Cheese Blintzes
With every season change, I go through recipes that I have saved since I was very young. It started when I would cut up recipes from McCall’s magazine and glue them on large index cards for my mother. Then I started doing it for myself.
As I just turned 60 years old, you can only guess at how old many of these recipes are!
Recently I came across this old McCall’s recipe for blintzes. It gave me the idea to make blintzes for when I have overnight company soon.
Blintzes can be made the day before and re-heated gently the next morning. Plus, the little blintz packages are so pretty – much prettier than some breakfast casserole.
You need three parts to make blintzes. You need the crêpes, filling and sauce.
Cheese Blintzes with Strawberry Coulis
Sauce:
12 ounces fresh strawberries
1/3 cup sugar or to taste
2 tablespoons orange liqueur or orange juice
Filling:
1 1/2 cups cottage cheese
1 1/2 cups ricotta cheese
Few drops of orange oil or 1 teaspoon orange zest, optional
1/4 cup white sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
Melted butter, optional
Cinnamon sugar, optional
Crêpes; make a quadruple recipe.
To make the sauce, place the three ingredients in a saucepan over medium heat and stir to dissolve the sugar. Continue to cook until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 30 minutes.
Let cool slightly, then blend with an immersion blender. Cover and refrigerate if not using right away.
To make the filling, place the cottage cheese in a food processor jar and process until smooth.
Scrape down the sides, then add the remaining ingredients and process until all combined.
Taste the filling. Personally, I prefer the sauce sweeter than the filling; you don’t want a sweet filling and a sweet sauce because this is not dessert. Also, the cinnamon should be fairly strong because it pairs so nicely with the fruit. If you can’t taste it, add some more. There are different grades and potencies of cinnamon.
Cover and refrigerate the filling if you’re not using it right away.
When you are ready to prepare the blintzes, have the crêpes at your work station either just cooked and still slightly warm, or at room temperature, if you made them the day before. If they are too chilled they will break instead of fold. Also have the filling on your work station.
Pre-heat the oven to 400 degrees. Lightly butter two baking pans to hold the blintzes in one layer.
Place about one heaping tablespoon of filling in the middle of a crêpe.
First fold over the front of the crêpe over the filling, then the left and right sides over the filling, then roll the whole thing over the remaining flap.
Gently pick up the blintz and place in the pan with the folded sides down. Continue with the remaining crêpes and filling.
If you like, brush the tops of the crêpes with melted butter, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.
Bake in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes, or just until golden. They will be puffy, but unfortunately they will unpuff within minutes. That’s ok – they’re still really good.
Serve with the warm or room temperature strawberry coulis.
If you like, serve with a few fresh berries.
note: Some blintzes are sautéed in butter in a pan instead of baked. Those are also fabulous!
I have already PINNED this! What a great recipe – and I so love the idea that these can be made the day before and then gently reheated. YUMMY!! ; o )
Thank you so much!!!
Oh that’s funny! I don’t think I did rock stars or food!!! Blintzes really are fabulous, and they;re so pretty. It was challenging to photograph them, though!
Mmmmm…blintzes are an all-time fave. My grandma used to make them stuffed with “farmer’s cheese.” I, like you, used a ricotta mixture. Thanks for posting this recipe!
Thanks so much!
Maybe an oldie but a goody!
Like crepes Suzette – they never get really old, right?!!
Lovely recipe and I think my most treasured (and well used) book is the scrapbook with recipe cuttings from way back when!
Yes! I completely agree!
Happy late Birthday Mimi and welcome to the club. I love those old recipes from long ago. Your blintzes look fabulous. There is something about crepes that is very comforting.
Thank you Gerlinde! 60 isn’t bad so far!
One of my all times favorites! Love your addition of fresh strawberries sauce.
Happy Birthday! :)
Thank you!
Hahahaha! They are really good!
Oh gosh, it really was challenging photographing the blintzes! I’m not sure why!!
I purposely never use much sugar in anything, really, but you’re right – a more fun breakfast – not a healthy one!!!
I have never made them. They look very elegant Mimi. I think the coulis helped with the photos. A nice bit of contrast and texture there.
Thank you. They were challenging to photograph for some odd reason.
Oh, how funny Mimi! We must be telepathic! we both posted blintzes! I love them! And your strawberry coulis sounds yummy!
I guess we both just love great food!!!
I love your beautiful plates. And what a fantastic dessert – I would just love those flavours xx
They are definitely sweet enough for dessert but not too sweet for breakfast! Thank you Charlie!
Reblogged this on Chef Ceaser.
Thank you Chef Ceaser!
These sound totally delicious Mimi and a great idea for a weekend breakfast or brunch! Looking forward to making these for the family sometime soon. :)
I can’t imagine anyone not loving these, unless, perhaps, they don’t like the ricotta texture.
9.20 at night and now I am hungry! Happy 60th!
Thank you! Not bad so far!!!
These look amazing! I am going to ask my husband to make them for me for mothers day! He is a great cook and will love this too. Thanks for the recipe.
Wait, your husband cooks?!!! How lovely!!!
Mmmm. Looks amazing Mimi. We are so excited here because Alice is one on the 7th. Ill be busy in the kitchen working on her cake for the next few days. xx
That is exciting!!! Hopefully you’ll post photos?!!
These blintzes sound absolutely amazing and they must be such a wonderful treat for breakfast! Thanks for sharing!!
Thank you so much! And they’re pretty, too!
Thanks for the wonderful post – and for reminding me that I haven’t made Blintzes in forever! Yum – might just need to whip up a few very soon.
I forget about them occasionally, too! Don’t really know why!!
How fun to dig back and find a gem like this! I need to go back and look at my old recipe files – I wonder what I will find! I know there isn’t a cheese blintz recipe, so I will bookmark yours. You are right – so much prettier than a breakfast casserole!
I’m just not a casserole fan in any case. Too much of a snob about how food looks.
Wow, it’s been years since I’ve had a blintz… Brings back memories of growing up in NY
I was just in NYC and I only saw bagels! I would have loved to have an authentic blintz!
Blintzes fried in butter are a beautiful thing!
Perfect recipe. i would have happily been an overnight guest for these the next morning. I did something similar when I was growing up—i ripped out clippings from mags and would organize them into files. I wonder what happened to that organized filing young girl?!? :) Happy belated birthday!
Hahahaha! Thank you. I’m sadly an over organizer. Still.
My goodness, I haven’t made blintzes in ages but this has definitely given me a craving again. Love you filling & those ingredients you mark as “optional”… well, I’m thinking are required for me.
Happy birthday! I hope it was a great one. I’ve got one bearing down on me this month.
Well happy future birthday!!! They are fun, especially when you’re treated as we deserve to be treated!
I have the same recipe cards which I started 30 years ago with food marks all over them from use🤓 still have them and still use them!
Isn’t that funny?!!! Great minds I guess…
I’ve never had Cheese Blintzes before. I just may have to try these sometime soon!
Oh, they’re such a treat. Especially if you love the texture of ricotta.
The possibilities are endless, which is why I love making them!
Me, too! I rarely make the same thing, which sometimes pisses off my family, but if I do, I invariably make a new variation. Why not?!!