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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.
Love this recipe!! Second time I have made it and both times they have been delicious. I do skip the dredging-in-flour step as I found that was difficult for me and not really needed to fry up beautifully. I used Costco’s Twarog. Just hope they keep stocking it!
Hi Sophie! So glad you love the recipe. Thanks for sharing.
A bit eggy and gummy… to the point that I don’t taste the cheese. Not my favorite recipe.
Thank you for sharing your feedback, Olesya! I haven’t had experience with this being eggy or gummy, was anything possibly substituted? I hope you give it another try soon.
Not sure what I was expecting these to be like, but they’re delicious. I’m a little surprised by that last negative review. I did my absolute level best to mess up this recipe, and they still worked out fine. I used normal cottage cheese which is clearly way too runny so I had to throw in more flour and still?Fluffy and delicious 🙂 I’m eating them now with some jam so consider the recipe tested and working fine. Given how runny they were I was still able to dredge them which surprised me. Next time I’ll make them with the proper cheese and I’m sure they’ll be even better.
Hi Holly! Thank you for trying the recipe. I do hope they are better the 2nd attempt! 🙂
Love your recipes. But this one definitely needs approving. Not good at all. I would even say terrible.
Hi Julia! I’m so sorry to hear that. Can you share specifics? What went wrong or what did you not like about the recipe?
I agree with you as well. It’s more of like a pancake, I don’t taste the cheese at all.
Syrniki is a favorite of ours (if we see it on the hotel breakfast menu) we have had it in Kiev – Kaluga – Moscow – Saratov and Krasnoyarsk – it generally only has a very small hint of cheese taste and a more sweet taste.
I didn’t have tvorog, so I used ricotta with 1 cup of flour instead, and skipped the dredging, these turned out delicious, I used less sugar, and served it with some sriracha and sour cream on top. They are great savory and sweet, thank you for the recipe.
That’s wonderful, Victoria. So glad you loved the recipe. Thank you for sharing your experience.
how do you make these without burning them? I have made these at least three times now and every time i make them, even having it on the lowest settings they burn before they’re cooked I believe it’s the olive oil in the recipe.
Hi Marta, I haven’t had that happen before. I wonder if it is the heat source that isn’t at a constant temperature? Also, I wonder if pan type makes a difference.
Marta, I makes these quite often using this recipe. And I struggle with burning sometimes. I think it has more to do with how your pan conducts heat (mine is hotter in the center so I avoid that area). I also prefer sunflower oil, which gives me more consistent results. It also helps if you keep the syrniki quite small so there’s less surface area cooking at once. The center will still be wet when you flip them…and soft when they are done. But you’ll know they are done when they puff up a bit. I go by the “puff” more than color as it increases my success. Keep trying, though. They are definitely worth it.
I made them today with your wonderful farmers cheese recipe! Used chopped apple( we have trees full)! I used a 1/4 cup ice cream scoop instead of dredging in flour. Turned out yummy! Like the donut holes and cheese, all turned out great! Thank you!
Sounds wonderful, Patty! Thank you for the review.
Hi Natasha can you plz tell me how many does one serving make?(how many pc)?thank you
Alla, the whole recipe is about 4-5 servings
Thank you 🙂 I see that in the recipe but I really need to know how many(скільки штук сирників)from one portion??I’m going to make this at my work on Ukrainian Independence Day August 24th very exciting:)))
Hi Alla, I’m sorry I forgot to include a count. From what I remember, it makes about 15 pancakes. I would estimate 3 pancakes per serving.
The olive oil should be removed from the recipe as it is not part of the ingredients making up the syirniki.
Hi Natasha,
I have been looking for a carrot spread that my Ukrainian mother-in-law used to make for years and can not find it.
HI Patricia, I don’t have a recipe for that yet but thanks for the idea and suggestion. I’ll try to add that to our list.
Very delicious recipe. I didn’t have farmers cheese, and used ricotta instead. Syrniki were light, fluffy, I will definitely make them again.
Hi Catie! That is great! So happy you enjoyed this recipe. Thank you for the review.
