Smetannik

Take a bite, and the tang of cultured cream comes through the sweetness. Smetannik is a sweet that makes use of smetana, a sour cream used in Eastern Europe. The same name is used for different forms, including layer cakes sandwiched with cream and pies baked with a smooth dairy filling.

In both the cake and the cream

In one example of the layer cake, eggs and sugar are whipped, smetana is added, and flour is folded in before baking. A separate batter containing cocoa is also baked, and the cakes are cooled and then cut. When a cream of smetana mixed with powdered sugar is spread between the light and dark layers and they are stacked alternately, stripes appear on the cut surface.

Smetana gives the cake a dairy flavor and tang, and in the cream it balances the sweetness. Chilling and resting the cake after layering lets the cream and cake meld, giving a moist texture. Some versions are decorated with crumbled cake trimmings on the surface, and some have walnuts or prunes between the layers.

Smetannik as a pie

Another cookbook describes a pie in which a crisp, buttery base is baked first, and then smetana mixed with egg yolks, sugar and starch is poured in and baked. Here, instead of layers of spread cream, a dairy filling is set by heat. The crisp base and the set filling differ in texture, and the difference can be seen when a slice is served.

In Kazan, Tatarstan, there is also an open pie filled with smetana. In one example by a Kazan cook, a yeast-leavened dough is laid in a pan, and a filling of smetana combined with eggs is poured in and baked. Unlike the method of baking the base alone first, in this example the base and filling are baked together.

The Kazan cook Ilgiz Shakirov introduces this pie as one his grandmother used to make, and says that although its texture is reminiscent of cheesecake, it contains no cheese. Tatar cuisine also includes versions made with kaymak, and several different sweets are made under the same name. There is no clear evidence of when or by whom the layer cake was devised. On one side is a cake chilled so that the layers and cream meld; on the other, a pie in which the dairy filling is baked together with the crust. Both bear the name of smetana, yet they are made in very different ways.

Glossary