A sweet, lemon-flavored cream cheese and ricotta mixture is used to fill these cheese blintzes. They are ideal for any fancy breakfast. When the topic of cheese blintzes is brought up in conversation with someone who has visited (or formerly resided in) New York City, you will almost always notice their face light up. The steps in this recipe may seem complicated, but they are not.
| Prep Time: | 20 mins |
| Cook Time: | 30 mins |
| Additional Time: | 40 mins |
| Total Time: | 1 hr 30 mins |
| Servings: | 5 |
| Yield: | 10 blintzes |
Ingredients
- 1 cup milk
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- ¼ cup cold water
- 3 large eggs
- 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
- 1 tablespoon white sugar
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon vanilla extract
- cooking spray
- 1 tablespoon butter, or as needed
- 1 ½ cups ricotta cheese, strained if wet
- ½ cup cream cheese, at room temperature
- 1 large egg
- 3 tablespoons powdered sugar, divided, or more as needed
- 1 medium lemon, zested
- 1 pinch salt
Instructions
- Gather all ingredients.
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- Make the batter: Combine milk, flour, water, eggs, oil, sugar, salt, and vanilla in a blender. Blend until completely smooth, 1 or 2 minutes, scraping down the sides as needed. Let batter sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.
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- Meanwhile, make the filling: Whisk ricotta cheese, cream cheese, egg, 2 tablespoons powdered sugar, lemon zest, and salt together in a mixing bowl until thoroughly combined. Cover and refrigerate until needed.
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- When batter has rested, heat a 10-inch, nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Spray with cooking spray and pour in about 1/4 cup batter.
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- Immediately swirl batter around to coat the bottom of the skillet. Cook until the surface looks dry, about 1 minute.
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- Flip crêpe and briefly cook the other side, about 30 seconds. Transfer to a plate. Repeat to cook and stack remaining crêpes.
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- Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking dish.
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- Spoon 3 to 4 tablespoons filling onto each crêpe, about 1 inch from the edge nearest you. Fold the edge over filling and flatten slightly.
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- Fold in both sides, then roll crêpe into a small filled rectangle (blintz), ending with the seam on the bottom.
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- Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Working in batches, cook several blintzes at a time until golden brown, turning gently, about 1 minute per side. Transfer to the prepared baking dish.
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- Bake in the preheated oven to firm up the filling, about 12 minutes.
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- Cool blintzes for 10 minutes, then dust lightly with remaining powdered sugar and serve.
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- To make these ahead, refrigerate the rolled-up blintzes after Step 5 until you’re ready to serve them, then cook as directed.
Nutrition Facts
| Calories | 452 kcal |
| Carbohydrate | 33 g |
| Cholesterol | 207 mg |
| Dietary Fiber | 1 g |
| Protein | 19 g |
| Saturated Fat | 13 g |
| Sodium | 518 mg |
| Sugars | 10 g |
| Fat | 27 g |
| Unsaturated Fat | 0 g |
Reviews
If you’re not dumb and follow the recipe, it will come out amazing. Thanks, Chef, for this easy amazing recipe.
I’m usually a huge chef john fan but these didn’t work at all
In my neck of the woods, cream cheese and ricotta are sold by weight, not volume. I appreciate recipes more when they include both measurements or as sold. This recipe was good but I have found farmer’s cheese makes a better filling and is more traditional.
We omitted the salt in the blintz batter due to low salt diet. I also drained the ricotta cheese in a fine mesh strainer overnight in the fridge. We served with fresh fruit and sour cream. My sister is visiting and we did it as a team, both with the swirling, flipping and stacking of the blintz batter and then one of us scooping the filling while the other wrapped the blintzes up. A fun time together! They tasted outstanding!! The lemon zest was perfection. Will definately be making again.
At first I was questioning whether or not I would be able to make these, I’m new to cooking meals like this(I usually just make some eggs and bacon) but this was super easy and it tasted amazing I only made 2 changes, 1: I used lime instead of lemon in the filling (I prefer the taste) and 2: instead of strawberry or raspberry sauce, I used a syrup that a friend of mine made called caramel crabapple syrup. Overall amazing taste 10/10 would recommend to anyone and everyone
Another 5 stars for Chef John
A little extra work, but each step is worth it. Next time, will try to make them slightly thinner (ended up with fewer than promised, and the extra thickness made them tougher to fold for pan frying).
Easy recipe and very delicious!
Easy and very tasty recipe! The only problem is that there is waayyyy to much filling left! Next time, and there WILL be a next time, I will make a half recipe of the filling.
Love the filling!! Very easy to make and delicious!!
Love the filling!! Very easy to make and delicious!!
I listened to what some people said about batter-to-filling ratio being a little off, so I made a 2/3-recipe of batter for a 1/2-recipe of filling. A little convoluted but it worked out right! It made about 7 blintzes, plenty for 3-4 people.
I tried it once as the recipe states and it was good. The 2nd time around I put lemon zest and maybe some juice into the crepes and I enjoyed it much better. Both times, I served it with Chef John’s Fresh Raspberry Sauce. The couple I made it for loved it. I did feel like it was labor intensive, but that might just be that I have not made it enough times to get good at it. https://www.allrecipes.com/recipe/241308/fresh-raspberry-sauce/?src=VD_Summary
I used whole wheat flour and it wasn’t as good. Still enjoyable so don’t get me wrong, but it took me much longer to make it than it stated. I even started the mixes the night before.
These were fun to make and delicious! Although a bit time consuming, I was surprised by how easy this was to make. I have always been intimidated by crepes but the batter was a perfect consistency and the crepes came out great with minimal effort. I’m going to try to make savory crepes with this batter recipe soon. This time I made a simple strawberry sauce to go with these because I needed to use them up (cooked down and partially blended strawberries, sugar and a splash of lime juice).
Amazing recipe!! Very easy !!
Really good. I followed the recipe exactly and they were excellent.
I had never made crepes or blintzes so was quite intimidated! After I bought the pan it still took me a few weeks to actually try this recipe! It was absolutely easy and once I got the hang of the crepes it was quite fun! This is definitely a keeper and I like the fact that I can basically do all the work the day before and finish them in the morning!
Once again, Chef John perfected a winner. These blintzes were delicious and reminded me of my Mother’s kitchen. I have never failed with a Chef John recipe. Never. My only addition to this recipe was to add a bit more sugar to the blintz batter and some more sweetener to the filling. Growing up, we dipped our blintzes in sour cream (hence the need for more sugar in the recipe) and the combination was delicious. Strawberry jam, softened, was also good with the blintzes. Thank you, John, for maintaining your perfect record. On to the next. No pressure!
Made this for brunch. Also made a strawberry sauce to put on top. I made the recipe as directed, but I thought the filling was a little bland and the filling had a different texture due to the ricotta. Next time I will add vanilla and a bit more sugar.
Delicious blintzes. I used a very thin crepe I purchased at the store. They were too thin for the cheese blintz but I made it work and it turned out well. I love the blintz with sour cream.