Syrnyk (Ukrainian Cheesecake)
Ukrainian cheesecake has little in common with American cheesecake, and here’s why: the former uses cottage cheese while the latter is made of cream cheese. While either version tastes fantastic if you are a fan of cheese, they are really distinct. Try the Ukrainian version and let your taste buds feel the difference.
You’d normally expect Ukrainian syrnyk to be light, not too sweet, and filled with cherries or raisins. It is not seen as a fancy cake, rather as a go-to weekend, or even weekday, option. Since Ukrainian cheesecake is so popular, there are hundreds of recipe variations, and here’s just one of them. As soon as you’ve practiced making syrnyk a few times, you’re ready to depart from the original recipe and create your own twist.
Syrnyk (Ukrainian Cheesecake)
Ingredients
- 1.8 lb cottage cheese (farmer’s cheese)
- 7 eggs
- 10.5 oz sugar
- 1.3 lb flour
- 8.8 oz cooled butter
- 1 tsp vanilla powder/extract
- 1 lb pitted cherries/raisins
Instructions
- Mix the eggs and cheese in a large bowl. Add 4 oz (115 g) sugar and all the vanilla powder/extract. Mash everything together to get a homogeneous mixture. It doesn’t need to be silky smooth, just creamy.
- Mix the flour and cooled, chopped (or grated) butter in another bowl. Add the rest of the sugar. Start kneading the mixture with your hands.
- The dough should slightly hold together and be very crumbly.
- Cover your baking pan with parchment paper. Press the dough into the pan with your fingers. The dough may seem pretty dry, but it will absorb the moisture from the cheese and berries. Make a nice edge to make the finished cake look good.
- Place the cherries/raisins directly on the dough and spread them around evenly.
- Spoon over all the cheesecake filling and smooth it out. Do not mix the cherries into the cheesecake filling. Just scatter them around.
- Take the rest of the cherries/raisins and spread them over the top of the cheesecake.
- Place the cheesecake in the oven, preheated to 200°C/ 390 ºF and bake for 25 minutes.
- Remove the cheesecake and let it sit for 30 minutes.
- Serve warm or cold, it’s up to you!
Tried this recipe?Let us know how it was!
