Cheese Bintzes

For those of you who have never tried a blintz (or maybe never even heard of one) it's an old world Jewish classic. Usually filled with cheese, but sometimes with fruit, blintzes are a Jewish take on crepes. Becca and I both grew up loving them, and in my family this is what we always eat to break the fast on Yom Kippur. The recipe is surprisingly easy and the blintzes are wonderful.

Filling:

1 pound cottage cheese

1/2 cup farmers cheese (can be found at whole foods or other specialty stores)

1/8 pound cream cheese

1 large egg

2 tablespoons matzah meal

1/4 cup sugar

Blintzes (wraps):

2 cups flour

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup milk

7 large eggs

2 tablespoons potato starch

This is the batter for the blintzes. Mix all the ingredients and blend until smooth. It might help to blend one half at a time so it all gets mixed well. 

Use a 6 inch frying pan on medium heat to cook the blintzes. It is only necessary to cook one side, since the other side will be cooked once the blintzes are filled. Place the wraps cooked side facing up on sheets of wax paper. We did this step the night before and stored the stacked crepes in the refrigerator, witch works just fine and is a nice way to break up the cooking time. 

The recipe made 30 crepes for us and the thickness was just about perfect. If you can get around this many out of the batter you're doing great. 

Next comes the filling. This is the easy part. It's as simple as throwing all of the ingredients into a mixing bowl and mix with a spoon until everything is well distributed. 

Now the fun part: assembling and cooking the blintzes. This step can be frustrating, but follow these simple steps and your kitchen should stay mess-free. Place a dolup of filling in the center of the blintze. The amount pictured above is a good place to start, and while it is nice to have blintzes with lots of filling, it is not nice to have filling overflowing into your pan and your blintzes coming apart. 

Now pay attention. Fold in two sides so the blintz is divided roughly into thirds. Then fold in the other two sides one at a time so the cheese is covered. Think of this process as folding an envelope. 

When you're done your blintze should rest with the flaps down and stay together by itself. 

Now, there are two ways to cook blintzes. First the way Becca likes (and the healthier way): baking. Place the blintzes in an oven safe dish and bake at 450 until brown. Use the broiler at the end to crisp them out and give them a nice golden color. 

Now, for the way blintzes were meant to be cooked. Pan fried in butter. Coat the bottom of your pan in butter and once it is good and hot add the blintzes. Cook until your blintzes are golden brown and your neighbors are knocking on your door to see what you are cooking because the most intoxicating aroma is wafting over the neighborhood. Only flip them once (it's good not to over-handle them so they don't unravel), and start with the flap side down. 

And there you have it. Blintzes can be eaten plain, or with sour cream or jam. Fruit is good too, and sliced strawberries tossed in sugar make for a great topping as well.