One of my favorite Russian breakfast foods.

Syrniki

Ingredients

Cakes:

45g flour (gluten free universal flour for me)
30g sugar
One egg yolk
Half packet of vanilla sugar / bit of vanilla extract
250g Russian quark

Toppings:

Smetana (alternatives and more on this below)
Blackcurrant Jam
Berries

TLDR Instructions

#1. Preheat oven to 180 deg C
#2. Cream together quark, flour, sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla in a large bowl.
#3. Knead dough.
#4. Roll dough into cylinder.
#5. Start pan with olive oil on medium heat.
#6. Cut cakes, dip in flour, shape, and place on pan.
#7. Fry until golden brown.
#8. Bake in oven at 180 deg C for 7min.
#9. Serve with Smetana, Jam, and berries.

Long Form Instructions with Pictures

Most important ingredient in quark cakes? Quark. Here in Germany dairy products sold under the name quark are thick yogurts. The Russian style is much dryer and harder. Important for cake making! This recipe calls for the Russian style. Here in Munich it is a available at some normal grocery stores, Kaufland, as well as Russian ones.

Start by adding a that quark along with flour, sugar, egg yolk, and vanilla to a large bowl.

Then cream it together with a fork. Until the white chunks of quark are fully blended.

Next on a cutting board sprinkled with flour form a dough ball. Employ more of a smashing motion rather then folding to prevent the dough from becoming crumbles.

After the dough is evenly knead, roll it out to a cylinder ~3cm in diameter. At this point I like to start the pan heating up with olive oil.

Cut the cylinder into ~1.5cm thick disks. Padding each side in flour so they don’t stick, add them to the pan. Taking care to reform them into disks if they get squished.

Once they are all in the frying pan add a bit more olive oil and slide them around. Flip each cake once, cooking until golden brown on both sides, and add to baking tray.

They go into the oven for 7min at 180deg C.

By the end they will have risen slightly and are ready to be taken out.

Time to plate them with and add toppings. Simple.

Yum!

Smetana vs Crème Fraîche vs Sour Cream

Traditionally I’m told Syrniki are best enjoyed with Smetana which is a Russian dairy product somewhere in between Crème Fraîche and Sour Cream. We can’t always find that so the best substitute would be Crème Fraîche as sour cream would I think would be to acidic.

For my friend and family reading this in the U.S. I can’t remember exactly what dairy products you have. I know you have Sour Cream. Maybe there is a less acidic version in stores as well.