Sernik Krakowski (Polish Lattice-Top Cheesecake)
A rich filling of triple-ground full-fat twaróg, butter, powdered sugar, egg yolks and orange zest with raisins and candied orange peel, lightened with beaten whites, baked in a sweet shortcrust under a pastry lattice at 350°F and finished with a lemon glaze.
Sernik is Poland's cheesecake, and Wikipedia says the baked cake dates to the 17th century. It is made with twaróg, the Polish curd cheese, held together by eggs and butter rather than cream or sour cream. Wikipedia lists three famous kinds: krakowski with a lattice crust, królewski with cocoa crust top and bottom, and wiedeński with no crust at all. Polish Radio reports the belief that King Jan III Sobieski brought the recipe home after his victory at the Battle of Vienna, a story with no record behind it, and in a May 2024 report says the food guide TasteAtlas ranked Polish sernik first on its list of the world's top eight cheesecakes, ahead of Japanese and New York cheesecake.
This recipe is from Kwestia Smaku, the Polish cooking site, whose sernik krakowski page has 376 reader ratings; its author calls it her grandmother Łucja's family recipe. It has the Kraków lattice, raisins and candied orange peel, and one rule that is the exact opposite of a Polish pierogi filling: the twaróg must be ground three times, until it is perfectly smooth.
Why it works the kitchen science
Grinding three times
The curds of farmer cheese are grainy, and passing them through the grinder with the butter turns them into a smooth, dense paste, so the filling bakes up creamy rather than crumbly.
Yolks beaten with sugar, whites folded in
The beaten yolks and powdered sugar make a rich, airy base, and the stiff whites folded in at the end keep a kilo of cheese from baking up heavy.
Step by step
- Step 1
Make the shortcrust: put the flour, salt, baking powder, vanilla sugar, sugar and cold diced butter on a board and chop them together with a knife (or pulse them in a food processor) into fine crumbs. Add the egg and yolks and bring it together into a smooth dough. Flatten it into a disk, wrap it and refrigerate about 30 minutes.
- Step 2
Meanwhile, grind the twaróg together with the soft butter three times through a meat grinder, or blend them thoroughly in a food processor until completely smooth.
- Step 3
Beat half the yolks with half the powdered sugar until pale. Keep beating, adding the rest of the yolks one at a time and the rest of the sugar a little at a time. Add the cheese and butter in portions, mixing well, then the orange zest and potato starch. Stir in the raisins and candied peel. Beat the whites to stiff peaks and fold them in gently.
- Step 4
Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C), conventional heat with no fan. Butter an 8-by-12-inch (20 by 30 cm) pan and line it with parchment. Roll two thirds of the dough on a floured board, line the bottom of the pan and prick it with a fork. Roll the rest into thin ropes, rolling them in flour.
- Step 5
Spread the filling over the base and lay the ropes diagonally across the top in a lattice.
- Step 6
Bake 50 to 55 minutes, until the lattice is golden, the filling is set at the edges with only a slight wobble in the middle when you nudge the pan, and the center reads at least 160°F.
- Step 7
Make the glaze: heat the lemon juice until hot, then stir in the powdered sugar a little at a time. Let it cool and pour it over the cooled cheesecake. Refrigerate once the cake is cool (see the rules).
Sernik Krakowski (Polish Lattice-Top Cheesecake)
Serves 16 · one 8-by-12-inch (20 by 30 cm) cake · 1 hr 55 min total
Shortcrust
- 350 g (about 2 3/4 cups plus 2 tbsp) all-purpose flour, plus more for rolling
- A pinch of salt
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1 packet (about 16 g) vanilla sugar, or 1 tbsp sugar plus 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1/2 cup (about 100 g) sugar
- 170 g (12 tbsp) cold butter, diced
- 1 large egg
- 2 large egg yolks
Filling
- 1 kg (2 lb 3 oz) full-fat twaróg (Polish farmer cheese), or dry farmer cheese
- 250 g (1 cup plus 2 tbsp) soft butter (see Tips)
- 1 1/2 cups powdered sugar
- 8 large egg yolks
- 5 large egg whites
- Grated zest of 1 orange
- 50 g (3 tbsp) potato starch
- 1/3 cup raisins
- 4 tbsp candied orange peel
Lemon glaze
- Juice of 1/2 lemon
- 2/3 to 1 cup powdered sugar
Method
- Make the shortcrust: put the flour, salt, baking powder, vanilla sugar, sugar and cold diced butter on a board and chop them together with a knife (or pulse them in a food processor) into fine crumbs. Add the egg and yolks and bring it together into a smooth dough. Flatten it into a disk, wrap it and refrigerate about 30 minutes.
