Syrniki

Cut into a small, golden-brown disk and you find a white, soft interior. Syrniki are an Eastern European dish whose dough features tangy fresh cheese as its main ingredient. They are popular for breakfast or as a light meal in Ukraine, Belarus, Russia and elsewhere, and when made sweet they can also be served after a meal.

Making a dough from cheese

A white cheese called tvorog is mixed with egg, flour and sugar, shaped into flat rounds and cooked on both sides in butter or oil. Tvorog is made by curdling milk and draining off the liquid; unlike hard, aged cheeses, it has soft curds and a milky tang. The egg and flour help bind the cheese, but adding more flour also changes the mouthfeel. The moisture in the cheese affects how well the dough holds together. Too much moisture makes the dough stick to the hands, while too little makes it crumble easily, so some recipes adjust the amount of flour. Lightly dusting the shaped rounds with flour before cooking browns the outside while the inside keeps the moist texture of the cheese.

A Ukrainian cookbook published in 1994 gives a method in which sieved cheese is mixed with egg, sugar, butter and flour, shaped into a log, cut into pieces, dusted with flour and cooked. In this recipe, the pieces are browned on both sides, then cooked through in the oven and served with powdered sugar and smetana. The same book also includes versions with carrots or potatoes added, as well as boiled versions. This cookbook thus contains methods other than sweet, round fried ones.

The pleasures of a warm plate

When syrniki fresh from the pan are served with smetana, a cool tang is layered over the warm, milky flavor. Some versions are paired with jam or honey, or have raisins or similar ingredients mixed in. There are also unsweetened versions; for example, some recipes mix in chopped dill and salt before cooking and serve them with smetana. Syrniki can be either breakfast or dessert.

“Syr,” the root of the name, is a word for cheese. In Russian, the name commonly used today for white cheese is tvorog, but the name syrniki preserves the older word. In Lviv, in western Ukraine, there is also Lviv-style syrnyk, in which a cheese mixture is put into a mold, baked in the oven and finished with a cocoa glaze. It differs in both shape and method from syrniki, which are small disks cooked in a frying pan.

Dishes of the same name have varied by period and region, and in older texts the name sometimes refers to thin pancakes filled with cheese. The name alone does not establish that today’s round shape has continued unchanged from the past.

Glossary