Sernik

Grinding a tangy white cheese and working in eggs and butter produces the batter for Polish sernik. Under a name derived from ser, meaning cheese, there are not only baked cakes but also versions with a cheese layer cooked in a pan and chilled versions set with gelatin. Sernik is a wide-ranging family of cheese sweets. Versions differ in whether they have a base, in additions such as raisins or citrus, and in whether they have a chocolate topping. They even differ in how heat is applied to the cheese.

Sernik served at a shop in Warsaw: a slice made with white chocolate and served with fruit. Photo: Fred Cherrygarden, 2022-06-18, Warsaw, Poland. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Reduced-size version from the distributing source. It is unknown whether the image was edited when originally published; we have made no additional edits.

Adjusting the grain and moisture of the white cheese

Twaróg, the central ingredient of sernik, is a fresh cheese made by curdling milk and removing the whey. The Polish Ministry of Agriculture’s presentation of traditional foods describes a former method in which soured milk was warmed, placed in a cloth bag and pressed to drain off the moisture.

For sernik, this cheese is ground to make its grains finer and then blended with eggs and butter. In the recipe (ingredient proportions and method) that Dorota, the author of a baking website, selected from her grandfather’s notebook, the cheese is ground 3 times and the egg whites are whipped separately before being added. The texture of the cut surface depends on how far the grain and moisture of the cheese are adjusted and how much of the egg-white foam is kept.

One method is to cream butter and sugar, combine the egg yolks and cheese with a small amount of starch or semolina, and finally fold in whipped egg whites without deflating the foam. Starch and granular flour absorb moisture from the dairy, while whipped egg whites make the cheese batter slightly lighter. In some methods, the baked cake is not taken out abruptly but left to cool slowly in the oven so that it settles.

Sernik with raisins mixed in. The dairy layer and the base are visible in the cut surface. Photo: Jacek Halicki, 2023-05-05, location unknown. Original image / CC BY-SA 4.0. Reduced-size version from the distributing source; no additional edits.

The serownik of Handzlówka, topped with a lattice of yeast dough

The “serownik” of Handzlówka in the southeast is a local cheese sweet listed in the Ministry of Agriculture’s register of traditional products. According to the recollections of local residents, whatever cheese the household had was ground, and then egg yolks, unmelted butter and sugar were creamed together, with whipped egg whites added last. Yeast dough was laid underneath, thin strips of dough were crisscrossed on top, and the cake was baked together with other sweets, residents recall.

Vanilla and raisins were ingredients bought specially for celebration days. It was also a sweet that people brought to gatherings such as weddings, baptisms and naming celebrations.

Potatoes mixed in at Jaszczów and in Kashubia

By contrast, the registered product from Jaszczów in eastern Poland, listed by the Ministry of Agriculture, combines twaróg with boiled potatoes. The registration document states that this local method dates back to the interwar period and records that the cake was once also baked for Easter, Christmas, Pentecost and harvest festivals.

Here the cheese and potatoes are ground together and mixed with eggs and butter, which sets it apart from the Handzlówka method of laying yeast dough underneath and placing a lattice on top. Central Kashubia also has a registered product containing potatoes. Adding potatoes when grinding the cheese reflects how each locality uses its ingredients.

Layers in a celebration cake from Ryczów

The “sernik królewski” handed down in Ryczów in southern Poland has a semi-crisp base topped with layers of light-colored and chocolate-colored cheese batter, raisins and a foamy layer, with coconut sprinkled on top. Using oil instead of butter is another characteristic of the local method. It is baked for family celebrations, Christmas, Easter and other occasions. Why it came to be named królewski, meaning “royal,” is not clear.

Gotowany, cooked in a pan, and na zimno, chilled to set

“Gotowany” is a sernik made by cooking the cheese batter in a pan. In Dorota’s published recipe, butter, sugar, egg yolks, ground cheese and whipped egg whites are heated in a pan and thickened with pudding powder dissolved in milk. This is sandwiched between 3 sheets of dough baked in advance, weighted down and chilled overnight.

Both the way heat is applied and the way the layers are assembled differ from the method of baking the cheese layer and the base together as one in the oven.

“Na zimno” is a cold sernik made by chilling it until set. In the current recipe from the dairy company Piątnica, mascarpone and whipped cream are set with gelatin, placed on a base of biscuits and almonds, and topped with a layer of berry jelly.

Whereas the other method grinds and bakes twaróg, this one uses gelatin to chill smooth dairy products into a soft layer.

Glossary