Sweet & Cheesy Ukrainian Blintz Bundles + 60-Second Rapid Raspberry Magic Sauce + Zippy Raspberry Lemonade
Sweet & Cheesy Ukrainian Blintz Bundles
I’m endlessly fascinated by how foods travel and transform across different cultures, and blintzes are a perfect example. Originating from Ashkenazi Jewish traditions, these crepe-like pancakes have spread throughout Eastern Europe since the 19th century, influenced by the Ashkenazi diaspora. Each region put its spin on the classic, incorporating local flavors and ingredients—from savory sautéed mushrooms to sweet regional fruits and cheese.
Today’s sweet, golden bundle, inspired by Ukrainian blintzes, is stuffed with sweet ricotta cheese and then generously doused in a sauce of crushed raspberries. Enjoy blintzes as a lazy weekend breakfast or an extra special dessert!
Happy & Healthy Cooking,
Shopping List
- FRESH OR FROZEN
- 4 lemons
- 3 C fresh or frozen raspberries
- DAIRY AND EGGS
- 1 1/4 C milk **(see allergy subs below)**
- 3 T butter **(see allergy subs below)**
- 1 C ricotta cheese OR soft cream cheese **(see allergy subs below)**
- 3 large eggs **(see allergy subs below)**
- PANTRY
- 1 C all-purpose flour **(see allergy subs below)**
- 1 1/4 C granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1 tsp pure vanilla extract **(see allergy subs below)**
- HAVE ON HAND
- 3 C water
- ice, optional
Fun-Da-Mentals Kitchen Skills
- flip :
to turn food, like a pancake or fritter, over to cook on its other side or to coat both sides of food with batter or glaze.
- measure :
to calculate the specific amount of an ingredient required using a measuring tool (like measuring cups or spoons).
- mix :
to thoroughly combine two or more ingredients until uniform in texture.
- pour :
to cause liquid, granules, or powder to stream from one container into another.
- smash :
to break up food into smaller pieces or squash food to flatten or soften it.
- stir :
to mix together two or more ingredients with a spoon or spatula, usually in a circle pattern, or figure eight, or in whatever direction you like!
Equipment Checklist
- Large frying pan or skillet
- Small pan or saucepan (or microwave)
- Medium mixing bowl
- Large mixing bowl
- Dry measuring cups
- Measuring spoons
- Liquid measuring cup
- Whisk
- Cutting board
- Kid-safe knife
- Citrus juicer (optional)
- Heat-resistant spatula or pancake turner
- Plate
- Medium bowl
- Wooden spoon
- Pitcher
Ingredients
Sweet & Cheesy Ukrainian Blintz Bundles
- Filling:
- 1 C ricotta cheese OR soft cream cheese **(for DAIRY ALLERGY sub dairy-free/nut-free cream cheese)**
- 1/4 C granulated sugar
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract **(for GLUTEN ALLERGY use certified gluten-free pure vanilla extract, not imitation vanilla flavor—check label)**
- 1 tsp lemon juice
- Pancake:
- 1 1/4 C milk **(for DAIRY ALLERGY sub dairy-free/nut-free milk)**
- 1 C all-purpose flour **(for GLUTEN ALLERGY sub gluten-free/nut-free all-purpose flour)**
- 1/4 C granulated sugar
- 1/4 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract **(for GLUTEN ALLERGY use certified gluten-free pure vanilla extract, not imitation vanilla flavor—check label)**
- 3 T butter **(for DAIRY ALLERGY sub dairy-free/nut-free butter)**
- 3 large eggs **(for EGG ALLERGY sub 1/4 C ground flaxseeds + 1/2 C water, whisked)
60-Second Rapid Raspberry Magic Sauce
- 1 C fresh or frozen raspberries
- 1/4 C granulated sugar
- 1 tsp lemon juice
Zippy Raspberry Lemonade
- 2 C fresh or frozen raspberries
- 1/2 C granulated sugar
- 3 lemons, juiced
- 3 C water
- ice, optional
Food Allergen Substitutions
Sweet & Cheesy Ukrainian Blintz Bundles
- Dairy: Substitute dairy-free/nut-free cream cheese for ricotta or cream cheese. Substitute dairy-free/nut-free milk. Substitute dairy-free/nut-free butter.
