Better-than-Ratner’s cheese blintz

Blintzes, frying in butter.
If you’re from New York, the name Ratner’s gives you dewy-eyed nostalgia for the great dairy restaurant of yore. But I’m from LA, and Ratner’s just makes me think of my dentist, Dr. Farkas, whose office is on Ratner St. There’s a connection– Alex Ratner came west in 1914 to beat back tuberculosis, and he ended up doing better in real estate than he ever did in borscht and blintzes.
But for those nostalgic for a taste of the not-so-old country, Tori Avey posts the recipe for Ratner’s original cheese blintz, taken from the restaurant’s cookbook. By all means check it out. But I’ve followed it, and I can tell you: mine are better.
I use ricotta cheese, Meyer lemon zest and sour cream (or mascarpone) for a filling that makes these taste like cheesecake in blintz form. There’s a video below, embarrassingly old, of younger me making them with some great former colleagues.
Join Rob Eshman, national editor of the Forward and creator of @Foodaism for a live cooking demonstration of these lemon blueberry blintzes. Thursday, May 28 at 5:30 p.m. PDT/8:30 p.m. EDT. Facebook Live Jewish Daily Forward. Click here to watch.###

Blintzes, frying in butter.
Lemon Ricotta Blintzes
(Makes 10 – 12)
FOR THE BLINTZES:
1 cup flour
1 tsp. sugar
½ t. vanilla extract
1/2 tsp. salt
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups whole milk
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
FOR THE FILLING:
1 lb. ricotta cheese, at room temperature, drained
3 T sour cream or mascarpone
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp. sugar
½ t. Meyer or regular lemon zest
½ t. vanilla extract
1.Combine crepe batter ingredients in blender or bowl and mix until smooth. Let rest a half hour.
2.Combine filling ingredients in mixer or bowl and blend until smooth. (Use good quality, whole-milk ricotta. If very moist, drain in a cheesecloth-lined colander set inside pan for a few hours or overnight in the refrigerator. You can also use the more traditional farmers cheese, if you wish)
3.Heat a non-stick crepe pan or 8-inch skillet. Coat with oil or butter. Add ¼ cup batter and tilt pan to spread batter thin. Cook until set, then flip. Cook until dry, then turn out onto a plate. Repeat until all the batter is used. I layer baking parchment or wax paper between the crepes.
4.Spread 2 or 3 T. of filling along the bottom of a crepe. Roll up into a cylinder, tucking ends in before you finish rolling. Repeat until all the crepes are filled.
5.Heat 3-5 T. vegetable oil or clarified butter in a skillet, Add crepes 2-3 at a time and cook on each side until golden. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and fresh berries.
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 2
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward A Chicagoan wanted to protest Elon Musk — and put a swastika sticker on a Jewish man’s Tesla
-
Fast Forward NY attorney general orders car wash to stop ripping off Jews with antisemitic ‘Passover special’
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.