking through some recipes for Russian desserts. In the past I've made savory Russian dishes, but never dabbled enough in Russian desserts. It was time to remedy that situation. While I was looking, I stumbled across Russian Buttercream. 

What? Russian Buttercream? How did I not know about this? Three ingredients? Are you kidding me? 

Nope. Three Ingredients: Butter, sweetened condensed milk, and vanilla. That's it! 

That's all you need, and the recipe comes in handy when you are in a hurry and need a frosting ASAP! 

As luck would have it, I already had some 4-inch cakes on hand, because I had planned to make Strawberry Shortcakes. Well, that would still happen, but with Russian Buttercream instead of whipped cream. Yeah, I know, I wasn't making "traditional" strawberry shortcakes using a sweet biscuit base, but sometimes we like to switch things up. 

So I go to the food safe to find a can of sweetened condensed milk. We always have that stuff on hand. I rummage. I grab the flashlight so I can look in every corner on every shelf. What? How do we not have any? We always have it! 

Classic case of: "We always have that ingredient on hand when we don't need it, but when we need it we don't have it." It happens sometimes. No rush. Testing delayed for a few days.

The Recipe

Easy as pie! (Actually easier than pie, since making a pie requires more of a time commitment.) Grab 2 sticks of butter from the fridge and set them out until they soften. They should be a little firm, not to the point where they are the consistency of Pond's Cold Cream. (Do they even make that anymore? That might be a bad example.) Not to the consistency of mayo. They should be firm, but not mushy. 

Take out one can of sweetened condensed milk and have your vanilla on hand. 

When the butter is ready, beat it with a mixer on medium speed for 5 minutes. It should look considerably lighter. If you're using a stand mixer, use a spoon and coax the condensed milk into the bowl a little at a time while the mixer is still running. Alternatively, just add in small increments, stopping the mixer between each addition. You can do it 3 to 4 ounces at a time. Add vanilla in at any of those points. 

If your butter seems too soft or the mixture looks like it might be separating, just pop it in the fridge for a few minutes, then take it out and whip it some more. (I had to do that a couple of times because it was pretty warm in the kitchen when I made it.)

So easy. It has a good flavor and is not too sweet, and it has a silky mouth feel. You can pipe it and it will hold its shape, as seen in the photo above. If your hands are hot, work quickly or take breaks and pop the piping bag in the fridge for a few minutes. 

How Does It Hold Up?

If your sweet creation is going to be consumed pretty quickly, using this frosting is not a problem. It will be okay for a few hours if the temperature where it's being held isn't too warm. I frosted a cupcake to test out what would happen to the frosting overnight and the frosting started to lose cohesion and get oily. The cake in the above photo was in the refrigerator overnight and looked just as good the next day. If you go that route, just take the cake out 30 minutes to an hour before serving so it can soften up a bit. If you have stored cakes in the refrigerator before, you know what I mean. 

For Chocolate Russian Buttercream, just add 1/2 to 1 cup of cocoa and whip it with a mixer until well combined. 

Yes, this recipe is a winner. It's a good idea to keep some sweetened condensed milk in your pantry so you can make this recipe instead of relying on one that is commercially made. The flavor is miles above the canned stuff!

Vanilla Sponge Cake with Russian Buttercream,
Macerated Strawberries, and Lemon Curd

Vatrushky Night...Fun with Food!

A Lovely Vatrushka

Vatrushky, (the plural of vatrushka, much like kolache is the plural of kolach), are Russian cheese tarts that are savory instead of sweet. These tarts are very popular in the Ukraine and often served with dishes such as borscht.

I was doodling around one night, looking in a cookbook when I ran across a recipe for vatrushky. Had to try it out, of course.

The recipe called for cottage cheese which had to be drained for a few hours. For those interested, I used the entire tub of cottage cheese (16 ounces), and ended up with 2/3 of a cup of cottage cheese swill. (Which would have been great to use in another recipe, but alas! I didn't save it.)

These tarts are rolled out by hand but if you have some of those nifty mini-tart pans, those would do, too. Heck, you could get away with using a pie pan and just making one big one. But in the interest of making them the traditional way, I rolled them out.

These tarts are gooooood. The dough is superb. I think that it would be great in place of regular pie dough to make pies. I'm telling you, this is the closest recipe I've had where the dough tasted like communion wafers. If it was rolled thin enough, it would almost be spot on.

Anyhoo, I'm sure it was the sour cream in the recipe that made the dough so heavenly. Here's a link to a good vatrushky recipe if you're interested: Ukrainian Classic Kitchen. This is not the same recipe I used when I made my vatrushky, but it's close enough for a handshake.

Please enjoy my pictorial vatrushky adventure:

Roll out the dough: 4" circles

Crimp the sides

Add the filling

Glaze the whole tart with egg wash

The finished vatrushka!!

Happy Eating, Boys & Girls! :) 



Beef Stroganov

This is a dish that I hadn't made from scratch in at least 10 years, until last night. I used to live with someone who didn't like "wet dishes," that is--any dishes that were a "one-pot" meal with meat, veggies & gravy. The only exceptions were chili, soup, stew and even "Hamburger Helper" once in a while.

Even so, I made "wet dishes" on occasion and they were eaten and enjoyed. Some of them were even accepted into the house menu. Unfortunately, Beef Stroganov (or, if you prefer, Stroganoff), wasn't one of them.

There are a lot of variations for this recipe. Most of them contain beef, onions and sour cream. That's usually where the similarity ends. Some recipes have mushrooms and tomato sauce, but not all. Some recipes call for service with egg noodles; some call for rice.

I found a recipe that was shared with a traveler and it's supposed to be authentic. The preparation is a bit unusual. The onions are placed in the pan and the meat is placed on top of them and cooked on top of the onions until it has a "gloss." Only then are the sauce ingredients added. Then everything is mixed together and served with a Russian version of fried potatoes. There are no mushrooms in the authentic recipe.

The recipe, (and some history regarding Beef Stroganov), can be found here: "Vikalinka." 

I'm planning on trying the Vikalinka's recipe very soon. The recipe I used last night was a lot less labor intensive than the recipe I used over 10 years ago. It calls for beef, mushrooms, onions, wine, butter, powdered mustard, a touch of sugar and only 1/2 cup of sour cream. It's a good recipe, and we had our Stroganov served over fusilli. It's not a very colorful dish, but it's damn good.

Beef Stroganov
Fresh Green Beans
Fresh Kale with Bacon & Onions

 

I found another Russian recipe I'll be making in a few days or so. I like to make these recipes not just for eating, but because it's fun to shout out the recipe in Russian when someone asks what I'm making. Almost as fun as it is shouting in German. :)

Have a great day, great adventures in your kitchen and happy eating! :)