CHEESE LATKES (PANCAKES)

By Mitchell Davis. Author of Kitchen Sense and The Mensch Chef (publisher: Clarkson Potter)

(Makes 16, 3-inch Latkes)

These pancakes, with their vanilla flavor and creamy cheeses, make an irresistible breakfast treat or dessert. Farmer cheese, also called dry curd cottage cheese, is cottage cheese with the moisture removed.

• 1 cup farmer cheese
• 1/4 cup cream cheese, at room temperature
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 cup matzo meal
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
• 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, for frying
• Cinnamon sugar for serving (see note below)*

In a mixing bowl, combine the farmer cheese with the cream cheese, mixing with a wooden spoon until smooth. Beat in the eggs, milk, matzo meal, salt, sugar, and vanilla. Allow to sit for approximately 20 minutes for the batter to firm up.

Heat 1 tablespoon of the butter in a large frying pan set over medium-high heat. Drop 1/4- cupfuls of batter into the pan to form pancakes, being careful not to crowd the pan. When the pancakes have browned on the bottom and begun to bubble slightly, after about 4 minutes, carefully flip them over to cook the second side. They should take an additional 2 or 3 minutes of cooking. Remove to a clean plate or cookie sheet and keep warm. Continue frying the latkes, adding more butter as necessary and being sure not to let the pan get so hot that the latkes burn before they are cooked through. (I take the pan off the heat for a minute or two between batches.) The batter will thicken as it sits, so you may have to spoon the last few latkes into the pan and spread them out a little with the back of a spoon. Serve dusted with Cinnamon Sugar.

* Note: cinnamon sugar is typically made by mixing together an 8 to 1 ratio of sugar to cinnamon (for example, 1/2 cup sugar and 1 tablespoon cinnamon).

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