Syrnyky.
Ukrainian Curd Cheese Breakfast Patties
Сирники · Syrnyky · say it: SIHR-nih-kih
Syrnyky are thick little cheese patties, not pancakes — a mixture of dry curd cheese, egg, sugar and a small amount of flour, shaped into discs and fried in butter until each side takes on a dark gold crust while the centre stays custardy. They taste mildly sweet and clearly of dairy, somewhere between a cheesecake and a fritter, and they are eaten hot with cold sour cream, honey, or a spoonful of sour cherry preserve. The whole business takes twenty minutes. In Ukraine this is standard weekend breakfast and standard kindergarten food, and the arguments about it are entirely about how much flour you are allowed to use.
- Gate
- Ukraine
- Prep
- 15 min
- Cook
- 20 min
- Total time
- 1 hr 5 min incl. 30 min rest
- Serves
- 4
- Status
- Easy
- Nutrition / serving · estimated
- Calories 470 kcal
- Protein 24 g
- Carbs 38 g
- Fat 24 g
- Sugar 25 g
- Sodium 320 mg
Why this recipe works.
- Starts by draining the curd, which is the only way to know how much flour your particular cheese actually needs.
- Deliberately low flour ratio so the interior stays soft and cheesy instead of turning into fried dough.
- Fried in butter over moderate heat, with a clear description of the crust colour you are aiming for.
- Gives the honest fix for a mixture that is too wet, instead of assuming everyone's curd cheese behaves the same.
Ingredients.
12 itemsFor the syrnyky
For frying
To serve
Equipment
- Fine sieve
- Mixing bowl
- Non-stick or well-seasoned frying pan
- Fish slice
Instructions.
Drain the cheese
Tip 500 g of curd cheese into a fine sieve set over a bowl and leave it in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Discard the whey that collects underneath — this is the step that decides whether your syrnyky hold their shape.
Smooth and mix
Push the drained cheese through the sieve with the back of a spoon so it loses its lumps, then beat in the egg, sugar, salt and vanilla until evenly combined and slightly glossy. Fold in the soaked raisins if you are using them.
Add flour by feel
Stir in the flour one tablespoon at a time, stopping the moment the mixture holds together in a soft, slightly sticky mass that you can pat into a disc with damp hands. Resist adding more than you need.
Tip Sticky is correct. A dough you can roll like pastry will fry into something dense and bready.
Shape the patties
With floured hands, divide the mixture into 12 pieces and shape each into a thick disc about 6 cm across and 2 cm high, pressing the sides in so the edges are smooth rather than cracked. Dust each one lightly in flour and tap off the excess.
Fry a test patty
Heat half the butter with half the oil in a pan over medium heat and fry one syrnyk for 3 minutes on the first side. If it spreads and loses its shape, return the remaining mixture to the bowl and work in another tablespoon of flour before continuing.
Fry in batches
Cook the syrnyky 4 at a time for about 3 minutes a side, until each face is an even deep gold with a slightly crusted rim and the sides look set rather than glossy. Press one gently — it should feel springy, not squashy.
Tip Wipe the pan and use fresh butter between batches; browned milk solids from the first round will scorch on the second.
Serve hot with cold toppings
Stack the syrnyky on warm plates straight from the pan and top with a generous spoon of cold sour cream, a drizzle of honey and a spoonful of sour cherry preserve. The temperature contrast is most of the pleasure, so do not let them sit.
Tips from our kitchen.
- Drain the curd cheese in a sieve for at least 30 minutes, longer if it looks wet. Excess whey is the reason syrnyky spread flat and refuse to brown.
- Push the curd through a sieve or blitz it briefly if it is very lumpy. Smooth curd gives an even, creamy centre; lumpy curd fries into pockets of dry grain.
- Add the flour a spoon at a time and stop as soon as the mixture just holds a shape. A slightly sticky dough makes better syrnyky than a firm, manageable one.
- Shape with wet or floured hands into thick discs about 2 cm high and 6 cm across. Thin patties dry out before the crust develops.
- Fry on medium, not high. High heat browns the outside in ninety seconds and leaves the middle cold and raw-tasting.
- If the first one collapses in the pan, take the rest of the mixture back and work in another tablespoon of flour — one test patty saves the batch.
Substitutions.
- Dry curd cheese (syr) → Quark, farmer cheese, or full-fat ricotta drained overnight in a cloth-lined sieve
- Ricotta is wetter and milder and needs both real draining and slightly more flour, but it works. Cottage cheese must be drained and then sieved or blitzed smooth.
