Foody Thursday - "Syrnyk" Ukrainian Style Cheesecake

For the crust:

250 gr butter
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp cocoa powder
2 eggs
1 cup sugar
3 cups flour

1. Melt butter, let it cool, add eggs and sugar, mix well

2. In a separate bowl mix flour, cocoa and soda.

3. Add both mixtures and mix well to form soft dough.

4. Now there are two ways you could go with the chocolate crust - use the whole lot for the bottom layer, as I did, or divide in 2 and use one part for the bottom and the other one on top of the cheese filling

Cheese filling:

1kg soft dry cottage cheese - tvorog
1 cup sugar
2 tbsp corn starch
2 eggs
2 packages vanilla sugar

Mix well in a food processor or press cottage cheese through the sieve and add the rest of the ingredients

Roll out chocolate dough, transfer to the cookie sheet with high edges. Spread the cheese filling evenly over the chocolate dough. Bake in the pre-heated to 190C oven for about 35-40 min or until the cheese filling is firm around the edges but kind of wiggly in the middle. Let it chill, decorate with cocoa powder

Enjoy!