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Cottage Cheese Pancakes (Raisin-studded syrniki)
These golden, raisin-studded fritters are the perfect cottage cheese pancakes recipe. They’re a decadent but light breakfast, a special treat for mornings when you don’t have anywhere else to be. The batter is airy, and the trick is getting these patties to form without overloading them with flour. I made this version gluten-free and lactose-free, but you can go all the way and use regular ricotta or cottage cheese, and regular flour. They’ll be even lighter. Leave the cheese to drain overnight in a colander lined with cheesecloth in the fridge, or give it at least a couple of hours and a good squeeze through a cheesecloth if you’re short on time.
Ingredients
- 2 cups well-drained homemade lactose-free ricotta or commercial cottage cheese (traditionally, these are made with tvorog, which is similar to Quark cheese. But as that is impossible to find in North America, ricotta or cottage cheese can be used as substitutions – but they must be drained very well!)
- 2 eggs
- 2 Tb sugar or more, to taste
- ½ teaspoon baking powder
- 1-2 cups of your favourite gluten-free flour mix or regular flour (Bob’s Red Mill produces adequate results, but I find that the taste of the chickpea flour is quite strong)
- ½ cup of raisins
- 2 Tbs vegetable oil
Instructions
- Mix the well-drained lactose-free ricotta with the eggs, sugar and baking powder, and see if mixture is runny.
- Start adding ½ cup of gluten-free flour mix, or regular flour. Mix well. If the mixture is still runny and drips off the spoon, add more flour. Continue adding flour until you can pick up the mixture with clean hands and form it into patties, without it sticking too much.
- Add raisins. Mix well, and once again, check for runiness.
- Heat up a frying pan w 2-3 Tbs of oil. These fritters need a lot of it, so don't hold back.
- Form the fritters in your hands. If batter sticks too much, add more flour. You should be able to move it from hand to hand with minimal stickiness.
- Fry on medium heat until browned one on side, about 3 minutes. Turn fritters over with a clean spatula; if they're sticking too much, you should add more flour to the rest of the batter.
- Lower heat to low-medium, and fry on the other side until both sides of the fritters are brown, and the fritters are easy to remove from the skillet.
- Blot with a clean paper towel. Let cool for about 2 minutes, and dig into the syrniki with some buckwheat honey, maple syrup, or your favourite jam.