Choux pastry rings with curd – Russian curd rings with French background

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These sweet rings are made of a fluffy choux pastry and a creamy curd filling. They taste sour-sweet, tender and incredibly delicious. In the Soviet Union, curd rings were one of the most popular pastries and were sold in many pastry shops. Here I’ll show you how easy it is to bake them at home. A detailed recipe for the curd-filled choux pastry rings with exact quantities and step-by-step instructions can be found here at the very bottom.

Sweet seduction from the Soviet era of French origin

Actually, choux pastry is a specialty of French cuisine. However, along with eclairs, it was hard to imagine Soviet pastry shops and bakeries without choux pastry rings. They were offered with various creams and even without filling, but only sprinkled with powdered sugar. Both children and adults loved the curd rings. And if you were to ask someone from the Soviet era about the pastries, they would definitely describe them as traditionally Russian. Especially the tvorog filling made the choux pastry rings a typical Russian pastry.

Shape Russian curd rings

Fill the choux pastry into a piping bag with an 8 mm diameter nozzle or a star-shaped nozzle and pipe rings onto a baking tray lined with baking paper. Keep in mind that the rings will increase in size as they bake and leave enough space between them. Also, do not make the hole in each ring too small, otherwise it will disappear during baking.

The choux pastry rings with tvorog or curd?

If you want to make the rings typically Russian, use tvorog for it. First puree it with a hand blender, so that it does not contain any grains, and then add it to the butter-sugar mixture. You can buy tvorog in some supermarkets, Russian stores or online. You can also easily make tvorog at home. If you don’t have any tvorog at hand, you can fill the choux pastry rings with curd. They are also very tasty with it.

Alternative filling without butter for the choux pastry rings

You don’t like cream with butter or just want to make the filling a little lighter? Then fill the choux pastry rings with the cream cheese. For this you need

• 400 g cream cheese,
• 350 g cream,
• 80 g powdered sugar.

This is how you prepare the cream cheese filling for the rings:

1. Whip cream cheese and powdered sugar to a homogeneous creamy mass.
2. Add the cream and whip until stiff.

How do I fill the Russian curd rings?

I didn’t want to cut my rings and had filled them with a piping bag. If you want to do it the same way, you’ll need a long, thin piping nozzle. You fill the piping bag with the cream, carefully insert the piping nozzle into the side or bottom of each ring and pipe the cream into the cavity of the pastry. Otherwise, you can cut each choux pastry ring in half lengthwise, spread the curd cream on the bottom half and then place the top part on top.

The secret tip: choux pastry rings without filling

In the Soviet era, the sweet rings were available in some confectioneries without filling. They consisted only of choux pastry and were dusted with powdered sugar on top. For many, they were a favorite pastry back then – and not without reason. Because the choux pastry rings also taste delicious on their own, without any cream. Just try it out! But do not forget to dust them with powdered sugar, because the dough is not sweetened. By the way, the preparation of such rings is even faster. For this you just need to make the choux pastry, spray the rings and bake. No cream needs to be prepared for this. There is also no need to fill the rings.

Serve and store choux pastry rings with curd

Choux rings taste best fresh, the day they are made. You should chill them for just a few hours after you have filled them, so that the cream can set. Store the choux pastry rings in the refrigerator and consume them within the first 2-3 days at the latest. If you store them too long, the curd filling will soften the choux pastry and the dough will become a bit mushy instead of fluffy.

These Russian curd rings are

• creamy,
• fluffy,
• tender,
• sour-sweet,
• very tasty,
• made of choux pastry,
• filled with curd cream,
• easy to prepare from ordinary ingredients,
• ideal for dessert with coffee, tea or for a party,
• popular classic of the Soviet era.

Choux pastry rings filled with curd: the recipe

The exact quantities and step-by-step instructions, according to which you can make Russian curd rings at home, you can find here below in the box recipe.

The recipe for Russian curd rings is quite simple. Especially if you’ve made the choux pastry at home before, for example for cream puffs, you know how it works. The curd filling is ready in a flash – you need very few ingredients.

