Curd pancakes

Ingredients

The curd

• 500 gbiezpiens
• Latvian fresh curd cheese
• or quark
• or well-drained cottage cheese
• sieved

The batter

• 2eggs
• 3 tablespoonssugar
• or to taste
• 120 gplain flour
• plus more for shaping
• a pinch of salt
• half a teaspoon vanilla
• optional
• the zest of half a lemon
• optional
• 50 graisins, optional

For frying

• 3 tablespoonsbutter
• or a mixture of butter and oil

To serve

• sour cream, krējums
• jam, preferably berry
• lingonberry, blackcurrant or strawberry
• honey
• fresh berries

Directions

1. Put the curd in a sieve lined with muslin. Set it over a bowl. Let it drain for an hour, or longer. Press it gently with the back of a spoon. Wetter curds need overnight draining. Squeeze it in the cloth if it is very wet. It takes five minutes and it is worth doing.
2. Put the sieved curd in a bowl. Add the eggs and the sugar. Add the vanilla and lemon zest if using. Add a pinch of salt. Mix it thoroughly. Add it gradually and mix it in. Add as little flour as you can get away with.
3. Flour is what holds them together. Too much gives a dense doughy pancake. Fry one pancake before committing the batch. If it spreads, add a little more flour.
4. Soak them in warm water for ten minutes first. That plumps them and stops them burning. Drain them and dry them before adding. Flour your hands and a work surface. The dough is sticky and it needs it. Take a golf ball of dough. Roll it and flatten it into a thick disc. Make them about two centimetres thick. Thinner ones dry out and lose the creamy centre.
5. Shake off the excess. Melt butter in a wide frying pan. Butter burns at a lower temperature than oil. Use a medium heat rather than high. The centre needs time to heat through. Lay them in the pan without crowding.
6. Fry them for three or four minutes a side. They should be deep golden brown. Turn them once only with a spatula. Break the first one open. The centre should be hot and creamy. Lift them onto kitchen paper briefly. Keep them warm in a low oven while you fry the rest.
7. Add fresh butter to the pan between batches. Serve them hot, straight from the pan. Serve sour cream in a bowl alongside. Serve jam, ideally a berry one. They are best hot from the pan.

Technique

• Drain the curd properly — an hour in a muslin-lined sieve, or overnight if it is wet. Wet curd gives a batter that spreads and falls apart in the pan, which is the commonest failure with this dish.
• Add as little flour as you can. Flour holds them together and also makes them heavy; the right amount depends entirely on how wet your curd is, so add it by feel rather than by measure.
• Fry one test pancake before committing the batch. If it spreads, add more flour; if it comes out dense, you have already added too much.
• Fry over a medium heat, not high. These contain sugar and dairy and brown fast, while the centre needs time to heat through — too hot gives burnt outsides and cold middles.
• Make them about two centimetres thick. Thicker and the centre stays raw; thinner and they dry out and lose the creamy middle that is the point of them.
• Turn them once only. Repeated turning breaks them up.
• Mix a little oil with the butter. Butter alone burns at a lower temperature, and the oil raises that point.
• Wipe the pan out between batches and add fresh butter. Burnt residue makes later batches bitter.
• Finishing them in a 180-degree oven for five minutes after frying guarantees a hot centre, which is useful with a large batch.
• Soak the raisins in warm water for ten minutes and dry them before adding. Dry raisins burn on the surface of the pan.
• Sieving the drained curd breaks up every lump and gives a much smoother pancake. Some cooks deliberately leave the lumps, and both are made.
• Quark is the closest substitute for biezpiens; cottage cheese works drained and sieved, and ricotta needs thorough draining. These are made across the whole region — syrniki in Russia and Ukraine, varškės blynai in Lithuania — sharing a fresh curd tradition rather than one origin.

Substitutions

• Quark replaces biezpiens most closely and is sold by German and Eastern European shops.
• Well-drained sieved cottage cheese replaces curd cheese at some cost in texture.
• Ricotta works if drained thoroughly, though it is softer and wetter than ideal.
• Semolina replaces some of the flour and gives a slightly firmer pancake.
• Raisins, dried cranberries or chopped apple can be worked in, or left out entirely.
• Oil replaces butter for frying, at the cost of the flavour.

Variations

• Syrniki in Russia and Ukraine are the same pancake under another name.
• Varškės blynai in Lithuania are the direct Baltic relative.
• A savoury version with dill and no sugar is eaten with sour cream.
• Baked rather than fried curd cakes are made in some households and are lighter.
• Biezpiena sacepums is the Latvian baked curd pudding, a different treatment of the same cheese.
• Kārums and other curd snacks are the industrial descendants of the same tradition.

Frequently asked questions

What is Curd pancakes?

Curd pancakes is a breakfast from Latvia: fried quark patties with jam and sour cream.

How long does Curd pancakes take to make?

Curd pancakes takes 20 minutes of preparation and 20 minutes of cooking. The recipe makes makes about 16. It is rated easy to make.

What can I substitute in Curd pancakes?

Yes, within limits. Quark replaces biezpiens most closely and is sold by German and Eastern European shops. Well-drained sieved cottage cheese replaces curd cheese at some cost in texture. Ricotta works if drained thoroughly, though it is softer and wetter than ideal. Semolina replaces some of the flour and gives a slightly firmer pancake. Raisins, dried cranberries or chopped apple can be worked in, or left out entirely. Oil replaces butter for frying, at the cost of the flavour.

What is the most important thing to get right in Curd pancakes?

Shake off the excess. Melt butter in a wide frying pan. Butter burns at a lower temperature than oil. Use a medium heat rather than high. The centre needs time to heat through. Lay them in the pan without crowding.