Rollup Blender Pancakes
A simple and delicious way to enjoy breakfast, these thin, tender pancakes are cooked in a skillet and are rolled up with any assortment of toppings!
I know you are thinking these delightful rolled up pancakes look like a crepe and therefore must be a crepe. But can I gently ask you to think again? Because they aren’t. A crepe. And let me tell you why.
First of all, while they are thin and tender and the method of cooking is similar to a crepe, the batter differs both in ingredients and texture and the resulting pancake is thicker and a little softer than a traditional thin, crispy-on-the-edges crepe.
Second of all, they just aren’t a crepe. I mean, I don’t know what else to say. They are a rollup blender pancake and they are proud of it.
It might seem odd to throw cottage cheese into a blender to make pancakes but the smooth, silky batter cooks up into some of the most delicious little pancakes to ever come our way.
We’ve made these several times, and call us creatures of habit, but we’ve stuck pretty close to our favorite toppings: jam, nutella, maple syrup, and a delicious melted butter and powdered sugar combo (not all of those at the same time, of course, unless you are my 7-year old who likes to combine everything onto one vehicle to his mouth, and just yesterday ate a peanut butter, pickle, ham, provolone and ketchup sandwich; pardon me while I go chase down my lost appetite).
I first made these at my mom’s house while visiting this summer.
She has these nifty white 10-inch nonstick skillets she uses for crepes (she’s pretty much famous for her crepe making abilities and the kids capitalize on it every time we see her); I included a picture below the recipe of the rollup pancakes cooking to give you a quick idea of how they should look.
If you have a nonstick skillet of any variety and a wide, flat spatula, you’ll be good to go – they are super easy and cook up really fast. As in, keep your eyes on the prize or you might have super burned rollup pancakes instead of soft and fluffy rollup pancakes.
My parents pulled out jam to slather on the pancakes and I’m pretty sure I was convinced then and there that I need huckleberry, plum and peach jams in my life forever. Best jams everrrrr.
I’m off to find me some huckleberries to make into jam. Wish me luck.
While I hunt (most likely in vain, you don’t have to tell me), enjoy these pancakes this weekend or next Tuesday or whenever.
Huckleberry jam or not, I’m sure you can find something delicious to roll up in them.
Rollup Blender Pancakes
Ingredients
- 1 cup lowfat cottage cheese
- 6 large eggs
- ½ cup (71 g) all-purpose or whole wheat flour
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ cup oil, canola, vegetable or coconut oil
- ¼ cup milk
- ½ teaspoon vanilla
- 2 tablespoons sugar
Instructions
- Combine all the ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.
- Heat a 10-inch nonstick skillet over medium heat until a drop of water sizzles on the surface. Lightly spray with nonstick cooking spray. Lift the skillet from the heat and ladle in about 1/4 cup batter, spinning the skillet in a circle to form a somewhat even circle about 6 or 8-inches across (it doesn’t have to be perfect).
- On the heat, cook the pancake until golden, about a minute, then use a wide, flat spatula to carefully flip the pancake and cook for 30 seconds or so on the other side.
- Slide the pancake to a plate and repeat with the remaining batter, spraying with cooking spray every few pancakes or so and making sure the skillet is hot before adding a new scoop of batter (although make sure it isn’t so hot that the pancakes burn – adjust the temperature as needed). Stack the pancakes on top of each other as they finish cooking.
- Serve with butter, jam, powdered sugar, syrup, fruit and whipped cream – whatever your little heart desires! Spread the filling down the center and roll up to eat.
Notes
Recommended Products
Recipe Source: from my friend Sunny’s family recipe book, adapted slightly from her sister, Desiree’s recipe; I’m kind of, sort of hoping they’re going to adopt me into their family eventually.
Here’s a quick picture of the lovely pancakes cooking. You can tell they don’t have to be completely perfect. Once they’re rolled all those little flaws are completely forgotten. This picture was taken at my mom’s house with her skillets (I have a traditional, old black nonstick skillet that works just fine, too). I think she said she got these white beauties at Target or maybe Kohls. 
