Polish curd cheese pancakes: thick, golden outside, creamy inside, in half an hour
Breakfast pancakes with more cheese than flour in them: mashed curd cheese, two eggs, a little sugar and only as much flour as it takes to shape a disc. Fried slowly in butter and oil so the middle sets before the outside burns. With sour cream, plum butter or fruit. Twelve pieces, gone in a quarter of an hour.
Your own work in that: 31 min.
- Batter 10 min
- Shaping 5 min
- Frying 16 min
Step by step
0 / 5 doneMash the curd cheese
Mash the cheese thoroughly with a fork or press it through a potato ricer until there are no lumps. Smooth cheese gives creamy pancakes; lumps stay inside as dry bits.
Ingredients: 500 g curd cheese (twaróg), semi-fat · 2 pcs eggs · 3 tbsp sugar · 1 tbsp vanilla sugar · 80 g plain flour · 1 pinch salt · 40 g butter · 3 tbsp oil
TipBlock curd cheese, not the tub kind: the whipped, creamy sort holds too much water and the pancakes spread. If the cheese visibly drips whey, squeeze it in muslin.
A fork or a ricer, no lumpsMix the batter
Add the eggs, sugar, vanilla sugar and salt, mix. Add the flour and mix briefly, only until combined. The batter is thick, slightly sticky and holds its shape on a spoon. Keep the flour low: these are cheese pancakes, not dough.
TipCurd cheeses vary in moisture. If the batter is too loose to shape a disc, add flour a tablespoon at a time, but no more than 3 tablespoons: every extra one makes a rubberier pancake.
Thick, slightly sticky, little flourShape the pancakes
Put flour for coating on a plate. Scoop a heaped spoon of batter, shape a disc 2 cm thick and 6–7 cm across with floured hands, coat lightly in flour on both sides. Lay on a floured board.
Thick discs, a thin coat of flourFry slowly
Heat half the butter with half the oil in a pan over medium-low heat. Lay in the pancakes with space between them and fry 3–4 minutes a side, until golden and the sides look matte and set. Turn once. Fry the second batch in the rest of the fat; the two batches take about 16 minutes in all.
TipToo high a heat means a golden crust and a raw, runny middle. A pancake is done when it springs back under a fingertip instead of giving.
Low heat, four minutes a sideServe warm
With sour cream, plum butter and fruit if you have it. Once cooled they keep up to 2 days in the fridge; reheat in a dry covered pan for 2 minutes, or eat cold with coffee.
Ingredients: 150 g sour cream, 18 % · 4 tbsp plum butter or jam · 150 g strawberries or other fruit
Sour cream, plum butter, fruit
Before you start
With raisins or apple
A handful of raisins, or half an apple coarsely grated and squeezed, in the batter. With apple the pancakes are moister and less sweet.
Savoury
No sugar, a spoon of chopped chives and a pinch of pepper: for supper with lettuce and tomato.
From the oven
Lay on a lined tray, brush with melted butter and bake 20 minutes at 190 °C, turning halfway. Less fat, a little less crisp.
