Maple Cottage Cheese Pancakes (AKA Syrnyky)

Who doesn’t like pancakes? Pancakes are always welcome at our breakfast table and leftovers (which there are rarely any) are eaten through the day as a snack. In Ukraine pancakes with cottage cheese called syrnyky (syr is cheese in Ukrainian) are very popular. I decided to give mine a Canadian twist and added maple syrup for sweetness and extra flavour.

Perfect breakfast food

I consider syrnyky  a healthy(ish) version of a traditional pancake as the batter is mostly nutrient rich cottage cheese and there is not a lot of flour in it. And you can never go wrong with a little bit of maple syrup, right?

The ingredients (serves 4-6):

• 1 package cottage cheese (500g or 1lb)
• 1 cup flour
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 4 tbsp maple syrup
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 3 tbsp oil for frying (use coconut oil to make it a bit healthier)

The steps:

1. Mix the ingredients in a large bowl until they are well incorporated
2. Form 8-10 patties (more if you like your pancakes smaller)
3. Heat the oil on medium heat
4. Fry each pancake for a few minutes per side, until golden brown (add more oil between batches as your pancakes soak some of it all up)
5. Serve with your favourite syrup

Bonus:

I love to serve pancakes with homemade strawberry compote which is incredibly easy to make and is a perfect thing to make when your strawberries are not looking so hot anymore but you don’t want to throw them out. Just cut them in half, add some sugar (about 1 teaspoon per cup of strawberries but it is absolutely dependent on your own preference for sweetness levels) and add enough water just to cover the strawberries. Bring to boil and then simmer on low heat up for at least 30 minutes. Spoon over anything or eat just like that, I can’t judge.