Russian Cheese Pancakes – Baked Syrniki
Another novel way to use cheese for breakfast — yes please! These rustic cheese pancakes are called Syrniki (seer-nee-kee) in Russia and Ukraine. Made with Farmer’s Cheese (or quark) and pancake ingredients, these are very light, airy and tender. You’ll find them served with sour cream and jam. This version uses Non Fat Greek Yogurt in and a drizzle of All-Fruit No-Sugar Added Jam, and skips the frying in oil, which makes for a lighter, sweet, but satisfying breakfast.
Servings: 14 Pancakes
Calories: 114kcal
This traditional Russian and Ukrainian breakfast dish is a pancake married to a cheesecake. Served with jam and sour cream, typically.
Ingredients
- 1 lb Farmer's Cheese (or ricotta or dry cottage cheese)
- 2 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons canola oil
- 4 tablespoons Splenda Sugar Blend (or granulated sugar)
- ½ cup all purpose flour (plus a bit more for dusting)
- ½ teaspoon baking powder (low sodium)
- ½ teaspoon pure Vanilla extract
- 8 oz plain non-fat Greek Yogurt (or light sour cream)
- 8 oz 100% All Fruit Jam (no sugar added)
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Using a non-stick cookie sheet, first line it with parchment paper, and then spray the paper with cooking spray, and set to the side.
- Combine cheese, eggs, sugar, oil, flour, baking powder and vanilla in a medium bowl and mix all the ingredients with a hand mixer for approximately 2-3 minutes until you get a sticky batter.
- Dust your work surface with a bit of white flour. Using a large wooden spoon or small paddle, begin to scoop out the pancake batter into portions a little larger than a golfball, and plop the balls onto the floured work surface. Roll each ball in a bit of flour, and flatten them with the palm of your hand to form a patty about 1 inch thick. You should have been 14-18 patties.
- Place each patty on your prepared cooking pan. When the pan is full, place it in the oven for approximately 5 minutes, or until you begin to see the bottom edges brown.
- Remove the pan and quickly spray the exposed (uncooked) tops of the patties with cooking spray, and then flip each patty gently to cook the raw side. The flour will have crisped on the underside, and the patty will puff a bit.
- Bake a second time for another 5-7 minutes until you can see the puffed pancakes are golden brown on top and bottom.
- Top the patties with a dollop of plain, non-fat Greek Yogurt -or- light sour cream, and, a spoonful of all-fruit no-sugar-added jam of your choice, and perhaps a few berries.
Spa Index Kitchen Notes
While you can substitute cottage cheese or ricotta, you'll find those lack the notable tang in this dish, and is a little too "wet." Try to find Farmer's Cheese -- which is a litter drier and tangier than cottage cheese - at better markets with more international cuisine, or even find an International Market in your city. If you do use cottage cheese, find the driest version you can, and perhaps even drain it a bit.
By baking these patties, we've saved using between 3-4 tablespoons of oil in a heavy pan, which makes for a much fattier pancake.
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Nutrition
Serving: 1 Pancake | Calories: 114 kcal (6%) | Carbohydrates: 13 g (4%) | Protein: 5 g (10%) | Fat: 4.5 g (7%) | Cholesterol: 29 mg (10%) | Sodium: 102 mg (4%) | Sugar: 7 g (8%) | Vitamin A: 250 IU (5%) | Vitamin C: 5.8 mg (7%) | Calcium: 40 mg (4%) | Iron: 0.4 mg (2%)
Will never beat fried — but very good anyway!
loved these
These were DeliCIOUS. Since typically served with sour cream, I also used fat free greek yogurt, and some berries and sour cherries from a jar. Really good. Not gonna lie, it’s not the same as frying them in oil, but if I’d never had the fried type, I would have liked these anyway, so there you go.
Oh by the way I had both, so I used 50% ricotta and 50% cottage cheese.