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Danielle Dolinsky sent me an interesting email a while back; a recipe for her Ukrainian syrniki, also known as tvorog pancakes. It’s her specialty and it was featured on the Martha Stewart Show (sounds soo soo dreamy!).
Here’s a link to her syrniki recipe and a step-by-step video from the show. I haven’t experimented with a store-bought cheese but I can tell you Mom’s homemade cheese creates a very soft dough; more delicate to handle but had amazing results.
Thank you Danielle for sharing your recipe. We’ve enjoyed your Ukrainian syrniki several times and I am currently craving them again.
Ingredients for Ukrainian Sirniki:
15 oz (about 2 cups) farmers cheese, homemade (aka Tvorog) or storebought
4 large eggs
3/4 cups all-purpose flour, plus about 1/2 cup more for dredging
3 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp white vinegar
1 cup raisins
2-3 Tbsp extra light olive oil for each batch
Toppings:
Fresh fruit or jam, sour cream, powdered sugar; whatever you like!
How to Make Ukrainian Syrniki:
1. In a large bowl, mix together 15 oz of cheese, 4 eggs, 3/4 cup flour, 3 Tbsp sugar and 1/2 tsp salt.
2. Place 1 tsp baking soda in a small bowl and add 1 tsp vinegar; give it a stir as it fizzes. Add this mixture to the cheese mix.
3. With a hand-held electric mixer, mix until uniform consistency. Stir in the raisins with a spoon. It will still have some little cheese clumps.
4. Heat a large non stick skillet over medium heat, add 2-3 Tbsp extra light olive oil.
5. Add 1/2 cup flour to a small bowl. Place a heaping tablespoon or flat ice cream scoop of the cheese mixture into the flour. Reach into the bowl and sprinkle flour over the top of the pancake. With Well-floured hands, remove excess flour by gently transferring the pancake from one hand to another.
6. Once the skillet and oil are hot, place patties directly into the skillet as you mold them. Saute until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes each side, flipping once during cooking.
7. Transfer to a plate and serve with your favorite toppings. I’m old school so I like sour cream, fruit and powdered sugar.
Are these pictures making you hungry? I’m gurgling in my gut… I better get started on another batch of cheese.
Ukrainian Syrniki Recipe (Cheese Pancakes)
Ingredients
- 15 oz about 2 cups farmers cheese, homemade or purchase 2 packages.
- 4 large eggs
- 3/4 cups all-purpose flour + 1/2 cup for dredging
- 3 Tbsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 tsp baking soda
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 1 cup raisins
- 2-3 Tbsp extra light olive oil for each batch
Toppings:
- Fresh fruit or jam, sour cream, powdered sugar; whatever you like!
Instructions
- In a large bowl, mix together cheese, eggs, 3/4 cup flour, sugar and salt.
- Place baking soda in a small bowl and add vinegar; give it a stir as it fizzes. Add this mixture to the cheese mix.
- With a hand-held electric mixer, mix until uniform consistency. Stir in the raisins with a spoon. It will still have some little cheese clumps.
- Heat a large skillet over medium heat, add 2-3 Tbsp extra light olive oil.
- Add 1/2 cup flour to a small bowl. Place a heaping tablespoon of flat ice cream scoop of the cheese mixture into the flour. Reach into the bowl and sprinkle flour over the top of the pancake. With Well-floured hands, remove excess flour by gently transferring the pancake from one hand to another.
- Once the skillet and oil are hot, place patties directly into the skillet as you mold them. Saute until golden brown, about 3-4 minutes each side, flipping once during cooking.
- Transfer to a plate and serve with your favorite toppings like sour cream, fruit and powdered sugar.
Hi Natasha,
I love so many of your recipes and the blog in general. I’ve made these syrniki a few times before but I think I’ve really gotten the hang of it, made it exactly as you wrote it. My partners exact words were: “I’m speechless. They are so good it took my breath away!” Wanted to let you know how successful they were, thanks!!
I’m so happy to hear that! Thank you for sharing your great review!
Can these be made with Kefir with sliced apples/banana??? Or is this a different kind of pastry???
Hi Robert, I haven’t tested that but I imagine it may work. If you experiment I would love to know how you like that.
Hi, I saw this recipe and fancied trying it – until I saw my husband had used all the cottage cheese ( our nearest to farmers, we’re in London!) – so I substituted Greek feta, and it worked really well ! Light, fluffy and very tasty
I’m so glad you enjoyed that Jackie!
They taste very good. It reminded me more of aladi. But who care what the name is , they taste great. I used proportions as described but mine were a little liquid and it did not quite stayed together in the flower. Wondering why is that? Did I over mixed? Also the amount of oil for frying is for one batch? because they do absorb oil while frying.
Hi, the pancakes are very delicate feeling when you are dredging in flour and that is normal. If the cheese you used was a little more loose/wet, it would be a good idea to strain it.
I have to agree with someone who said they turned out more like pancakes than sirniki. Sirniki should taste more like a cheesecake almost, these were all dough with a bit of cottage cheese. Also, I wish you mentioned to strain the cottage cheese first, mine turned out way more liquidy than your recipe. I couldn’t put them into flour.
Hi Nessa, it definitely has to do with the type of cheese used. I would recommend making the recipe as written before substituting any ingredients. Farmer cheese is much dryer than cottage cheese and you would definitely have to strain it first. This recipe was developed for Farmer Cheese.
Oh I see, would farmer cheese make them taste more cheesy than cottage cheese?
We found it works best for this recipe
I made these with homemade farmers cheese and they came out fantastic!!! So fluffy! I omitted raisins as my family is not a fan. Even my hubby said I should make these more often. Thank you!!!
That is fantastic! Thanks for sharing that with us and for giving a wonderful review.
