Syrnyky fried cheese pancakes, made from sweet farmer’s cheese, are popular in several East Slavic as well as other cuisines. The fresh, unaged curd cheese in this recipe goes by many names: quark, tvorog (творог), syr (сир), white cheese and farmer’s cheese among them. Even strained cottage cheese would work in syrnyky, the Ukrainian name for these sweet cheese pancakes.
Tvorog/farmer’s cheese/quark/syr
For this recipe I used authentic (“classic”) tvorog imported from Latvia (strangely it is labeled “Lithuanian style” for some reason). I have also made this recipe with domestic farmer’s cheese which is fairly easy to find. You could always rinse large-curd cottage cheese through a cheesecloth-lined strainer, let it sit until dry and use the resulting dry curds in place of quark.
Syrnyky do not contain very many ingredients besides the cheese: flour, sugar, baking powder, vanilla, an egg, some dried fruit (optional) and butter for frying. This recipe calls for two types of flour, all-purpose and farina or semolina. If you can’t find farina, you could use semolina, all-purpose or cream of wheat. (I used semolina flour in these photographs. Generally semolina and farina are not interchangeable but in a recipe like this where no structure is formed by the flour, such a substitution is fine).
Crumble the cheese into a large bowl. Add sugar, an egg, vanilla sugar (or vanilla extract), farina and raisins (or other dried fruit). Stir to combine well. I choose vanilla sugar here because it doesn’t add any additional moisture but a half teaspoon of vanilla extract would be OK to use instead.
Next, use a small scoop or spoon to make a ball of batter that fits easily in the palm of your hand. Roll the ball in all-purpose flour and gently flatten it to small pancake shape.
Melt butter in a frying pan over medium heat and fry the syrnyky in batches until browned on both sides. Remove from pan to a paper towel to absorb any excess grease. Melt additional butter as needed to fry up all the pancakes.
Finally, serve syrnyky with jam or smetana (sour cream). You can also sprinkle them with confectioner’s sugar before serving if you like. Refrigerate any leftovers and reheat any time for a delicious snack.
Syrnyky Sweet Cheese Pancakes
Ingredients
- 250 g tvorog or farmer's cheese (about 9 oz) or well-drained cottage cheese
- 2 Tbsp sugar
- 1 egg beaten
- 1½ tsp vanilla sugar or ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 6 Tbsp farina or semolina or cream of wheat
- 2 Tbsp raisins or dried cranberries, optional
- 2 Tbsp butter
- 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
- 1 Tbsp confectioner's sugar for dusting
- fruit jam for serving
- sour cream for serving
Instructions
- Crumble cheese into large bowl. Add sugar, egg, vanilla sugar, farina and raisins. Stir to combine.
- Place 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour in a bowl.
- Use small scoop to make portion batter and form into a firm ball with your hands.
- Roll each ball of batter in the all-purpose flour to coat. Gently flatten and set aside.
- Melt 1 tablespoon butter in a frying pan over medium heat. Cook pancakes in batches until browned, about 3 minutes on each side. Remove to a paper towel-lined plate.
- Melt another tablespoon of butter in pan and continue cooking until all pancakes are browned.
- Sprinkle with confectioner's sugar and serve with fruit jam and/or smetana (sour cream)