For the choux pastry you need

• butter,
• eggs,
• flour,
• water
• and a pinch of salt.

The butter should be room warm. So get it out of the fridge about 30 minutes beforehand.

For the curd filling you need

• tvorog or curd,
• butter,
• sugar
• and vanilla.

Make choux pastry rings at home: this is how it works

1. For the dough, briefly boil butter, water and salt. Stir in flour briskly and burn the dough until it comes off the bottom of the pot as a lump, leaving a white layer of starch there. Let the dough cool to lukewarm and stir in as many eggs, one at a time, until it is shiny and clings to the wooden wooden spoon in peaks.
2. Pour the batter into a piping bag, pipe rings onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper and bake at 190 °C for about 30 minutes until golden brown. Let the choux pastry rings cool down afterwards.
3. For the filling, whip soft butter, sugar and vanilla to a creamy white mass. Add quark or tvorog pureed with a hand blender and whip to a homogeneous cream.
4. Fill the choux pastry rings with the curd cream and chill for a few hours, then dust with powdered sugar. The Russian curd rings are ready!

Preparing curd rings: with these tips and tricks you will succeed

• If you are using tvorog for the filling, first puree it with a hand blender.
• You can adjust the amount of sugar for the filling, depending on how sweet you like the pastry. Note that the choux pastry does not contain sugar and only the filling is sweetened.
• Instead of curd butter cream, you can make the filling with cream cheese. For that, read my notes here above.
• Instead of filling the rings with a piping bag, you can cut them in half lengthwise, spread the filling on the bottom half of each, and then place the top half on top.
• By the way, the choux pastry rings are also delicious just dusted with powdered sugar and without any filling at all.
• Store the curd rings in the refrigerator. They will keep for about 2 – 3 days.

This is how it works with the choux pastry:

• The milk with butter should be boiled only very briefly. The butter must be melted before boiling. Therefore, use room-warm butter and cut it into pieces before adding it to the milk.
• Flour should be added to the milk-butter mixture as soon as you take it off the stove and stir thoroughly.
• It is best to stir with a wooden spoon.
• The dough dumpling must be burnt off, i.e. heated in the saucepan, stirring and turning constantly, until it comes off the bottom of the saucepan as a dumpling and leaves a white starch layer.
• Eggs may be added to the choux paste once it has cooled down (to about lukewarm), otherwise there will be boiled eggs in the dough.
• The most important thing for the choux pastry is the right consistency. For this, the amount of eggs in the recipe is always approximate. You might not need the last egg completely, or you might need a small amount of one more egg in addition. So, to achieve the right consistency from the choux pastry, proceed as follows: Don’t add the last egg directly into the dough, but mix it in a small bowl so that the egg white and yolk combine, and add this egg to the dough in small batches, stirring the dough with a wooden spoon each time until it has a homogeneous consistency. Once your choux pastry is shiny and hangs in peaks on the wooden cooking spoon, it’s ready and you don’t need to add any more egg.
• To pipe the rings out of the choux pastry, you will need a piping bag and an approx. Ø 8 mm hole nozzle or a star nozzle.
• Note that the choux pastry rings will get bigger during baking, so you should leave enough space between them on the baking tray. Also, do not make the holes in the rings too small.
• Do not take the choux pastry rings out of the oven too early. They are ready when they turn golden brown. Do not open the oven door during baking.
• The choux pastry is perfect when the rings are very light and firm after baking.

Video for the choux pastry rings recipe

By the way, on my Youtube channel you can find a short video for these delicious choux pastry rings with curd. There you can see exactly how to bake and fill them, including how the consistency of the choux pastry should be. If you don’t want to miss any more videos from me, feel free to subscribe to my channel.

Have you made Russian curd rings at home using this recipe? I’m looking forward to your result, your star rating and your comment on the recipe below, how you succeeded and tasted the choux pastry rings.

Fancy more popular sweet recipes from the Soviet era? Try also:

• Sochniki – recipe for popular curd cakes from the Soviet era