Hey Mel! I started making these after seeing the recipe in your cookbook, so definitely more recently–but they’ve been an amazing addition to my breakfast repertoire. My eldest daughter likes eggs, but not for breakfast–she days they don’t agree with her belly first thing in the morning before school… But! These incorporate eggs and cottage cheese and she totally loves them. I feel great about it and so does she. We’ve stuffed with jam, Nutella, and sweetened cream cheese with a sprinkle of cinnamon sugar. There’s no wrong way. It’s not my kind of breakfast but I make a half batch and my daughters split it happily, so they each in essence are eating an egg and a half and a scoop of cottage cheese. I feel great about it. Thanks for all of the winners you share with us–this one turned into an instant favorite.
I’m so happy you found this recipe, Tristin, and that your girls love it! Thanks for letting me know!
I have made these a few times and our family loves them. My main note: use ingredients that are not super cold. The pancakes turned out much better when the eggs, milk and sour cream were at room temp (or close) before baking. Delicious! thanks for a great recipe.
I’ve been making your crepes for years and my kids (four kiddos ages 8 and under) always seemed to like them. I made these for the first time tonight after seeing it in your cookbook and they said hands-down they like these way more than crepes. I couldn’t believe how many they ate! Thank you!
Good
My kids love these pancakes!
And they are high in protein too!
Amazing! We love these!
These are fantastic! I love how similar they are to crepes, but lots of protein, and wheat flour! Woohoo! I found that turning the heat down just a bit and cooking a little longer on the first side, as well as using a wide spatula helped keep them from tearing. Next time I’ll try half the sugar. I’m a savory fan
My girls beg me almost daily to make these pancakes! Thank you for the recipe!
Just wanted to share that these work great with ricotta in place of cottage cheese. I was out of cottage cheese (when the begging came) but had a big tub of ricotta that needed used from making your lasagna soup. & I thought- “if cottage cheese & ricotta are interchangeable in lasagna that should work here! …right?” Well it did.
I made these exactly as the recipe stated and they came out perfectly delicious. I did a side by side comparison next to a popular Swedish furniture store’s pancakes and the family voted for Mel’s recipe hands down! We served them with Oregon marionberry pie filling and cloudberry jam! These are super easy and tasty, my 12 year old makes them now!
These were delicious. Thanks, Mel. My family loved them and they are quicker than crepes, so it’s helpful for those of us who don’t plan ahead.
I make this all the time for guests and when feeding the missionaries
I love these guys …. they are delish!
I make these every week for my family – I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed them before now! One million stars, Mel!!
My kids and I made these this morning before church and they were a huge hit! Strawberry jam and cinnamon and sugar were the favorite toppings. Every once in a while we buy the big container of cottage cheese from Costco and it never fails that we forget about it in the fridge. I’m glad we finally tried this recipe out, because now I know we can put all that cottage cheese to good use. These were simple to make with minimal cleanup. Loved them!
I forgot to mention that I used cast iron skillets to make these. Since we were out of cooking spray, I used a little bit of butter every once in a while. There were some heat issues with the skillets at first but by the end they were perfect.
Delicious as usual!
I wanted to use up the entire container of cottage cheese so we tripled the recipe. I figured lots of leftovers….nope! Kids loved them and if they wouldn’t have had to leave for school, they probably would have eaten them all!
This recipes been a staple in our family for 5 years. I consider it healthier than classic crepes because of the protein, and it’s divine with fresh fruit!
(Although, there’s no way of pretending it’s exclusively healthy.. we also love topping it with cookie butter, bananas, and powdered sugar. Amazing.! It’s worth every calorie.)
Made these for the first time this morning and loved them! I subbed in a little agave for the sugar without issue. Found the trick to keeping them from tearing is to cook them just a bit longer than felt “right”. Got over the “please don’t burn!” feeling and the rest of the batch came out perfectly. Only needed to cook the other side for about 15 seconds to finish them up. We used banana and peanut butter (or peanut butter powder) and cottage cheese and strawberries. YUM!
