Sirniki – Russian Cottage Cheese Breakfast Cakes

These cottage cheese cakes are a breakfast staple of Russian cuisine. I remember eating them since I was a little girl. My mom would cook a big batch of sirniki and we would all eat them hot with a nice dollop of cold sour cream on top.

I remember my husband coming back from his first business trip to Russia and trying to explain what he had for breakfast: “It was something small, and round, and white, and a little sweet, but not too sweet, and there was jam on the side..”. I knew what it was even before he began to explain.

I cook these little breakfast clouds of heaven quite often (especially now that a Lidl by my house carries Russian cottage cheese). I buy several packs of cottage cheese and keep them in the freezer for a sirniki emergency, just taking a pack a night before to defrost in the fridge.

The recipe takes 5 minutes to prepare and less than 10 minutes to cook, and then I am transported back to when I was a little girl, waiting for my sirniki breakfast.