For those of you for whom Shabbat is not Shabbat without chicken soup, Passover not Passover without matzah balls, and Shavuot not Shavuot without cheesecake, there’s a simple and excellent cookbook out there, waiting for you to pluck it off the shelf (or into your e-basket as the case may be). It’s called Spice and Spirit and contains every recipe you’ll ever want for classic Jewish dishes. So it’s where we turned when got a request on our Facebook page for a blintzes recipe.
Here’s the thing about blintzes, however, they’re tricky. The thinness of the batter makes them a lot harder to succeed at making than pancakes. You need the right pan – a griddle preferably – and the right temperature. Get those two things sorted and you should end up with a thin crepe with small air bubbles, But it’s not over yet. Blintzes are laborious too. Now comes the second stage, that of preparing the curd cheese filling, assembling and then frying the blintzes. It’s truly worth the effort though. Nothing like biting into a warm blintz, with sweet and cinnamony farmer’s cheese oozing out of the golden and crisp crepe. The frozen variety just don’t compare, although we’re not going to pretend we don’t enjoy those too!
If you don’t have Spice and Spirit on your kitchen shelf, its recipe for Classic Cheese Blintzes is luckily online. But on our search for this recipe, we came across a recipe for a spice studded blintz that also called for creamy mascarpone cheese instead of the traditional farmer’s or cottage. We haven’t yet tested these Sweet Cheese Blintzes, but if you recall from last year, we’re big fans of mascarpone, so the recipe has been printed and is just waiting to be tested. We’ll report back on the results. In the meantime, you won’t go wrong with the classic variety, which we prepared using their second suggested filling, only without raisins.
If any of you are sitting there wondering if it’s worth the hassle, the blintz casserole is the answer you’ve been waiting for. Basically you recreate the blintz by layering crepe batter and filling into a casserole dish, pop it in the oven and 40 minutes later, voila, blintzes! Well, sort of. Of course you miss out on the individually wrapped crepes, but the flavors are remarkably similar, and so too, of course, are the calories. The recipe we like is Quick-and-Easy Cheese Blintz Casserole from The New Jewish Holiday Cookbook.
So which will it be for you? The authentic but time consuming blintzes — or the easy way out casserole?
p.s. We’ll be posting more recipes in the coming days for cheesecake (of course!) and other dairy dishes, so make sure to check back!
