Let me preface this with two important facts.
1. I am not Jewish. For some reason, people keep asking me if I am. It’s like I’m write for a Jewish blog or something… Weird.
2. While I’m typing this, I’m screwing up all the major vowels because I cannot feel my fingers. I burned them to a crisp making these blintzes.
Crepes? No. Blintzes!
Because the Jewish holiday of Shavuot is merely weeks away, as a reader so kindly reminded me. (Shout out to Steve K.!)
If you are a goy (non-Jew) like me, you might have just repeated, “so why blintzes?” Let me tell you.
Shavuot is a Jewish holiday that celebrates the giving of the Torah from God to the Jews. The holiday is celebrated 50 days after the second night of Passover. (That means it’s May 26-28th this year, for those out there who can’t remember how many days are in each month.)
Dairy foods are generally eaten during Shavuot as a remembrance of Israel being the “land of milk and honey.”
At the risk of sounding like a Wisconsinite- I am ALL about this holiday.
These are like cream cheese filled crepes. And my taste-testers gave full approval. (I literally just ran upstairs and busted in on Pulp Fiction, forcing them to try one.)
Oh heyyy, Blintzes!
BATTER
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- 1/2 cup water
- 1 cup flour
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1 package vanilla sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 1 Tbsp. oil
FILLING
- 1 pound cottage cheese
- 1 egg yolk
- 2 Tbsps. flour
- 2 Tbsps. sugar
- 1 tsp. vanilla
- 2 Tbsps. maple syrup
I also added a dash of cinnamon and squeeze of honey because I didn’t think they were sweet enough.
Directions:
BATTER: In a large mixer bowl combine eggs, milk, water and blend well. Gradually add flour, then both sugars, salt and oil. Beat well until there are no lumps in the batter.
Yummm
FILLING: Combine all ingredients, except raisins, in a bowl and beat well. Or all the ingredients can be combined in a blender container and blended until smooth.
TO ASSEMBLE CREPES:
1. Prepare batter and filling of your choice. Using a paper towel or basting brush, apply a thin coating of oil to a 7 inch skillet. Place skillet over medium heat until skillet is hot but not smoking.
2. Ladle approximately 1/3 cup of batter into the skillet. Tilt pan to swirl the batter so it covers the bottom of the skillet.
3. Fry on one side until small air bubbles form, and top is set. Bottom should be golden brown. When done, carefully loosen edges of crepe and slip out of skillet onto a plate..
4. Repeat the above procedure until all the batter is used. Grease the skillet as needed..
Yeah, mine were a struggle bus in staying rolled up. #alyssaproblems
6. Roll once to cover filling. Fold the sides into the center and continue rolling until completely closed..
7. Heat 2 tablespoons of oil in the skillet and place each crepe seam side down in the skillet and fry 2 minutes on each side, turning once.
** I did not fry mine in oil. My fingers were already burnt enough. And I feel like my roommates would not appreciate it if I started the apartment on fire.
***Generally, people garnish blintzes with pie fillings or sour cream. However, for whatever reason, I had no idea this was a real thing. It played out totally fine though, because most of the people who tried them had no idea they were supposed to have toppings anyway. (Don’t tell your taste-testers and you can get away with it too.)
There you have it- an easy, little finnicky, and delicious traditional Jewish Shavuot recipe.
Tune in next week for a hybrid dairy dessert that will knock the socks off your Shavuot crowd. … I hope.
(Recipe adapted from Chabad.org)
How did you know I was going to make blintzs today? All I needed was a recipe for the blettles, crepes. Thanks. I’m pretty badly lactose intolerant so, I learned how to make the cheese filling out of whole Lactaid milk, lactose free milk. So, I now make the dry cottage cheese or Farmer’s Cheese, or what ever you call it. Thanks.
Stu B.
Haha it must be fate, Stu!
As for the blettles, I’m glad I could help! If you’re a fan of cinnamon I’d even suggest adding a dash of cinnamon to the batter as well.
Good luck with your blintzes!
Congratulations on your first blintzes, using a successfully kosher recipe! I’m sure they were delicious.
Thanks Susan! I brought them to work, and my coworkers gave them their stamp of approval as well. So it’s a good day in my life for Jewish cooking. 🙂
since your fingers are burnt, let me introduce you to something called a spatula. Dairy blintzes can also be topped with applesauce (so I have heard). Your blintzes sound as good or better than the frozen ones in the kosher freezer section, and probably a whole lot cheaper-mazel tov!
Thanks Steve! Applesauce sounds a lot healthier and probably just as tasty as the apple pie filling I was thinking about using.
Here is a recipe for blintze souffle. It is so good, you won’t believe it.
Blintze Souffle
Source: Stu & SueEllen Borken
Description: This is made and served in a glass baking dish and served hot to the table
————————————————————
2 teaspoons butter for greasing 9″ X 13″ glass baking dish
3 standard packages frozen blintzes, enough for 8-10 OR YOUR HOME MADE ONES!!!!!
1 stick butter, melted
1/2 cup sour cream, the real stuff, not low fat!
4 whole eggs, large or extra large
1 teaspoon vanilla
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup undiluted frozen orange juice
Instructions:
Instructions: This needs to be prepared the evening before you plan to serve it for a breakfast/brunch. It rests uncooked, covered, refrigerated, overnight and gets baked up in the morning.
Butter a 9″ X 13″ glass baking dish. Place the frozen or fresh blintzes in the dish and pour melted butter over them. You may add extra blintzes to the dish but use the same amount of mixture. Beat the eggs and add the remainder of all the ingredients to the eggs and mix well and pour over the blintzes. Put this into the refrigerator over night. Bake at 350 degrees for 1-hour or until set maybe 1 1/4 hour. Let it set up for 10-15 minutes before service.
It is served with multiple sides of assorted jams like strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, cherry, apricot and always a dish of real sour cream. Also, serve with cut up fresh fruit such as Golden pineapple chunks, cut up strawberries, cantaloupe, honeydew and blueberries.
To eat it, you place one or two blintz’s on your plate. You take a dollop of sour cream and one or more of the jams, and place it upon each blintz or next to them on your plate, and, as you cut a fork full you dip it into some jam and sour cream.
The brunch is often rounded out with cinnamon sticky buns, sliced toasted bagels and assorted flavors of cream cheese, plenty of lox, some butter, and a platter of scrambled eggs made with green onion rings and small cubes of cold cream cheese, salt and pepper. Dessert is assorted coffee cakes.
Coffee, decaf and regular, apple juice and orange juice and optional Prosecco sparkling wine by itself or mixed with a glass of orange juice is an option as well. I like a drop or two of white truffle oil on the eggs but this is not widely enjoyed and the aroma is very strong and not appreciated by many people.
Serves: 8
That sounds much easier than futzing with the filling and whatnot! I’m definitely going to have to try that next time I make blintzes.