Hombovtsi (plum and cheese dessert)

Cheese dough. Put cheese through a sieve, add an egg, flour, salt and sugar, and knead the dough. If the cheese is very moist, you might need slightly more flour. The dough has to be dense enough to form cheese balls.

The filling. Pit the plums and dice them finely. Add sugar and water, then cook for 7–8 minutes until soft. Drain excess syrup: for the filling, you will need only cooked plums without excess liquid.

Roll out the cheese dough and put the filling on top. Seal the edges the way you would with a dumpling or pierogi, and form the dough into a round shape.

Cook in salted water until hombovtsi float. Transfer to a bowl with a strainer and add unsalted butter to make sure they don’t stick.

For serving, I recommend making caramelized cornmeal. Heat the cornmeal on a dry frying pan. Add sugar and fry until the sugar begins to melt and caramelize. Keep stirring until cornmeal begins to stick in lumps, then break them up into small crumbs. Transfer to baking paper and leave to cool.

Before serving, sprinkle hombovtsi with caramelized cornmeal crumbs.