- Gluten/Wheat: Substitute gluten-free/nut-free all-purpose flour. Use certified gluten-free pure vanilla extract, not imitation vanilla flavor.
- Egg: For 3 large eggs, substitute 1/4 C ground flaxseeds + 1/2 C water. Whisk and soak flaxseeds in warm water for 5 minutes or until fully absorbed and thickened.
Instructions
Sweet & Cheesy Ukrainian Blintz Bundles
intro
"Pryvit" (PREH-vit) or "Hello" in Ukraine! A blintz is like a soft pancake wrapped around a yummy filling, like cheese or fruit. The dish comes from Ukraine. It's golden and warm on the outside and creamy or sweet on the inside. You can eat it for breakfast or as a snack, and sometimes it gets a little sprinkle of sugar on top! Let's dive in!
measure + mix
To make the cheese filling, in a medium mixing bowl, measure and mix 1 cup ricotta cheese OR soft cream cheese, 1/4 cup sugar, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Then, slice a lemon in half and squeeze about 1 teaspoon of lemon juice into the mixture. Whisk to combine and set aside.
measure + melt
To make the blintz batter, in a large mixing bowl, measure 1 1/4 cups milk, 1 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract. Whisk to combine. In a small pot or saucepan (or microwave), melt 3 tablespoons of butter. Pour that into the bowl of blintz batter.
crack + whisk
Crack 3 eggs, add them to the batter, and whisk to combine. Let’s practice counting to 3 in Ukrainian while we crack the eggs: 1 odyn (oh-DIN), 2 dva (di-VAH), 3 try (tree).
fry + flip
Into a large frying pan over medium heat, pour 1/4 cup of the batter at a time. The batter should be thin and cook very quickly, roughly 2 minutes on each side. After 2 minutes, flip the blintz and cook for a slightly shorter time on the other side. Place each cooked blintz onto a plate. Repeat until the batter is all cooked. While the blintzes cook, make sure to take some deep breaths and smell the amazing creation you are whipping together.
scrumptious science
Fragrance and food go hand-in-hand. Your nose is a well-oiled machine that does most of the work in processing your olfactory sense (sense of smell). The olfactory sense refers to all the parts of your body that process smells. Your brain and nose do a lot of the work. When you smell something, your nose will communicate with the olfactory bulb, which is the part of your brain that processes smells. This process happens in a split second, making you feel an emotion or transporting you into a memory. This unique bodily function is why foods and their smells can make people feel happy, sad, or any range of emotions. My favorite is smelling cinnamon and being transported to baking pies with my aunts.
roll + fill
Place 1 to 2 tablespoons of the cheese filling on each blintz. Then, gently spread the cheese across the blintz. Finally, roll the blintz up by taking one end and rolling it to the other side. Your blintz should look similar to an enchilada or taco.
drizzle + devour
Drizzle the blintz with 60-Second Rapid Raspberry Magic Sauce and devour! "Smachnoho" (Smach-NO-hoh) or "Bon Appetit" in Ukrainian!
60-Second Rapid Raspberry Magic Sauce
measure + juice
In a medium bowl, measure 1 cup raspberries and 1/4 cup sugar. Then, slice a lemon in half and squeeze roughly 1 teaspoon of the juice into the bowl.
smash+ drizzle
Using a wooden spoon, smash the raspberry mixture. Smash and mix until all the berries and sugar combine into a drizzly sauce. Drizzle big spoonfuls of sauce over ice cream, pancakes, or blintzes, like our Sweet & Cheesy Ukrainian Blintz Bundles! Enjoy!
Zippy Raspberry Lemonade
juice + measure
Into a pitcher, measure 2 cups raspberries and 1/2 cup sugar. Then, slice 3 lemons in half and juice them into the pitcher with the raspberries and sugar. With a wooden spoon, smash and stir until all the berries and sugar are fully combined.
pour + whisk
Add 3 cups of water to the pitcher. Stir a few times, making sure to get all the sugar that might be stuck to the bottom of the pitcher. Add ice if you would like. Pour the Zippy Raspberry Lemonade into cups. Enjoy! Cheers
Hi! I'm Sugar!
"I'm very sweet and can sweeten lots of foods, especially candy and desserts. I also provide a lot of energy! You can find me in powdered, granular, and liquid form, and I am either white or brown. You don't want too much of me—well, you may, but too much wouldn't be healthy!"
