Nalysnyky vs Blintzes: What's the Difference?

Part of our Heritage Kitchen Glossary – short guides to the ingredients and techniques behind Eastern European cooking.

Put nalysnyky and blintzes side by side and they look like the same dish twice: a thin crepe wrapped around fresh white cheese. They are relatives. The blintz is thought to have started in Slavic countries, including Ukraine, and its name comes from the Yiddish blintze. What separates the two is how each one is shaped, cooked and served.

The same thin crepe

Plain Ukrainian crepes are mlyntsi. Filled and rolled, they become nalysnyky. A blintz is a thin pancake too, closer to a crepe than to a thick breakfast pancake: it is cooked once on its own, then filled, folded and fried a second time. Blintz recipes cook the crepe on one side only and put the filling on the browned side, and some nalysnyky recipes also leave the crepes on one side and let the oven finish them.

Shape and finish

For nalysnyky, the sides of the crepe are folded in so the filling stays inside, and the crepe is rolled into a tube. The rolls are eaten as they are, browned in butter or baked in a covered dish. A blintz is folded into a flat parcel, bottom first, then the sides, and fried in butter until the outside turns golden and crisp.

What goes inside

Both are filled with fresh cheese. Nalysnyky take dry cottage cheese or farmer’s cheese; blintzes take farmer’s cheese, which is pressed and fairly dry. Ordinary cottage cheese needs 1½–2 hours in a sieve before it goes into a blintz filling. A wet filling leaks in the oven and makes the crepe soggy, whichever dish you are making.

With cheese, the nalysnyky filling is usually sweet, with sugar and raisins, vanilla or poppy seeds. Cottage cheese is considered the traditional filling, but stewed cabbage, minced meat fried with onion, fried mushrooms and even lightly salted fish go in as well. One Ukrainian-Canadian family recipe makes the cheese filling savory, with dill, black pepper and a little cream. The classic blintz filling is sweetened farmer’s cheese, often with vanilla and lemon zest, and blintzes come to the table with sour cream and fruit preserves or fresh berries.

Two holiday tables

Nalysnyky with cheese have a place in Masnytsia, the week before Lent, also called Cheese Week: meat is already off the table by then, but dairy, eggs and fish are not.

Blintzes belong above all to Shavuot, which marks the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai. Cheese is the food of the holiday, and in Ashkenazi homes that most typically means blintzes. Many homes serve them at Hanukkah as well, as a dairy dish next to the latkes and other foods fried in oil.

Which one should you cook?

For rolls baked under foil, sweet or with dill, make nalysnyky; there is a lighter nalysnyky version too. For a parcel fried golden in butter, make blintzes, or the Healthy Blintzes, which go into the oven instead. And if the cheese is what you are after, syrnyky leave out the pancake altogether: they are small fried cakes of farmer’s cheese, eggs and sugar, often with raisins.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the difference between nalysnyky and blintzes?

Both are thin crepes filled with fresh cheese. Nalysnyky are rolled into a tube and eaten as they are, browned in butter or baked. Blintzes are folded into a flat parcel and fried in butter until golden and crisp; some recipes bake them.

Are nalysnyky and blintzes the same dish?

They are relatives, not the same dish. The blintz is thought to have started in Slavic countries, including Ukraine.

Can nalysnyky be savory?

Yes. Stewed cabbage, minced meat and fried mushrooms go in as well, and one Ukrainian-Canadian family recipe makes the cheese filling savory with dill and pepper.

What cheese goes in nalysnyky and blintzes?

Dry cottage cheese or farmer’s cheese. Wet cottage cheese should drain in a sieve first, or the filling leaks.

Which holidays are they eaten on?

Nalysnyky with cheese have a place in Masnytsia, the week before Lent. Blintzes belong above all to Shavuot, when cheese is the food of the holiday, and many homes serve them at Hanukkah as well.

Nalysnyky vs Blintzes: Two Filled Crepes, Two Kitchens