Almond Flour Blintzes with Ricotta and Warm Cherry Sauce
Thin almond flour crepes folded around sweetened ricotta and skyr, browned in the pan until the edges crisp, and served under a warm cherry sauce sharpened with lemon.
Why You'll Love This Recipe
Blintzes were a weekend thing in my family, made in a stack while everybody else was still asleep, and they are worth the small amount of fuss. This version leans on almond flour for the crepes, which behave a little differently but come out tender and faintly sweet, and on a filling of ricotta loosened with skyr rather than the heavier mixtures I grew up with. It takes about fifty minutes start to finish and it makes eight small parcels, two per person. Almost all of it can be done the night before, which is how I actually manage it on a weekday.
There are two cooking stages and both matter. The crepes get cooked briefly on one side only, until the surface loses its shine and the underside is barely gold, then stacked and left to cool completely. A warm crepe will tear the moment you try to fold it, and this is the single reason people give up on blintzes. Once cool, they are surprisingly strong. The second stage is the browning: filled parcels go seam side down into a lightly oiled pan and get three minutes a side, which crisps the outside and warms the edges of the filling while the middle stays cool.
What I love about eating them is the temperature and the texture running in opposite directions. The outside is hot and crisp at the folds, the filling is cool and grainy and tangy, and the cherry sauce sits somewhere between the two, warm and loose and sharp from the lemon. The cinnamon is in the crepe rather than the filling, so you get it as a background note rather than a sweet one. Two of these with a spoonful of sauce is a real breakfast, and it holds up far better through the morning than the pancakes it superficially resembles.
Ingredients
- 3/4 cup blanched almond flour, generously packed (about 2 3/4 oz)
- 3 large eggs
- 1 1/2 cups plain nonfat skyr, divided
- 2/3 cup part-skim ricotta
- 2 1/2 cups sweet cherries, pitted and halved (fresh or frozen)
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
- 1 1/2 tbsp fresh lemon juice, divided
- 1 tbsp avocado oil, for the pan
- 3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- Pinch of fine sea salt
Instructions
- Make the cherry sauce: Put the cherries, maple syrup, half the lemon juice, and a pinch of the salt in a small saucepan over medium heat. Cook eight to ten minutes, stirring now and then and pressing a few cherries against the side of the pan, until they have slumped and the liquid has reduced to a glossy syrup that coats a spoon. Set aside off the heat.
- Mix the crepe batter: Whisk the eggs until completely smooth, then whisk in half a cup of the skyr, the almond flour, the cinnamon, and the rest of the salt. The batter should be thin enough to swirl, like heavy cream. Add a tablespoon or two of water if it feels thick, then let it rest ten minutes so the almond flour hydrates.
- Cook the crepes on one side: Wipe a small nonstick or well-seasoned skillet with a little of the oil and set it over medium heat. Pour in about three tablespoons of batter and immediately swirl the pan to spread it into a six-inch round. Cook ninety seconds to two minutes, until the top loses its shine and sets and the underside is pale gold. Slide it out cooked side up and repeat, making eight.
- Cool them completely: Lay the crepes out flat, or stack them with the cooked sides together, and leave them until they are properly cool to the touch. This takes about ten minutes and it is what makes them fold without tearing. Do not skip it.
- Make the filling and fold: Beat the ricotta with the remaining skyr and the rest of the lemon juice for a full minute, until smooth and thick. Spoon about three tablespoons onto the lower third of each crepe, cooked side up. Fold the bottom over the filling, fold in both sides, then roll into a neat parcel, seam underneath.
- Brown the parcels: Wipe the skillet with the remaining oil and set it over medium heat. Put the blintzes in seam side down, without crowding, and cook three minutes until deep gold and crisp, then turn once and give the other side two to three minutes. Serve hot with the warm cherry sauce spooned over.
Variations
- Orange and cardamom filling: Beat a teaspoon of orange zest into the ricotta and add a pinch of ground cinnamon, which turns the filling brighter and more fragrant.
- Toasted almond top: Scatter a handful of chopped toasted almonds over the finished plates for crunch against the soft filling.
