Syrnyky
Ukrainian cheese pancakes: small thick rounds of sweet, vanilla-scented cottage cheese batter, pan-fried until golden, served with sour cream and jam. Breakfast, dessert, the most-eaten enrichment in Ukrainian home cooking. Eats hot, warm, or cold.
Overview
Drained dry cottage cheese (or quark, ricotta, farmer's cheese) mixes with eggs, flour, sugar and vanilla into a thick batter. Heaped tablespoons land on a buttered hot pan, flatten to 2 cm thick discs, and fry slowly to golden, the cheese cooks through, the surface crisps. Soured cream and jam on top.
Ingredients
Batter
- 500 g dry cottage cheese (curd cheese, quark, or well-drained ricotta)
- 2 eggs (large)
- 80 g caster sugar (or to taste)
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 5 tablespoons plain flour (plus more for shaping)
- ½ teaspoon salt
- 1 lemon (optional, zest)
- 50 g raisins (optional)
Frying
- 30 g unsalted butter
- 2 tablespoons sunflower oil
To serve
- 200 g soured cream
- Cherry jam, raspberry jam, or honey
Method
Stage 1 - Drain the cheese (if needed)
- If your cottage cheese or ricotta is wet, drain it through a fine sieve lined with muslin for 30 minutes - pressing gently. Wet cheese gives soggy syrnyky.
Stage 2 - Batter
- Mash the cheese with a fork in a bowl until mostly smooth (a few small lumps are fine).
- Mix in the eggs, sugar, vanilla, salt and lemon zest.
- Stir in the flour and raisins. The mixture should hold its shape on a spoon.
Stage 3 - Shape
- Dust a board with flour.
- Scoop heaped tablespoons of batter; with floured hands, gently roll each into a ball, then flatten to a 2 cm thick disc.
Stage 4 - Fry
- Heat half the butter and oil in a wide pan over medium-low heat.
- Lay the syrnyky in carefully; don't crowd.
- Cook 3-4 minutes per side until each is deep golden and the inside is set (push gently - should feel firm but not hard).
- Lift onto a plate; cover loosely with foil to keep warm.
- Cook in batches, adding more butter and oil.
Stage 5 - Serve
- Pile syrnyky onto plates.
- Top with a generous spoon of soured cream and a spoonful of jam or honey.
Notes
- Dry cheese is essential: Wet cottage cheese leaks during cooking; the syrnyky go limp and brown unevenly. Drain or buy farmer's cheese.
- Medium-low heat: Too hot and the outside burns before the cheese sets through; too cool and they don't crisp. Slow and steady.
- Don't overmix: A few small cheese lumps in the batter give better texture than a smooth purée.
Storage
- Best fresh. Refrigerate 3 days; reheat in a buttered pan over medium heat to restore the crisp.
- Freeze cooked 1 month; reheat at 180°C for 8 minutes.
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