Hungarian Cheese and Noodle Cake aka Vargabeles

So pretty, a little layered cake with yummy lemon, cheese and noodle filling and crunchy layers on top and bottom.

I was going to make tiramisu because my mascarpone had been in the fridge a while but the lady fingers I had in the pantry, actually went bad. They smelled like rancid oil. Who knew?

Due to my love of grocery shopping at stores stocked with food from other countries I also had yufka, labneh, and vermicelli. Mascarpone is from ALDI’s. LOL.

Be sure to use wheat, not rice vermicelli.

This is something similar to what my dad would make. Generally, he’d make noodles with sugar, eggs and cottage cheese, and bake it in a buttered casserole dish. No crust.

I passed on the raisins, which I love, but I know many people do not, so omit, I did.

Hungarian Noodle Cheese Cake Vargabeles 

Ingredients 

7 oz thin noodles wheat vermicelli noodles

4 eggs, separated 

½ cup sugar, separated

Pinch of cream of tartar

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Zest of a lemon

Juice of a lemon

100g labneh 

550g mascarpone

25g candied lemon peel

4 sheets yufka pastry or a box of phyllo dough

½ cup butter, melted for brushing the pastry layers

Powdered sugar

Instructions

Preheat the oven 350 degrees Fahrenheit. Butter a 9x13 glass pan, 3.5 quart pan. 

Cook the noodles in lightly salted water. Rinse with cold water, drain well. 

Separate the eggs. Beat the egg whites with cream of tartar. Add ¼ cup of the sugar and continue beating until the egg whites are stiff. 

In another bowl beat together the egg yolks and the remaining sugar until it is light colored. Add the vanilla extract, mascarpone and labneh. Add the lemon zest, vanilla and lemon peel. 

Fold the noodles into the egg yolk mixture. Then fold in the egg whites in two additions. 

If using yufka pastry, place one sheet of pastry into the prepared baking dish. Brush with some of the melted butter and cover with another pastry sheet. Repeat with the 2nd yufka sheet.

If using phyllo pastry, follow the same procedure but layer 5 phyllo pastry sheets instead of 3.

Place half the filling over the pastry, level nicely, and fold the edges of the circles over the filling. Brush with butter. 

Lay a 3rd sheet over the filling, brush with butter. Pour the remaining filling over the filling. Fold the edges over. 

The 4th layer butter and fold to fit the top of the pan. Pour over any remaining butter. Cut into portions. 

Bake 45 minutes. 

Serve warm or at room temperature and dust the pie with powdered sugar. The pie can be reheated in the oven.

What it looks like, cheese filling on the yufka.

Sad but true, Kulinarian, my recipe host site is no longer taking new recipes. I’ll have to edit the last few years of recipes and just put them directly into the posts.