When the kids were young, Mom (bless her heart!) bought a wonderful beach cottage on Vashon Island, 20 minutes across Puget Sound from Seattle. She served these dynamite cottage cheese pancakes often when the kids were hanging out at the beach with her. Their Dad, MauiJim, was an easy convert and quickly made these his own signature breakfast dish.
There are now legions of young men and women (friends of our own grown children) who remember having these pancakes at our house when they were kids. When we occasionally attend a wedding for one of these “kids,” the first thing they say to us is how fondly they remember “Jim’s Pancakes.”
Well, for all those friends and family, and for anyone else who wants to start a memorable breakfast tradition, here’s the easy and wonderful recipe.
MauiJim’s Lightest Ever Cottage Cheese Pancakes
These lovely pancakes are surprisingly light and delicate, even though they are loaded with cottage cheese. They seem to me to be a quick and easy take on cheese blintz, especially when slathered with raspberry preserves, drizzled with fresh lemon juice, and dusted with powdered sugar. Oh yum!
SECRET After decades of making these delectable cottage cheese pancakes, we noticed that batches varied in lightness. Occasionally, we got incredibly light pancakes, but most of the time, they were simply light. So recently, we got serious about determining the difference. Our conclusion? TIME. Let the batter rest for at least 30 minutes. Overnight is even better. You won’t believe how fabulous these are.
1½ cups cottage cheese
6 large eggs
¾ cup unbleached, all-purpose flour
½ cup unsalted butter, melted
vegetable oil spray
Garnish
best quality raspberry preserves
lemon wedges
powdered sugar in a shaker
- In a medium mixing bowl, add the eggs and whisk to blend. Whisk in the flour, and then whisk in the melted butter.
- With a large rubber spatula, stir in the cottage cheese.
- Heat a nonstick griddle or frying pan over moderately high heat and then lightly coat with vegetable oil spray.
- Using a scant 1/4-cup measure, ladle pancake batter onto the skillet, and cook for 1-2 minutes per side, until nicely browned on each side and cooked through. (When the pancakes are ready to turn, they will appear dry on the edges and bubbles may be rising on the surface. If they are not ready to turn, you won’t be able to easily get a thin spatula all the way underneath them.)
- Serve 4 pancakes per person with raspberry preserves, lemon wedge, and powdered sugar.
Serves 4-6. (Makes 4 cups batter and 14-16 pancakes.)
Copyright 2009 Susan S. Bradley. All rights reserved.
Cottage cheese pancakes are the best. They become so light, spongy like and so delicious. I wish I could have a couple right about now 🙂
Miryam, we eat these almost every weekend. Family members would revolt if they didn’t get them. 🙂
I am definitely intrigued! I’ve never even heard of cottage cheese pancakes before, but I think I will be making some for breakfast tomorrow.
Susan, can’t wait to try these. Really. I always let my batter rest when making pancakes or waffles and I’m glad that you found out. Never dreamed of cottage cheese, but I love cottage cheese and am looking forward to it.
Thanks Patty! 🙂
Cottage cheese; mmm those look wonderful. I posted some with farmers cheese today. Looks like cheese pancakes are in the air 🙂
tried these…were very good…fast and easy. family loved them a change from the regular pancake…made a slight variation ,,, i made homemade hot blueberry sauce to pour over,,,and they were great together….so thank you for sharing your family recipe
Candisko, hot blueberry sauce sounds wonderful for these. MauiJim made them this morning (weekend ritual) and even after eating them hundreds of times over the years, I am still astonished at how light they are. Heavenly! Your comment reminds me that I had a fresh strawberry sauce in the frig, but I didn’t think to use it this morning. Darn!
I love pancakes… nice stuff ^^
have you ever tried making them with wholewheat flour or buckwheat flour? Just trying to avoid the whites right now.
thanks for another great recipe – will have to try these but they reminded me of a great passover recipe a kosher catering friend of mine shared
blintz cupcakes
BLINTZ CUPCAKES FOR PASSOVER
1 pound cottage cheese
2 ounces margarine, melted
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup cake meal, scant
4 eggs, beaten
1. Mix all ingredients together except eggs; then add eggs. Grease muffin tins.
2. Fill tins 3/4 full; bake 350°F for 40 to 45 minutes if using large muffin tins. Smaller muffin tins will require less time. Serve with sour cream and/or top with jam or fruit preserves
yummy warm – freeze well – and can reheat in microwave for quick breakfast.
.-= Lisa Teiger´s last blog ..the New Amsterdam Market NYC – ………………………a re-tradition =-.
Hi Lisa! No, I haven’t, but I’m sure whole wheat will work, especially if it is whole wheat pastry flour. Buckwheat flour is more problematic in that is contains no gluten (the structure building component in wheat flour). You might try 1/3 buckwheat flour combined with 2/3 wheat flour (white or whole wheat).
Thank you for this interesting recipe. You had me at the word BLINTZ. 🙂
Your pancake recipe rocks picture itself is mouth watering thanks for recipe
Yummmmmmm. Wow, these were so good!! My husband loved them too.
I served w. apricot preserves, powdered sugar, and lemon. Had a bit of maple syrup on one too. I can see endless sweet and savoury variations of this in my near- and long-term future! Thanks!
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These look a lot like an old recipe of my mom’s, except that mine has sour cream. Will have to try yours sometime!
So I am thinking of making these this weekend but with a berry sauce and whip cream. Do you think that will be good on these pancakes?
Uh, where do you live? I better come over and test those out for you. You better make a double batch so I can be really sure this combination is delicious. 🙂
Made these yesterday, Saturday morning for the family and they requested them again this morning! We decided they are a cross between pancakes and crepes. These will become our new pancake…not a lot of flour and lots of protein. Left the table feeling light not laden. I can’t decide if I like them better with the powdered sugar and lemon alone or with the raspberry jam as well. Homemade raspberry jam is such a luxury with these.
Thanks Deborah … glad you are enjoying them as much as we do! Funny I would see your comment just now … this is what took place at our house in the past hour. After a long work week we actually slept in and were in the midst of a lazy morning, when that bell went off in my head … cottage cheese pancakes! I went to the refrigerator … no cottage cheese. 🙁 I looked outside … cold and foggy … bummer. That bell rang again, I got dressed, ran five blocks to the store, got cottage cheese, ran back home and whipped up a batch …. ahhhh! My advise is that once you have fallen under the spell of cottage cheese pancakes, you always make sure you pick up cottage cheese whenever you go to the store 🙂 When I can restrain myself and not eat every last pancake, I let them cool, wrap them in plastic wrap, and put them in the frig. They re-heat beautifully in the microwave. They’re not quite as good, but my philosophy is that better a second-rate cottage pancake, than a bowl of cereal any day.
They look great.Wonder if I can use egg beaters to replace eggs.Also, have apricot preserves which I can use instead of raspberry.
Thanks Trudy! I haven’t tried eggbeaters here, so do let us know if they work. Apricot preserves sound yummy.
Looks really delicious with the preserves! I’ve never used cottage cheese fr pancakes. Sounds really easy and delicious!
Thanks pigpigscorner! The first time Mom served these I was really dubious about the cottage cheese. It does sound odd. But oh my, once you taste them, no other pancakes will do.