My son wanted to make these, but we didn’t have cottage cheese. We tried Greek yogurt, per a comment in here, and they worked great!
Well, this was a hit – sort of. I could not make these without them tearing. Finally, my daughter took over because she saw how frustrated I was – and made them perfectly!! So, she is now in charge of these forever! We rolled with peanut butter and strawberry jam. So yummy!
These were REALLY good. Awesome recipe! Thanks!
I made these this weekend for my family and my visiting inlaws. Imagine my delight when they told me they were just like the dutch pancakes they used to have as kids in Holland! I love that I can make a simple yummy “dutch” treat for my children. Thank you for another wonderful recipe.
I didn’t have any cottage cheese on hand, so tried using Greek yogurt instead. Turned out awesome!
Love these! More filling than crepes, but same technique, and a great way to use up the random leftover cottage cheese from lasagna.
Love these so much and so does my picky 8 year old! The Facebook live was so helpful, I’m glad I watched it before I made them the first time. Also I’ve started using kamut flour in these and works great!
I make these all the time, ever since you originally posted. I love them! This morning I used a half cup of regular oats instead of the flour and blended it all up like normal. Tasted great, healthier than white flour and simpler than grinding some wheat! Usually I halve the sugar too, but I do that in most recipes.
These stayed gooey and uncooked in the middle no matter what I tried, I’ve honestly never had a pancake recipe not work its a pretty basic recipe. A waste of ingredients.
I LOVED THESE! My husband doesn’t like his pancakes this thin, but he’s crazy because these are delicious. But I’m a huge crepe fan and I just kept eating them! I did peanut butter and whipped cream, so yummy
This year we have 2:00 church on Sundays (the worst slot ever!). To help us pass the time in the mornings we created the “Breakfast Master Challenge.” Every Sunday we pick a new breakfast recipe and then afterwords we all get to rate it. We make a big deal out of it and it’s been a lot of fun.
So this morning when I got up I realized we had forgotten to pick a recipe for today. Of course I jump on your blog and picked this recipe because I had all the ingredients. We loved them! All four of my boys gave them a 5 star rating. I had some homemade blueberry pie filling that was delicious on this. Thanks again for another great recipe!
These are awesome! Fillings we tried and loved: yogurt; applesauce; strawberry freezer jam; deli turkey and cheese.
These look soooo amazing. I am going to make them for my mom and dad tomorrow morning as a luxurious breakfast in bed!!!
These blender pancakes are amazing! My favorite way to eat them is with butter and powder sugar. Thank you for this awesome recipe!
My new favorite!!!! I made these this morning with Nutella and strawberries for my kids. They loved every bite. However, even better was later for lunch when I made “Monte Cristo sandwich” with them. I filled them with ham and Swiss cheese and simply microwaved them until the cheese melted. I topped with a bit of powered sugar and some cherry preserves. Oh my gosh!! They reminded me of Disneylands sandwich. So good! Now my mind is thinking of so many other options for these pancakes.
I substituted in homemade Greek yogurt for the cottage cheese (made in my Instant Pot, and strained off the whey until it was fairly thick), and it was delicious!
When you say these can be frozen for months, do you freeze them with the topping/filling? I’m so eager to test out this recipe for the quick, easy, high-protein school-morning breakfasts!
I just freeze them after they’ve been cooked on the griddle. I stack them in freezer ziploc bags and freeze them that way (without the filling).
Awesome! Thanks! You are so sweet to get back to your reader’s comments and questions! I appreciate you taking the time to do that!! 🙂
These are fast to whip up and a double batch (which just fit in my 6 cup blender) was promptly gobbled up! They are definitely like a pancake and a crepe merged.
The Facebook live video on it really helped, too 🙂
Yessssss!
This has been one of our standard breakfasts this school year. Sadly, we are experimenting with dairy free this summer. Is there a good substitute for the cottage cheese? More specifically, what does the cottage cheese do for the pancakes that I can replicate with something else? Thank you for the great recipes and blog!
