Russian Cottage Cheese Pancakes

As soon as I grew up as Russian, my grandma and my mum usually cook it for the family Sunday breakfast. Yes, we had this tradition, when I was a child. Pancakes might be topped by jam, sour cream, berries or Nutella and it's good by itself or can be served as a nice dessert. In my family, mum mixed raspberry jam with sour cream (half and half) and served them for us. The reason why she did it, the sour cream has a rich creamy texture and brings sourness to he filling and raspberry jam was full of rich berry aroma and natural sweetness. Also, I can mention, that pancakes are kinda of the healthy dish - rich in protein, less in sugar and you can fry them with just a small drop of oil.

When I am thinking about them, It reminds me of my childhood... the nice smell of vanilla coming from the kitchen, everyone is smiling and you know, that you have a long day ahead playing with other kids outside. Such touchable memory!

Despite the fact that I've called them Russian Cottage Cheese Pancakes, the real name of them is "Sirniki", and the orogon is unclear. Some people say they are the traditional Belarusian, Ukrainian, Polish dish, and for sure all these countries have own variation of cooking them.

Anyway, it doesn't matter where are they from, if they are super duper delicious and it's super easy to cook them at home.

Ingredients:

Pancakes:
1 lb (450g) cottage cheese, well drained
2 whole eggs
4 tablespoons sugar
pinch of salt
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup + 4 tablespoons (155g) all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
2 tablespoons butter or oil, for pan frying
sour cream, jam or Nutella or fresh berries, for serving

Instructions

1. Mix together cottage cheese, eggs and sugar (you can place it in a small food processor and blend until almost smooth), or (how my mum does) just mix by your hand.

2. Mix flour, baking powder, and salt in the bowl.

3. Combine prepared cottage cheese and the flour mixture (step 1 + step 2) together, stir with a rubber spatula until combined. The mixture should be sticky.

4. Hit the oil in a non-stick skillet over low-medium heat. Make sure that the oil is hot enough before you would start to fry.

5. Using a spoon make small balls: scoop a ball of the dough and roll it in the wet hands. You will get 8-10 balls from these amount of ingredients.

6. Gently put all balls on the pan. Fry until both sides are light brown. Place on paper towels to remove any excess oil.

7. Serve the pancakes with the mix of 1 tablespoon of jam and 1 tablespoon of sour cream on the top.

8. Enjoy!!!

Don't forget about aroma tea or coffee!