- Plain flour → Semolina, or fine cornflour for a gluten-free version
- Semolina is a traditional alternative and gives a slightly firmer bite; let the mixture stand 10 minutes so the grains hydrate before frying.
- Butter for frying → Half butter, half neutral oil
- Butter alone can catch and burn over a longer fry. Adding oil raises the smoke point without losing the flavour.
Variations.
- Syrnyky with raisins
- A handful of raisins soaked in hot water for ten minutes and folded through the mixture — the most common household variation, and a fixture of the childhood version.
- Baked syrnyky
- Coloured briefly in the pan, then finished in a 180°C oven for 10 minutes. Less crust, lighter texture, and much easier when cooking for a full table.
- Savoury syrnyky with dill
- No sugar, plenty of dill and black pepper, served with sour cream as a side dish rather than breakfast. Less common but entirely real.
Storage & reheating.
Syrnyky keep 3 days refrigerated in an airtight box and are surprisingly good cold, straight from the fridge, which is how many Ukrainian children eat the leftovers. To reheat, warm them in a dry pan over low heat for 3–4 minutes a side or in a 170°C oven for 8 minutes; microwaving makes them rubbery. The raw mixture does not keep — it weeps liquid and turns slack within a few hours — so shape and fry the same morning you mix it.
Serve with
Cold sour cream, runny honey, and sour cherry or blackcurrant preserve in a small bowl.
The story behind Syrnyky.
Syrnyky are built on syr — the fresh, dry, slightly sour curd cheese that has been the everyday dairy product of Ukrainian households for as long as there have been cows and a warm corner to leave the milk in. Before refrigeration, souring milk into curd was simply what happened to milk, and every farmstead produced it. Syrnyky, along with curd-filled varenyky and baked curd puddings, are the cluster of dishes built around using it up.
The name causes real confusion abroad, because syr in modern Ukrainian means cheese in general, and the word syrnyky suggests something cheesy and savoury to an English speaker. It is not. Sweet or barely sweet, eaten in the morning, and served with something sour or something sticky on top. In some regions and in Russian usage they are called tvorozhniki after the equivalent word for curd; the recipe is essentially the same and the naming difference is linguistic rather than culinary.
What gives syrnyky their small-scale drama is the flour question. Too little and the patties slump and spread in the pan; too much and you have fried dough with a memory of cheese, which every Ukrainian grandmother will identify instantly and comment on. The tension is genuine, because it depends entirely on how wet your curd is, and curd cheese varies enormously from producer to producer. That is why the recipe below builds in a draining step rather than pretending a fixed quantity of flour works for everyone. Households also split on raisins, on vanilla, and on whether the patties should be fried through or coloured in a pan and finished in the oven — all defensible, none of them wrong.
Questions, answered.
Why did my syrnyky fall apart in the pan?
The curd was too wet or there was not enough binder. Drain the cheese in a sieve for at least half an hour before you start, make sure the egg is fully worked in, and add flour a spoonful at a time until the mixture just holds a shape when patted between wet hands. Always fry one test patty first — if it slumps, work in another tablespoon of flour before committing the rest.
What cheese do I use for syrnyky?
A dry, fresh, slightly sour curd cheese known as syr in Ukrainian. Outside Eastern Europe the closest widely sold equivalents are quark and farmer cheese, and drained full-fat ricotta is a workable stand-in. Avoid cream cheese, which has stabilisers and too much fat, and avoid wet cottage cheese unless you drain it thoroughly and then push it through a sieve.
Are syrnyky sweet or savoury?
Usually lightly sweet and eaten at breakfast, with sour cream, honey or fruit preserve on top. The sugar in the mixture itself is modest — the sweetness mostly comes from what goes over them. Savoury versions with dill and pepper exist and are served as a side dish rather than a morning meal.
What is the difference between syrnyky and cheesecake?
Both are built on fresh curd cheese, but syrnyky are small pan-fried patties with a crisp exterior and a soft, barely set centre, made in twenty minutes and eaten immediately. Baked curd cheesecakes such as Polish sernik or Ukrainian syrnyk zapechenyi use similar ingredients, plus more egg and often flour or semolina, and set into a sliceable cake in the oven.
Can I make the mixture the night before?
It is not recommended. Curd cheese continues to release whey once salt, sugar and egg are mixed in, so an overnight batter turns slack and needs extra flour to rescue, which costs you the soft texture. What you can do in advance is drain the cheese — leave it in a sieve in the fridge overnight, and the mixing and frying then take fifteen minutes.
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Recipe by The DishRoute Kitchen · published August 20, 2026 · updated August 20, 2026