Hi Natasha! My American grandkids and their cousins love Ukrainian syrniky, so I make them often alternating with your wonderful French crepes. Just wanted to share that I often use Mexican cheese like Casero or other kind, which is cheaper and easier to find where I live. It could be a bit too dry, so I add just a little bit of kefir or buttermilk, or cottage cheese from the store for moisture (just not too much). I never used a recipe but similar ingredients and proportions you describe, although it turns out a little different every time depending on what I put in there. Now that I have your recipe, I can share it with others when people ask. Thank you!
Yum! Thank you so much for sharing that with me, Zina!
I’m not a fan of raisins, so I’m wondering if I could substitute with maybe blueberries or another fruit?
Hi Margaret, I haven’t tried that substitute to advise. I saw someone shared this comment “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!!” I hope that helps.
My daughter doesn’t like raisins, so I’ve used cranberries instead, and they work just fine!
Great idea! Thank you for sharing that with us.
I tried this recipe a few times because you have such a wonderful reputation and I thought I was doing something wrong but these turn out terrible every time :(. Im so frustrated, even used real Russian farmers cheese.
Hi Brittany, These have consistently been good for us and are one of our favorite special breakfasts. I suspect maybe it’s the type of cheese that you used? Could it have been overly wet and moist? Farmer cheese should be fairly dry. We have a tutorial on how to make Farmer Cheese from scratch.
It’s really hard to find good recipe for syrniki and these one is really good. These turned out very delicious and fluffy!!!
What a wonderful review, thank you for sharing that with us!
Have you ever tried to make those in the over ? Or air fryer?
Hi Julia, I haven’t tried it myself, but here’s what one of our readers wrote about baking these pancakes: “preheat your oven 350F. Prepare your baking dish, line with aluminum foil and cover with cooking spray that contains flour. Use your ice cream scoop and scoop it on your baking dish about one scoop on each pancake. Bake for 10 minutes then remove. Pancakes are double in size. Meanwhile heat your skillet over medium heat with oil and transfer your pancakes on skillet and continue cooking until golden-brown color on both sides. Easier, less mess, your hands are clean. less flour its make your pancakes more fluffy…” I hope that helps!
I made them with well strained home made cheese and I am sorry to say that, but I was not impressed at all. I did not make any substitutions, just followed the recipe. The dough was very liquidy to the point it was quite difficult to make pancakes.
HI Anna, the primary reason why these would be watery is a cheese that is not strained enough. Also, make sure to use large eggs and not extra-large which would add extra moisture to the batter and make it more difficult to mold. If your cheese is a little more moist, you might reduce one egg from the recipe.
Mine was pretty runny too. I did not think my cheese was runny, but may be. I added more flour this time, but will reduce by 1 egg next time. Overall were fluffy and yummy. I added a 1 tsp of vanilla.
We love these! I usually skip dredging them in flour and they are just as good! Just like pancakes but on another level!
I’m so glad you’re enjoying these Syrniki, Tina! Thank you for your great review!
Dear Natasha,
These are delicious. Thank you very much for sharing your recipe.
It was a little experimental for me at first. Getting the excess flour off became easier when I decided it reminded me of passing a yolk back and forth to separate out the egg whites. It also took me a little bit to get the heat right right so they were cooked through and not overcooked on the outside. But, I’ve got the hang of it now. By the way, I’m in the Boise area, too, and I’m glad we are almost neighbors!
Greg
Hi Greg, I’m happy to hear that you were able to get the recipe! Thank you for sharing that with us and I’m glad you enjoyed it. It’s always good to know that I have some neighbors who also watch my videos and try my recipes. Thank you for your trust and I hope you and your family have a Happy Holidays!
Hi Natasha, is there a reason for mixing vinegar with the baking soda? I don’t see why you would as it would result in a mildly acidic solution and would probably reduce the leavening properties. Thanks!
Ho Polina, there needs to be some acid to activate the baking soda, otherwise, it wouldn’t rise as well and you would taste the soda in the pancakes.