- Meanwhile, grind the twaróg together with the soft butter three times through a meat grinder, or blend them thoroughly in a food processor until completely smooth.
- Beat half the yolks with half the powdered sugar until pale. Keep beating, adding the rest of the yolks one at a time and the rest of the sugar a little at a time. Add the cheese and butter in portions, mixing well, then the orange zest and potato starch. Stir in the raisins and candied peel. Beat the whites to stiff peaks and fold them in gently.
- Heat the oven to 350°F (180°C), conventional heat with no fan. Butter an 8-by-12-inch (20 by 30 cm) pan and line it with parchment. Roll two thirds of the dough on a floured board, line the bottom of the pan and prick it with a fork. Roll the rest into thin ropes, rolling them in flour.
- Spread the filling over the base and lay the ropes diagonally across the top in a lattice.
- Bake 50 to 55 minutes, until the lattice is golden, the filling is set at the edges with only a slight wobble in the middle when you nudge the pan, and the center reads at least 160°F.
- Make the glaze: heat the lemon juice until hot, then stir in the powdered sugar a little at a time. Let it cool and pour it over the cooled cheesecake. Refrigerate once the cake is cool (see the rules).
Adapted from Kwestia Smaku, "Sernik krakowski" (published March 18, 2016), in Polish. We follow it as written: shortcrust of 350 g flour, a pinch of salt, 1 tsp baking powder, 1 packet vanilla sugar, 1/2 glass of sugar, 170 g butter, 1 egg and 2 yolks, chilled about 30 minutes; a filling of 1 kg full-fat twaróg ground three times with 250 g butter, 1 1/2 glasses of powdered sugar beaten with 8 yolks, orange zest, 50 g potato starch, 1/3 glass of raisins, 4 tbsp candied orange peel and 5 stiffly beaten whites; a 20 by 30 cm pan; a lattice of dough ropes; 50 to 55 minutes at 180°C, top and bottom heat with no fan; and a glaze of hot lemon juice and powdered sugar. We read the Polish glass (szklanka) as 1 cup. The 350°F rounding, the 16 servings, the 160°F check and refrigerating the cake are ours. Kwestia Smaku. Ingredient list follows the source; the method is in our own words.
All sources (3)
Tips
- Kwestia Smaku: if your twaróg comes already finely ground and the package says it needs no butter, use only 100 g butter in the filling.
- Kwestia Smaku also says you can skip the glaze and dust the cake with powdered sugar instead.
- A 9-by-13-inch pan works but makes a thinner cake that bakes faster; start checking at 40 minutes (our note).
- Twaróg is sold at Polish delis; dry farmer cheese is the closest US substitute. Drain anything wet before grinding.
The rules people argue about
What the sources agree on, what they don't, and what is just a good story.
- King Jan III Sobieski brought sernik home from Vienna. Folklore: Polish Radio reports it as a belief; no record is given.
- Sernik is the world's best cheesecake. Documented only as a ranking: Polish Radio (May 2, 2024) reports that TasteAtlas put Polish sernik first of eight cheesecakes.
- Sernik has no cream in it. Documented as Wikipedia's account: twaróg with eggs and butter, not cream or sour cream.
- Grind the twaróg three times. Documented: Kwestia Smaku. It is the opposite of the fork-crushed twaróg in a pierogi filling (see Pierogi Ruskie in our dumplings hub).
- Sernik doesn't need the refrigerator. Disputed: Kwestia Smaku says it keeps for days in a fairly cool place; the FDA says egg dishes should not sit out more than 2 hours, so we refrigerate it.
- The lattice means Kraków. Documented as Wikipedia's account: sernik krakowski has a lattice crust.
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