I don't remember my Baba making cheesecake often. And as a youngster I did not like it very much, now I tolerate it but it's not usually my first pick on a Ukrainian dessert table. I'm more of a poppy seed girl. I remember people eating this style of cheesecake with coffee or tea.

Ukrainian cheesecake is called syrnyk. Syr is cheese in Ukrainian. It's a different consistency and has a different base than the cheesecake most of us are familiar with. It's a little firmer, leaning towards the cake part of it's name with a dough crust instead of graham crackers. It is usually baked in a rectangular pan and cut into squares. It can be eaten with fingers or if your fancy a fork. :) It is not usually topped with anything.

The plan is between my step-daughter Ashley who loves to bake, my son Olyn who wants to be a chef and me, that we can test each recipe and let you know how it goes. If you test it before we do, let me know how it turns out! I am so thankful for the Ukrainian Recipes facebook page who have been helping me navigate and translate these recipes. 

So here it is: 
Recipe #1 Baba Malania's Syrnyk - Ukrainian Style Cheesecake

Cheesecake Batter:
6 egg whites, whipped (to soft peaks)
6 egg yolks
1 cup (granulated) sugar
2 cups cheese (usually farmers cheese)
1 package (8 oz.) Philadelphia brand cream cheese
4 tablespoons cornstarch
Zest of 1 lemon
 
Cheesecake Dough Base:
1 cup flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
½  cup/4 tablespoons/1/2 stick Crisco shortening
2 tablespoons sugar
Pinch of salt
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 tablespoons milk
 
Instructions:
1. Whisk the dough base dry ingredients together.
2. Whisk the dough base wet ingredients together.
3. Combine the wet and dry dough ingredients together, form a ball, spread dough evenly into bottom of greased rectangular baking pan.
4. Pre-bake (blind-bake) the dough, remove from oven, cool. (Do not fully bake dough as it will still continue slow baking another hour with filing)
5. Prepare cheesecake filing. Whip egg whites until soft peaks, set aside.
6. Beat egg yolks with sugar until light, then add remaining filing ingredients, continue beating until smooth and light. Add in the egg whites gently until incorporated.
7. Spread over cooled, pre-baked dough.
8. Bake an hour at 250-300 degrees F.

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Below are pictures I added after I wrote the blog of my daughter and granddaughter making this Syrnyk recipe. Baba Malania was smiling down on them I am sure!

I was reading how to choose a name for a blog and the suggestions included: choose a name that tells what your blog is about; make the name descriptive; make it something personal and about your passions.
So here it is Baba Blogs. Baba for those that don't know is a Ukrainian Grandmother. Baba, Babunya, Bunya, Boosha, Babushka, Babtsia....are all other variations. I like Baba Blogs as the name because it has different connotations. Like... could it be about being a Baba; or one Baba's diary; maybe about anything. Well, it's kind of going to be a mix of things. My thoughts of starting this happened just a few days ago, I came across THE BOOK a few days ago again. It's been in my posession for over 10 years now. It lived in a box for a long time and for the last 4 years it's been on display up on a high shelf above my kitchen. The crazy thing is that I have never read its pages. It kind of overwhelmed me. It's travelled through at least 2 countries, 2 provinces and 2 states. This year, being 2020, ten years since I got it, I figured it was time to dive in.
THE BOOK belonged to my Baba, Malania Hontaryk. I don't know where she got the book from but it has someone else's name on the inside front cover. Maybe she got it as a gift from that person, but I don't think so, as there is writing in the book not my Baba's. I like to think she found it somewhere. I know she visited Winnipeg so maybe at a thrift shop or yard sale and paid a nickel for it. Who knows. Unfortunately, the reason I got the book was Baba passed away ten years ago in 2010. That would be one of the million things I would ask her today if I could. When we were going through her things, I found it in the cupboard above the telephone table in her house. On the front cover it says Canadian Date Book - it's a calendar book, an old style daytimer/planner. Whoever owned it before used it that way. There are notes and shopping lists on a few of the pages. Baba did not use it that way though.  She used it to write down recipes and as a file for other recipes she had written down on scraps of paper. I recognize my mother's handwriting as well on some of those pages. She passed away a year before her mother, almost to the day. Baba was 93 my mom was 63. 
As I was dusting that shelf way up high a couple of weeks ago, I took the book down and put it in my office. I looked at it sitting there for a couple of weeks until we had a snow day here in Casper, Wyoming. 14 inches of snow fell in  8 hours, the city was shut down. I hopped on to the Facebook group Ukrainian Recipes and wrote this:
So when my Baba, Malania Hontaryk passed away in 2010 at 93 years young, we found this book filled with recipes among her things. I’ve decided that this is the year that I will finally go through some of those recipes and translate them. One of the issues is that Baba only had a third grade education and so many of her words are not the correct spelling.  Some of the recipes are also written in my mother’s handwriting and a few by other people as well.
Would it be OK if I posted one recipe a day and the fabulous folks on this page help me translate if I’m having issues?
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The response was all positive and helpful and got me even more excited about the project. It was then that I decided to write a blog.
So here we are, Baba Blogs will be some of Baba Malania's recipes and some of Baba Lisa's ponderings. 
Enjoy!