- The New Oxford American Dictionary defines sugar as "a sweet crystalline substance obtained from various plants, especially sugar cane and sugar beet, consisting essentially of sucrose, and used as a sweetener in food and drink."
- Sugar cane has grown in the Indian subcontinent and Southeast Asia since 4,000 BCE. People initially extracted its juicy sweetness by chewing on the raw sugar cane. India learned how to get sugar crystals from the juice and refine the sugar, and eventually, those methods spread to other countries, like China. Before and during that time, honey had been used around the world as a natural sweetener.
- Today, Brazil produces the most sugar worldwide, followed by India and China.
- Sugar cane comes from the genus Saccharum and is considered a species of giant grasses! The plants grow from 6 to 20 feet tall. Their fibrous stalks are rich in sucrose, a sugar composed of glucose and fructose.
- Sugar is made in plants by photosynthesis, the process that turns sunlight into energy.
- The plants are grown primarily in tropical climates. The first sugar cane to be planted in the United States was in 1751 by French Jesuit priests in New Orleans, Louisiana. Today, sugar cane is grown in the US states of Florida, Louisiana, and Texas.
- Sugar cane was introduced to Hawaii in about 600 CE. It was produced there commercially from 1802 until the last sugar mill closed in 2016.
- Sugar cane is harvested by chopping down the stalks but leaving the roots so that they regrow in time for the next harvest. At the sugar mill, they wash, shred, and press the stalks to extract the juice. The juice is boiled until it thickens and then crystallizes. The crystals are then spun in a centrifuge to remove the liquid, producing raw sugar.
- The raw sugar is sent to a refinery to be melted into sugar syrup and purified, which also produces molasses. The sugar is crystallized again from the syrup, and the crystals are dried and packaged.
- Sugar beets were first identified as a source of sugar in the 16th century by French author and scientist Olivier de Serres, who found that boiling a red beet produced sugar syrup. Since cane sugar was readily available and tasted better, his process did not become widespread.
- Later, in 1747, a German science professor from Berlin, Andreas Sigismund Marggraf, used a white beet to make sugar similar to cane sugar; however, his method was never commercially produced.
- Marggraf's student, Franz Karl Achard, experimented with different beet varieties and selected a strain that would become the precursor of the modern sugar beet. Achard opened the first sugar beet factory in 1801 in what is now Poland.
- The beets are harvested in the fall and early winter by digging them out of the ground. They are sliced and boiled to extract the sugar.
- The white sugars include granulated, powdered (or confectioners'), fruit (or fructose), superfine (or caster), baker's special (superfine and quick-dissolving), coarse, and sanding.
- The brown sugars include light and dark brown, granulated brown, turbinado or raw, and muscovado (or Barbados). The sugars are brown due to their molasses content. The amount of molasses in commercial brown sugar based on volume is three and a half percent for light brown sugar and six and a half percent for dark brown sugar.
- Liquid sugar is white granulated sugar dissolved in water or sugar syrup. However, molasses, corn syrup, maple syrup, and honey are also liquid and considered sugar.
- Sugar adds sweetness to foods but can also aid in browning, rising, and tenderizing dough and other foods. Although sugar is added to desserts, it can also be added to savory dishes to enhance flavor and balance the acid and salt in a dish.
- When heated, sugar is caramelized, creating a brown and sweet nutty flavor for making candy and a delicious sauce for ice cream and other desserts. Cooking fruit and vegetables long enough for the sugars in them to caramelize helps them to develop a rich, nutty flavor.
- Sugar by itself is a source of carbohydrates and energy; however, its calories are considered empty calories, as it has no other nutrients or health benefits. None of the sugar varieties are more nutritious than others.
- Not only can too much sugar make you way too active and keep you awake at night, but excessive consumption of sugar in any form contributes to the possibility of damaging health effects, such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and tooth decay.
What is a Blintz?
- Blintzes are filled and rolled pancakes. They were created by the Ashkenazi Jewish people who lived in Eastern European countries, including Ukraine. Ukrainian blintzes or crepes are called "nalisniki" or "nalysnyky" (pronounced NAH-less-NEE-kee or NAH-less-NEH-keh).
