Cheese Blintzes (or Nalesniki) are one of my favorite weekend breakfast dishes. They are thin crepes, filled with sweet cheese. Nalesniki are very popular in European countries, and are usually served for brunch or with afternoon tea.
Cheese Blintzes are absolutely delicious and can be easily made the night before, so you can spend more time with your loved ones on a weekend morning.
As an Amazon associate, I make a small commission if you use any of the affiliate links below to purchase a product. Other links might be affiliate too. I only recommend products I love. Thank you for supporting my blog!
What are Cheese Blintzes (Nalesniki)?
Blintzes are thin pancakes (aka crepes) filled with sweetened cheese filling. They can be either baked or pan-fried. I like to top my cheese blintzes with sour cream and fruit jam, and serve them for breakfast or as a dessert.
Traditionally, cheese blintzes ,or nalesniki, are stuffed with a sweet filling made out of farmer’s cheese and sugar. Farmers’s cheese is a soft cheese often used in Russian dishes. It can be hard to find farmer’s cheese at your local grocery store here, in the US. Therefore, my modified cheese blintzes recipe calls for a mixture of cottage cheese and cream cheese instead. We’ll also be using sweetened condensed milk to sweeten the cheese filling.
How to make perfect Russian Crepes for the cheese filling?
Crepes are very popular in Slavic countries. They’re used in different breakfast dishes and served as a sweet treat after dinner.
To make the perfect crepes for Cheese Blintzes (Nalesniki), you want to make sure your crepes won’t tear after you fill them with cheese. For that reason, my crepe recipe calls for a large number of eggs. Eggs act as binding agents in the batter, helping the crepes hold all that filling and not tear.
In this blog post, I’m only sharing the recipe for the sweetened cheese filling. Please check out this post for my Easy Crepe recipe. If you like a lot of cheese filling in your blintzes, feel free to double up the recipe.
How to make Cheese Blintzes (Nalesniki)?
First, make sure to prepare crepes for the filling, using my Easy Crepes recipe. You will need about 15 crepes for the amount of filling this recipe calls for. Again, feel free to double up on the filling if you wish.
Secondly, follow the simple steps from the recipe card below to prepare the sweet cheese filling.
And finally, cook you blintzes according to the instructions provided in the recipe section of this blog post. You can either bake the blintzes or pan-fry them.
What Ingredients will you need to make Blintzes?
Crepes – this recipe calls for 15 crepes, made using my Easy Crepes recipe. You will need just a few basic ingredients to make the crepe batter, including eggs, flour and milk.
Sweet Cheese Filling – we’ll be making a sweet cheese filling for the crepes, using a mix of cottage cheese, cream cheese, and sweetened condensed milk. Also, don’t forget to add vanilla!
Toppings – Nalesniki are traditionally topped with sour cream and fruit jam. Some fun topping ideas would be blended strawberries, vanilla yogurt, or homemade salted caramel sauce. You can find a recipe for an easy salted caramel sauce on my Instagram page.
How to make the filling for Nalesniki?
It is so easy to make this sweetened cheese filling! Simply throw all the ingredients in a blender and combine until smooth.
You could also use a hand mixer to mix the ingredients instead. However, this would give it more of a texture, similar to traditional farmer’s cheese (tvorog) filling.
How to form Cheese Blintzes?
Simply spread the filling over the brown side of each crepe. Then fold both sides of the crepe half way towards the middle. Now go ahead and roll each crepe creating a traditional Blintzes shape.
See pictures below for the folding technique.
Last notes on making Cheese Blitzes (Nalesniki)
Nalesniki are perfect for a make-ahead brunch. Simply form blintzes and place them in a baking dish the night before. Leave the baking dish in the fridge till morning. In the morning, top with 2-3 tbsp of sweetened condensed milk (or small pieces of butter) and bake for about 30 minutes. While it’s baking, enjoy time with family.
For a quicker option, pan-fry rolled cheese blintzes with a little bit of butter instead of baking them. I think I actually prefer this method. Pan-fried blintzes turn out super crispy on the outside, and still very moist and creamy on the inside.
No matter which way you decide to cook them, I can guarantee you your family will love them!
P.S. These filled crepes make an amazing Valentines brunch! Serve your Nalesniki with chocolate covered strawberries on a side. Easy, yet impressive dish!
More Recipes to Try
Cheese Blintzes (Nalesniki)
Ingredients
For the filling
- 200 g Cottage Cheese small curd, preferably
- 225 g Cream Cheese (1 block)
- 130 g Sweetened Condensed Milk or more to taste
For cooking Blintzes
- 15-20 Crepes using my crepe recipe
- 3-5 tbsp Sweetened Condensed Milk OR
- 1/4 cup Butter
Instructions
Filling
- Combine all the filling ingredients using a blender or hand mixer.
- Place a crepe on a flat surface, such as a cutting board, brown side up.
- Spread about 1-2 tbsp of cheese filling over the crepe. Fold both sides of the crepe and roll to form Blintzes. Repeat until you're done with all 15-20 crepes.
To cook Blintzes in the oven
- Place blintzes in a baking dish and drizzles each layer with some sweetened condensed milk OR place thin slices of butter between the layers.
- Bake at 350 F (180 C) for 30 minutes. Serve warm with your favorite toppings. Traditional toppings are sour cream and fruit preserves.
To pan-fry Blintzes
- Sauté blintzes in a pan with a little bit of butter over medium-high heat. Blintzes should crisp up a little. Serve warm with your favorite toppings.
My Homemade Crepes recipe can be found here.
[…] Sweetened Cheese Blintzes […]
[…] Cheese Blintzes – Sweet Russian Crepes […]