Syrnyky (cottage cheese pancakes)

In Ukraine, cottage cheese is quite popular and appears in lots of recipes. One of my favorites is cottage cheese pancakes, or as we call them, syrnyky.
Syrnyky can make a nice breakfast or a dessert. They have a sour-sweet taste and an incredibly soft texture. With various toppings each time they taste differently. True delish.
And yet my first tries of cooking syrnyky didn’t go well, because their batter is extremely sticky. I ended up adding too much flour, which turned my supposed soft patties into dense pancakes. But then I came across a tip on how to deal with the stickiness, and now this is one of my favorite breakfasts.
Usually, we enjoy them hot. Mostly because we finish them faster than they can cool down.
Hope you like them too!

Difficulty: medium (everything is quite simple, but there are a few tricky moments)
Total cooking time: 20 minutes
Servings: 2

Ingredients

200 g sour milk cheese (cottage cheese)
2 tbsp semolina
1.5-2 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp kefir (if needed)
a handful of raisins (10-15 g)
2 tbsp flour
1 tsp coconut oil
topping – smetana (sour cream) and condensed milk

Changes and remarks

• cottage cheese: in Ukraine, you can buy grainy cottage cheese and kinda shredded, with a cream cheese texture. For syrnyky, you need the latter. I’m not sure if they produce something similar in other countries. According to Wikipedia, the next best thing is quark, but I never tried it. Also, you can grind grainy cottage cheese with a sieve or process it in a blender with 1 tbsp of yogurt
• semolina: flour, same amount. In fact, flour is considered more canonical, but I prefer semolina
• sugar: I use white, but brown can make an intriguing change
• kefir: any dairy liquid (yogurt, milk, whey, cream) or water. But remember, this point is optional and depends on how dry is your cottage cheese. You may need some liquid to help it mix with other ingredients. But don’t add too much. The mixture will become too soft, and you’ll have trouble flipping the syrnyky on a pan
• raisins: I prefer small black raisins (currants), but other seedless varieties will suit as well; also, you can replace them with other dried or candied fruits
• flour: since flour is needed only for coating, there are no preferences; if you don’t have any, you can roll syrnyky in semolina, but it is not the best option
• oil for frying: any odorless vegetable oil will do, but I strongly suggest trying unrefined coconut oil – for me, it was a real game-changer
• topping: any jam or honey, but I think, smetana and condensed milk better emphasize the taste of cottage cheese; also, I usually add chopped seasonal fruits and berries (what I’ve tried: strawberry, peach, banana, raspberry, blueberry, blackberry; what I haven’t tried, but think will do: apricot, mango, melon, pear)

Directions

1. Mix cottage cheese with semolina, sugar, and kefir (if needed), then add raisins.
2. From the batter make small balls the size of a walnut. Always wet your hands first, so the batter won’t stick that much. Also, to divide the mass more or less evenly, first, divide it in the bowl into four parts, and then divide each part in half. This way you’ll get eight almost equal balls.
3. Roll each ball in flour and flatten them a little to make round patties 1.5-2 cm high.
4. Heat oil in a frying pan on medium-high.
5. Fry syrnyky until they brown lightly, approximately 1-1.5 minutes on each side. This step requires your full attention. Syrnyky tend to burn quickly. Also, they are very soft, and flipping them can be tricky, so you may need extra time.
6. Put syrnyky on the plates, and add toppings of your choice

Enjoy!