- Savory blintzes: Leave the cinnamon out of the batter, beat chives and black pepper into the ricotta, and skip the sauce in favor of a spoonful of skyr and cracked pepper.
- Baked rather than pan-browned: Lay the filled parcels seam down in an oiled dish and bake at 400°F for fifteen minutes, which is easier when you are making a double batch.
- Blackberry lemon sauce: Swap the cherries for blackberries, cook them only five minutes, and add a strip of lemon zest to the pan.
Storage & Leftovers
Filled, unbrowned blintzes keep three days in the refrigerator in a sealed container with parchment between the layers. This is the way I would make them ahead, since the final browning takes six minutes and gives you the crisp folds that make the dish. The cherry sauce keeps a week in a jar and thickens as it chills.
Already browned blintzes keep two days and reheat best in a dry skillet over medium heat, two minutes a side. The oven at 350°F for eight minutes works too. Avoid the microwave, which turns the crisp folds soft and leathery and warms the filling unevenly.
Filled and unbrowned, they freeze well for two months. Freeze them on a tray until firm, then bag them so they do not stick together. Cook straight from frozen in a covered skillet over medium-low for four minutes a side. The cherry sauce also freezes and thaws with no change at all.
Notes & Tips
- Let the batter rest: Ten minutes lets the almond flour absorb liquid, and it turns a gritty batter into a smooth one that spreads properly in the pan.
- Cook the crepes on one side only: The uncooked side becomes the inside of the parcel and grips the filling. Cooking both sides gives you a crepe that unrolls itself.
- Cool before folding: This is the whole game. A warm almond flour crepe tears, a cool one folds like fabric.
- Swirl the pan immediately: Almond flour batter sets fast. Pour and swirl in one motion, or you will get a thick patch in the middle.
- Seam side down first: Starting the browning on the seam seals the parcel shut so nothing escapes when you turn it.
- Keep the sauce loose: Cook it only until it coats a spoon. Reduced further it turns to jam in the refrigerator and will not spoon over anything.
Nutrition & Mindful Eating
- The crepes, the filling, and the cherry sauce balance each other out. Eggs and almond flour give the crepes their structure and staying power, ricotta and skyr make a filling that is high in protein and calcium, and the cherries bring the fruit sugar and the color.
- Ricotta whipped with skyr turns smooth and thick without any cream at all, and between the two of them this filling carries a great deal of calcium and the kind of dense protein that makes a sweet breakfast eat like a substantial one.
- Almond flour is simply ground blanched almonds, which is why the crepes taste faintly of marzipan and stay tender, and it brings vitamin E, magnesium, and calcium along with the fat that keeps the crepe flexible.
- Cherries cooked down to a syrup taste deeper and darker than they do raw, and the anthocyanins that make them red are the same compounds that have been studied for their role in recovery and inflammation.
- Cinnamon sits in the batter rather than the filling, so it comes through as a warm background note against the sharp cherry, and it is one of those spices that carries real calcium in a very small amount.
- As you eat, cut through a parcel so the cool filling meets the hot crisp fold, taste how the lemon keeps the cherries from going syrupy sweet, and take these slowly enough that two of them are genuinely enough.
Frequently Asked Questions
My crepes keep tearing. What is going wrong?
Nine times in ten they are still warm. Almond flour crepes have no gluten holding them together, so they need to cool and firm up before folding. The other cause is batter spread too thin, which leaves lacy holes. Aim for a round you can see through only faintly.
Can I use frozen cherries?
Yes, and I often do. Use them straight from the freezer without thawing and add two or three extra minutes to the sauce, since they release more water. Frozen sour cherries are the best version of this sauce if you can find them, though you may want an extra spoonful of maple.
Can I make the whole thing the night before?
Yes. Make the sauce, cook and cool the crepes, mix the filling, and fill the parcels the night before, then keep them covered in the refrigerator. In the morning you are six minutes from the table, which is the only reason these appear on weekdays in my house.
What fruit works besides cherries?
Blackberries and raspberries both cook down in half the time and give you a looser, seedier sauce. Sliced plums hold their shape and want a couple of extra minutes. Blueberries work but go very sweet, so add the full amount of lemon.