- The word "blintz" comes from the Yiddish word "blintse," from the Slavic word "blinet" ("little pancake"). In Ukrainian, "blin" means "pancake."
- Blintzes can be filled with sweetened cheese, like farmer's, cottage, ricotta, or cream cheese. They may also be filled with fruit preserves. The filled pancakes are sautéed and served warm with sour cream or fruit sauce on top. They may be served for breakfast, brunch, or dessert.
Let's Learn About Ukraine!
- Ukraine is an eastern European country and the second largest in Europe. Russia is the largest and lies on its eastern and northeastern border, with Belarus on its northern border. Hungary, Poland, and Slovakia are to the west of Ukraine, and Romania and Moldova are to the southwest. It borders the Black Sea to the south and the Sea of Azov to the southwest.
- Ukraine was part of the Soviet Union until it broke up in 1991; however, Russia invaded and annexed the Crimea region in 2014, and in 2022, they began a full-scale invasion. As of 2023, the countries continue to fight over Ukraine's sovereignty and contested regions.
- The government is a unitary semi-presidential republic with a president, prime minister, and legislature. Their currency is the "hryvnia" (pronounced 'HREEV-nee-yuh').
- Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president since 2019, has earned worldwide renown for his leadership during the Russian invasion.
- Kyiv (pronounced 'Keev') is Ukraine's capital and largest city. The country's total area is 233,062 square miles, a little smaller than the US state of Texas, with 1,729 miles of coastline. The population is over 36.7 million.
- The official language is Ukrainian, an East Slavic language. Russian is also spoken, mostly in areas of the east and south.
- Most of Ukraine lies in the East European Plain, and its geography consists of fertile grasslands, highlands, and plateaus, with the Carpathian Mountains on its western border and the Crimean Mountains on its southern border. Several rivers flow across the country into the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.
- The climate is temperate, although Crimea's southern coast is subtropical.
- The sunflower is the national flower of Ukraine. The plants are grown for their seeds and oil from the seeds. It also symbolizes peace, hope, and resilience to Ukrainians.
- The nightingale is Ukraine's national animal. The white stork is also native to Ukraine. The golden jackal resides in Southwest Europe, including Ukraine, and the brown bear is found in the Carpathian Mountains.
- Agriculture is a big part of Ukraine's economy, and it is one of the largest wheat exporters in the world.
- Football (soccer) is the most popular sport in Ukraine. Basketball is increasing in popularity.
- A well-known part of Ukrainian cuisine, "borscht" (beet soup), is the national dish. Other traditional foods include "banush" (cornmeal stew), "holubtsi" (cabbage roll), "varenyky" (dumpling), and "paska" (decorative bread).
What's It Like to Be a Kid in Ukraine?
- Ukrainian children attend school for 12 years, from 6 to 17 years old. They may receive a state scholarship to attend university for free if their grades are high enough. Elementary students wear uniforms to school.
- Since the war with Russia began in 2022, kids' lives have been upended in many ways. Some moved with families to other cities in Ukraine or had to go to another country as refugees with their families.
- Some of the sports kids participate in are football (soccer), basketball, volleyball, gymnastics, swimming, and tennis.
- For breakfast, kids may eat porridge or "syrnyky," a pancake made with soft curd cheese (this also could be dessert). For lunch, they may have a soup, like "borscht" and grilled sausages or "varenyky," which can be filled with cottage cheese, cabbage, potatoes, or meat.
- Kids may like to eat "pampushky," a sweet or savory doughnut, for a snack or dessert. "Kyiv cake," made with chocolate, hazelnuts, and meringue, is also a popular dessert.
THYME for a Laugh
Did you hear about the angry pancake?
He just flipped!
That's Berry Funny
What do you give an injured lemon?
Lemon-aid!
The Yolk's On You
What do you call a raspberry that uses foul language?
Berry Rude.
The Yolk's On You
Why did the lemon have no friends?
Because she was a sour-puss!
The Yolk's On You
Why did the lemon stop halfway across the road?
He ran out of juice!
THYME for a Laugh
What do you call a raspberry who got stepped on?
Toe Jam.
THYME for a Laugh
What do you call raspberries playing the guitar?
A jam session!
Lettuce Joke Around
What did the raspberry say to the tart?
"I like you berry much."
Lettuce Joke Around
What does a panda use to make pancakes?
A pan...duh!