Excellent! My husband is of Russian descent; his mother from Moscow. He loves your recipe. We ate more than we should have, but they’re delicious and so simple to prepare. Thank you, Natasha.
So glad you all enjoyed this recipe! Thanks for your amazing review I appreciate it.
I followed the recipe exactly. I am very familiar with syrniki but your amounts for ingredients are off. Too many eggs, not enough sugar or flour. Couldn’t even taste the tvorog. Will needto use another Russian recipe.
Hi Marina, I wonder if it was maybe the cheese you used since the bulk of this recipe is Farmer Cheese. Did you make any other substitutions or modifications? These are personally one of my favorite pancakes.
Hi Natasha, I am wondering if you can make them and then freeze “sirniki”?
Hi Nadya, to be honest, I have not tested freezing these so I cannot advise. IF you experiment I would love to know how you like that.
I have frozen them, and just made another batch to freeze again. Worked great!
I found these to be pretty eggy as well. I’ve never had syrniki before so I wasn’t sure if this was supposed to be the taste. I also couldn’t taste a lot of the cheese, at least not until they had cooled completely.
Turned out too doughey… In your recipe you say 3/4 cup of flour and 3 tbs of sugar, but in your picture it looks like 3/4 cup of sugar and 3 tbs of flour. Couldn’t even taste the farmers cheese in there because of so much dough. Reminded me of aladyis, not true syrniki. Sorry, but this recipe did not work. Love your other recipes, but please correct this one.
Hi, the ingredients are correct as written. Did you possibly add baking powder by mistake or skip the vinegar which activates the soda? Also, did your baking soda fizz up when vinegar was added? If they seemed dense, it could be due to expired baking soda.
these are delicious! I made them with homemade farmer’s cheese and used chickpea flour instead of wheat. The texture of them was amazing! Will definitely be making more of them soon. Thank you!
Thank you for sharing that Emily! I’m happy you enjoyed this recipe!
Great recipe. I used ricotta cheese instead of farmers cheese because I needed to use it up, and upped the amount of flour to 1 cup. The consistency was somewhat different due to ricotta being more wet than farmers cheese but the pancakes were still very fluffy and soft. I omitted raisins because I didn’t have any, and did not roll in extra flour before frying because I added more to the batter. They turned out delicious! Very easy and quick. Thank you Natasha!!
Thank you so much for sharing that with me. I’m so happy you enjoyed that.
This is exactly how my Ukrainian great-grandmother, GiGi (still with us) makes the syrnyky … and I use farmer cheese in my pyrohy … in her special recipe.
Thanks for bringing this recipe to the attention of the American public.
Hey Chrystyna, that’s so awesome! I’m so glad you discovered our blog.
Thank you Natasha! This is great recipe. Just made two batches ( I had almost two pounds of homemade farmers cheese). They remind me of my childhood.
That’s just awesome! Thank you so much for sharing that with me!
I have made these sirniki today and my family is in love with these. There easy and quick to make. Total worth it. Thank u so much Natasha for the recipes. 😁❤
You’re welcome, Luda! I’m so happy you enjoyed it, thank you for sharing your wonderful review 🙂
Can i subsitute for ricotta cheese i dont have Farmers cheese thanks
Hi Ali, I haven’t tried the ricotta substitution so it is difficult to guess what other adjustments would need to be made. Ricotta is considerably more moist/wet than farmer cheese. If you experiment, please let me know how it goes 🙂
I know the raisins might absorb a little liquid. Would you change the amount of flour if I dont use raisins? or just proceed with the recipe as is?
I just saw this dish advertised here: http://fathomaway.com/review-arthurs-nosh-bar-montreal/?utm_source=Fathom+Newsletter&utm_campaign=808a4192b7-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2018_03_06&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_fd909d041f-808a4192b7-314646541
So looking for a way to make them at home!!! Nice addition of protein which I love.
Can you substitute quark, or cottage cheese?
Hi Nancy, proceed as is. There is no need to make any changes if omitting raisins. What a fun article! thanks for sharing 🙂 Also, I think quark and cottage cheese would contain too much liquid to work well in this recipe without other adjustments.
Hello Natasha! I wanted to check these out after seeing them delectably eaten on Good Mythical Morning, and stumbled across your recipe which looks fantastic! I have one question, though: I am allergic to milk, so is there anything you can think of that would make a suitable substitute for the cheese, or am I right to say that the cheese is kind kf the point of the dish?
Thanks!
Chad
Hi Chad, since the majority of these is the cheese ingredient it would be very difficult to replace. Sorry 🙁
How many calories?
Due to time constraints, I don’t typically include nutritional info, but check out this nutrition analyzer – you can plug in the ingredients from any recipe, select the serving size and it will give you nutritional info, calories, etc. I hope that is helpful to you Paula!
Hi. I am making syrniki to serve with caviar. Will this recipe work with savory?
Louise, these are intended to be more sweet than savory. These Deruny is what I would serve instead.
Natasha thank u so much for creating these recipes, and making them so accessible, easy to understand, and all the right flavors. I love how you describe in detail how to make, and then condense the information. It comes In so handy to a amatuer cook like me! I love your vids, recipes, and time you take to respond back to qs:) thank you.
Hello Angelina! You’re welcome, I’m glad to hear you are enjoying the recipes so much! Thanks for following and sharing your encouraging, thoughtful comments! 🙂
I am making Syrniki for a Dessert for a Russian themed dinner party prior to watching the film Doctor Zhvago. Can I pre cook them as am a guest responsible for the dessert? Am putting raspberry jam, fresh raspberries and creme fraiche as your picture shows.
Thank you in advance
Hi Trenna, I really do think these are best fresh – they are puffy and so soft when freshly cooked but they can be reheated on a skillet and will still taste great. Those toppings sound great!