Ingredients
Curd base
- 1 kgdry curd cheese
- tvorog or dry farmer’s cheese
- 200 gsugar
- 5eggs, separated
- 150 gbutter, softened
- 3 tablespoonssemolina
- or 3 tablespoons cornflour
- 1 teaspoonvanilla
- zest of 1 lemon
- a pinch of salt
To add
- 150 graisins
- soaked in warm water
- or in rum
- 50 gcandied peel, optional
Chocolate glaze
- 200 gdark chocolate
- 100 gbutter
- 2 tablespoonsmilk
- or 2 tablespoons cream
To serve
- cut into bricks
- coffee
- at room temperature
Directions
- Drain it thoroughly before using it. Press it in a cloth if it is at all wet. Lviv keeps a great deal of that. Put the raisins in a small bowl. Cover them with warm water or rum. Let them plump up for thirty minutes. Drain them and pat them all dry. Dry raisins draw moisture from the cake.
- Drain the curd cheese thoroughly. Press it in a cloth if it is wet. Work it through with the back of a spoon. It takes real time and effort. Beat the softened butter until pale. Add most of the sugar to it now. Keep a few spoonfuls back for the whites.
- Beat them together for a good five minutes. Beat the egg yolks in one at a time. Work each one in fully before the next. One at a time keeps it emulsified. Fold the sieved curd into the butter mixture. Add the vanilla and the lemon zest.
- Add the semolina and the salt. It swells and helps the cake set. Put the egg whites in a clean dry bowl. Add a good pinch of salt to them. Whip them until they hold soft peaks. Any grease stops whites whipping properly. Use a glass or metal bowl rather than plastic. Add the reserved sugar a spoonful at a time. Keep beating between each addition. Beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy.
- Stir a third of the whites into the curd. Stir that first third in properly. The curd mixture is heavy and stiff. Add the remaining whites in two additions. Fold with a large metal spoon. Cut down through the middle and lift over.
- Turn the bowl steadily as you go. Stop the moment no white streaks remain. Fold the drained raisins through it. Add the candied peel if using it. Line a deep square tin with baking paper. Let the paper come up the sides. Line it thoroughly on all sides. Tip the mixture into the lined tin. Level the top with a wet spoon. Heat the oven to one hundred and sixty degrees.
- Bake it for about fifty minutes. A hot oven cracks the surface badly. Turn the oven off and open the door slightly. Let it cool in the cooling oven for an hour. A slow cool prevents it entirely. Take it out and let it cool completely. The cake must be genuinely firm to glaze.
- Warm cake crumbles under the knife. Do not rush this stage at all. Chop all the chocolate finely. Melt it gently with the butter. Use a bowl over barely simmering water. Do not let the water touch the bowl. Take it off before it is fully melted. Stir it to finish melting off the heat. Stir in the milk or the cream.
- Let it cool slightly before using it. Hot glaze runs straight off the cake. Cool but pourable is what you want. Lift the cold cake out on its paper. Cut it into rectangular blocks. Use a long and very sharp knife. Cut it before glazing rather than after.
- Set the blocks on a wire rack. Put a tray underneath to catch drips. Pour the glaze over each block. Let it run down all the sides. Let them stand until the glaze sets. Take it out of the refrigerator beforehand. Give it about thirty minutes out. Serve strong coffee alongside it. It keeps four days refrigerated.
Technique
- There is no pastry or biscuit base at all: the cake is baked as a solid block of curd and the chocolate glaze is what holds it on the outside, which is why it is cut into bricks and coated all round.
- Tvorog is a fresh unripened curd cheese, crumbly, lean and tangy, and entirely different from cream cheese, which is smooth, fatty and mild; substituting one for the other gives a different cake. The curd must also be genuinely dry, since wet curd will not set, and pressing it through a sieve is what gives the fine even texture.
- Turn the oven off and let the cake cool inside with the door ajar for an hour, since sudden cooling cracks a baked curd cake; then chill it overnight, because it must be genuinely firm before it can be cut into bricks and glazed.
Substitutions
- Cornflour does the same job as semolina in helping the cake set.
- Rum-soaked raisins are common in Lviv where warm water would do.
Variations
- Some bakers glaze only the top and others coat the blocks all round.
- A water bath gives a gentler bake and reduces cracking considerably.
- Candied peel is added alongside the raisins in some versions.
History
A Lviv speciality of the Austro-Hungarian pastry tradition, sold citywide in chocolate-coated bricks.
Frequently asked questions
What is Lvivskyi syrnyk?
Lvivskyi syrnyk is a dessert from Ukraine: baked curd cheesecake with raisins under a chocolate glaze, no base. A Lviv speciality of the Austro-Hungarian pastry tradition, sold citywide in chocolate-coated bricks.
How long does Lvivskyi syrnyk take to make?
Lvivskyi syrnyk takes 40 minutes of preparation and 1 hour of cooking. The recipe makes one cake, serves 12. It is rated medium to make.
What can I substitute in Lvivskyi syrnyk?
Yes, within limits. Cornflour does the same job as semolina in helping the cake set. Rum-soaked raisins are common in Lviv where warm water would do.
What is the most important thing to get right in Lvivskyi syrnyk?
Add the semolina and the salt. It swells and helps the cake set. Put the egg whites in a clean dry bowl. Add a good pinch of salt to them. Whip them until they hold soft peaks. Any grease stops whites whipping properly. Use a glass or metal bowl rather than plastic. Add the reserved sugar a spoonful at a time. Keep beating between each addition. Beat until the peaks are stiff and glossy.
