The recipe for these fluffy little pancakes got here to me through my Grandma Anne, whose household hailed from a small Jewish village in Ukraine. She referred to as them ‘cottage cheese pancakes’, which at all times baffled me since cottage cheese has curds and the cheese in these pancakes was completely easy. Finally, after spending time within the Soviet Union, I labored out that the unique cheese concerned will need to have been tvorog, a easy white cheese.
Pancakes ‘Syrniki’ au fromage blanc / Ukrainian ‘Syrniki’ pancakes
Given the absence of tvorog in the USA, my grandmother used baker’s cheese, which was easy however very dry. To compensate for the dryness, her recipe referred to as for including ‘1/2 eggshell water’. This drove my mom loopy. It wasn’t scientific. Worse, the recipe referred to as for ‘1/3 cup flour, roughly’. My studying of this example is that my grandma cooked and not using a recipe, by feeling, after which in the future transliterated what she’d accomplished to a recipe card for my mother — who needed to make the pancakes to please my dad.
Right here in France, I make the pancakes utilizing fromage blanc, a easy contemporary cheese that’s wetter than baker’s cheese. Therefore, I don’t add the 1/2 eggshell water. Different cheeses that may very well be used, relying on the place you reside, embrace farmer’s cheese and quark. I suppose ricotta may very well be utilized in a pinch, nevertheless it doesn’t have the tang of the opposite cheeses.
An acquaintance of mine right here in Paris who’s from Moldova however ethnically Ukrainian says she makes her personal tvorog for syrniki (the phrase, by the way in which, derives from the Russian/Ukrainian phrase for cheese: syr). This she does by heating fromage blanc to the boiling level, then draining it in a single day by a colander lined with cheesecloth.
I’m not ready to go that far, particularly as one of many nice benefits of syrniki is that they are often made in a matter of minutes. The cheese is combined with eggs, flour and somewhat baking powder, and the batter is then fried in butter. Presto! The pancakes are historically served with crème fraîche/bitter cream and jam, akin to strawberry within the photograph. They make a stunning brunch dish — maybe for New Yr’s Day?
Pleased cooking, and Pleased New Yr.