Hi Julianne, I’ve never subbbed anything for the cottage cheese because it’s the foundation of the recipe. It gives structure to the pancakes as well as helps with the light and fluffy texture. Are their dairy free cottage cheese options? If not, maybe tofu? I don’t know how much to suggest though. Good luck if you experiment!
The first time I made these they tasted amazing but didn’t look very pretty… I tried it again and when I looked up the recipe this time I found your facebook live video and it was sooo awesome because i was making them right along side with your video – so perfect! I loved the spreading them out with a measuring cup tip and the adjusting the heat as I went to find that sweet spot! Thanks for all you do!
Hey! Glad that little video helped!
In today’s FB live I mentioned my riff on this recipe. Again, because I’m lazy, I make this as a German pancake. I turn on the oven to 350 and put about 1/4 c butter in a 9×13 pan and let it melt while the oven heats. I make the recipe as written, then pour it into the pan. Actually I use a bit more flour and almost always whole wheat flour. It cooks for about 20 minutes and gets really puffy, but sinks as it cools. I cut it into big squares and we top with powdered sugar and/or Nutella. My kids dubbed them “Pan Pancakes”. I love them the original way, but I’m lazy and this way is fast.
Thanks, Teri. 🙂
Oh! These were great! I love crepes…but these I will enjoy eating much more because of the healthy ingredients and protein….cottage cheese, eggs and w/w flour. Thanks for sharing such a wonderful breakfast treat. I used whole wheat pastry flour because that’s what I had. For fillings I loved cinnamon sugar on one, lemon and powdered sugar on another… and I was surprised how much I loved the brown sugar. So tasty! My husband thinks honey butter will taste good too so next time I make some will have to try. They reheated nicely as well!
After watching the FB video, I finally made these pancakes with success! You’re right, they’re not rocket science, but there were a few tips in the video that made all the difference. First, I wast trying to flip them WAY too soon, I had the heat too high, I was using a non-stick pan (the griddle is much easier!) and using the quarter cup measure to spread out the batter gave me a visual regarding the size and thickness. Anyway, we love these pancakes, and I am so excited to add them to my breakfast rotation! Thanks Mel 🙂
Love to hear that, Emily!
We made these this morning as a fun conference morning breakfast, and they were fun and delicious! I didn’t have cottage cheese, so I subbed in plain Greek yogurt, and it worked perfectly!
What is that skillet you are using for this? I didn’t see if under your “My Favorite Things.” Do you like it better than the nonstick Farberware version with a lid? I’m in real need of a new one.
It’s a nonstick skillet I got at Target – I have two, actually and use them all the time. They are 10-inch and the brand is Farberware (but I don’t see them online to give you a visual – sorry). I still use my 12-inch nonstick Farberware with a lid constantly (mostly for dinners) but these smaller skillets are perfect for breakfast or smaller batches of ground meat, etc.
These were a big surprise hit with my picky eaters! Thank you for a high protein, delicious breakfast idea!
Mel…you rock!
I couldn’t believe how many of these delicious babies my dainty girls devoured! Maybe it’s just me, but all the eggs (and a smidge more vanilla) give a wonderful custard undertone.
I did make the batter the night prior and blended just prior to use. Maximizing minutes on a school morning. Worked great! Thanks for yet another fabulous recipe!
I don’t know why it took me so long to try these – they are amazing!! So quick – with my electric griddle, I cooked 6 at a time, and got 15 1/4-cup pancakes in 10 minutes, start to table. My husband said there’s no need to ever make traditional pancakes again. Love the protein too, perfect! Thank you!!
My husband’s family had a tradition of “skinny pancakes” very similar to these. I’ve been making them now for over three decades. Our favorite topping is butter, granulated sugar and a sprinkle of lemon juice. Delicious!
Hi Mel. I believe you when you say these aint crepes 🙂 and I’m absolutely trying this. I hope my blender will make things quicker as I can’t wait to taste these. Your 7 yo is so much like my 10 yo old – always mixing sauces and stuff and calls them cool.