Apr 9, 2011
Cottage Cheese Bars
I can barely live without these chocolate-glazed cottage cheese bars that are sold in every supermarket in Riga. They make a perfect lunchtime snack, or you can grab one in the morning while you’re making your breakfast (personally I always wake up super-hungry!). They are not a diet food though, with their 12 to 26% fat and 24 to 32% carbohydrates.
Cottage Cheese bars (Tvorozhnie Syrki in Russian, Biezpiena Sieriņi in Latvian) have a dense texture and are normally coated in dark chocolate. They may as well be coated in colourful fruit glaze, but to my mind this looks and tastes way too artificial. The “forefather” of cottage cheese bars is the vanilla-flavoured, chocolate-glazed cottage cheese bar produced under the “Kārums” brand since 1994. In fact, cottage cheese snacks have been produced in Riga since 1949, and until 70’s, they were handcrafted!
The choice of cottage cheese bars in Latvia is huge nowadays. The best are still produced under the “Kārums” brand name. They also boast a nice thick chocolate glaze that doesn’t crack or melt. My absolute favourite is triple chocolate - chocolate-glazed, chocolate-flavoured, with chocolate chips. Another flavour I love is coconut. I like it straight from the fridge, it tastes almost like ice-cream when chilled! Some other Kārums flavours include candied orange, blueberry, hazelnut, as well as larger, round-shaped cottage cheese snacks: Tiramisu/Cherry/Orange Marmalade/Cranberry Marmalade with biscuit. Other manufacturers offer cottage cheese bars with berry jam filling, caramel, or even ground rye bread:
And, as usual, I’m curious to know if you have anything similar in your countries? Or can you buy some cottage cheese bars in your Eastern European supermarkets?
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Cool! Cottage cheese bars coated in chocolate! How big are they? Are they really rich?
Here, cheese and chocolate are seldom paired together. There’s the Chocopie here. They are round, similar to the shape of your round cottage cheese snacks. It’s an Asian snack. There’s a layer of marshmallow fluff sandwiched in between two biscuits. Then, the whole thing is covered in chocolate. There’s no cheese, but at least it looks similar and is covered in chocolate!
Have a nice day!
Amanda, they’re about 2 inches long - so they’re rather small yet rich indeed. Wow that Chocopie sounds good too :) I’ve never seen anything like that here… although I’m pretty conservative about sweets, so I usually buy some milk chocolate and don’t even look at those sweets/snacks/chocolate bars :)
Hi there!
Those look absolutely delicious! I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a thing where I live (Seattle, Washington, US). Cottage cheese here is always (at least from what I know) is cartons in curds. I think the closest we might come to what you’ve got are little chocolate covered cheesecake bites. But yours looks much more delicious! I think I’d try the one with marmalade first :-)
By the way, I ran across your journal a couple of months ago and am really enjoying all your posts.
Lora
Thank you a lot for your feedback, Lora ^_^ chocolate-covered cheesecake bites, wow! sounds good!
Hi Alina, do you plan to try to make homemade ones? I’d be very interested in the recipe! If you don’t please send me the ingredients and maybe I’ll give it a shot!
Hi Florian, thank you for reading our blog! So nice to meet you! No I’m not going to try a homemade version of these - I can hardly find the time for a home-made pizza these days - so I’ll email you the ingredients shortly!
Yes! I’ve had them at my European grocery store before. They are totally worth the $1 that I pay for them :). I don’t remember what they’re called but they’re so delicious! I like the black currant flavor.
I’ve seen a recipe for these in my Russian Cookbook, Please to the Table. Haven’t made them yet though. The ones in the book call for Tvorog (farmer’s cheese).
Wow Carolyn that’s great! I’ve never realized these could be made at home though! Well I’m not sure which kind of curd/cottage cheese/farmer’s cheese is the best match - even Russian Tvorog is different from what we have here in Latvia, let alone US!
Hi Carolyn! I was going to ask Alina if she could try to post a recipe for these, but the answer was already given to someone else.
So….if you have the recipe, could you please try posting a blog about them? I live right in the middle of the Caribbean, and despite the delicious mangoes,bananas and avocados we have here, this is the first time I come across these cottage cheese bars.
Oh you make my mouth water! When I was in Riga I had one almost every morning. I live in Minneapolis, MN US and I know I’ll be heading to my local Russian market to try and pick some up! Thanks for the reminder!
Hi Chris! You’ve been to Riga, cool! What other foods did you like here? :)
These look wonderful. I’ve not yet seen them, but if and when they become available I certainly would try them. I would love to try a homemade version of them. I hope you have a great day. Blessings…Mary
Thank you for your comment Mary, if you wish I can email you the ingredients too!
Wish we had those here. They look so yummy! I’d rather have cottage cheese with my chocolate than those icky overly sweet, gooey caramel.
Oh Ping I’m so glad to hear from you again ^_^ do you have any Eastern European/Russian supermarkets where you live? Maybe you could find these there…
[...] original post here: Cottage Cheese Bars – Russian Season: Russian and Eastern European … « A Quilter's Table: Supernova – My First Time at the West Seattle [...]
We do have them in Estonia as well. They even sell Karums’ here. I only ever by the plain vanilla one, as I don’t like the ingredient list of the others (not too keen on hydrogenated transfats etc). The vanilla one is wonderful, however!!
Hi Pille! Yeah I know you have these in Estonia, I’ve travelled all around Estonia more than around Latvia I think :) I haven’t seen anything so dangerous on the ingredient list however… anyway, what I love in Estonia is ice cream :) mmm :)
Alina, actually it’s just the one with candied citrus fruits that’s full of colourants etc, the others aren’t too bad. And vanilla one is still the purest one, and hence my favourite :)
Aah I see. I hardly ever buy it - perhaps because it tastes too artificial indeed! :) I haven’t bought anything with candied citrus ever since I learned to make my own candied oranges etc!
interesting. they look yummy. they look like chocolate coated ice cream bars here. i’m guessing maybe cottage cheese there is different from what it is here.
Hello everyone our company will be producing a spreadable version shortly it will be available across North America
Thanks
Vito
My daughter and I were in Latvia this summer and LOVED these. She ate one everyday and asked where we might find them around her in Raleigh NC. I haven’t seen anything like them other than cheesecake bites as were mentioned. Has anyone found a USA market that carries them?? She is a real light weight and could use the extra fat and protein these bars contain. Unfortunately that would not be good for me! They are are fabulous!
Wow you were in Latvia!! Did you only visit Riga, or any other cities as well? That’s strange, I always thought there were Eastern European supermarkets in the US that might offer these bars… maybe they don’t because the bars can’t keep for a very long time? I’m puzzled.
Hi! I love Karums with vanilla flavour. It’s the best cottage cheese dessert ever.
Greetings from Lithuania! :)
Hi Ieva! We’ve travelled through Lithuania a few times this summer :) I wanted to buy some dairy products, but we never had the time to go grocery shopping. I love Lithuanian cottage cheese!