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. 

Infamous Chocolate Mint Cookies

I've been baking these cookies for about 5 years now, but they are such a project I usually only get around to them about once or twice a year. I usually make them in August because my dad, brother and Michael all have August birthdays and LOVE these cookies. They always turn out really well, but be forewarned: they take a really, really long time. I normally double the recipe and it takes all day, but even if I made the normal amount it would take at least 3 - 4 hours. If you have the time and the appetite I highly suggest you try these cookies.

Ingredients

3/4 cup butter 

1 1/2 cups packed brown sugar

2 tablespoons water

2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

2 eggs

2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/4 teaspoons baking soda

1/2 teaspoon salt

about 1 1/2 packages of Andes mints (if you're having troubles finding these, try CVS)

In a pan over low-medium heat, melt the butter, brown sugar and water together. I usually cut the butter up in small pieces to help it melt more quickly.

Stir until melted.

Take the pan off the heat and add the chocolate chips. Stir again until melted.

Once melted, pour the mixture into a large bowl and let it cool for about ten minutes.

Once cooled, mix in the eggs.

Then, mix in all of the dry ingredients (flour, baking soda and salt.)

Once completely mixed, the batter should go in the fridge for about an hour. (This time I broke up the baking a bit by leaving the batter in the fridge over night and baking the cookies the following day. The cookies turned out just as well but the batter will need to come to room temperature before you can get it ready for the cookie sheet)

If you're going to leave the batter in the fridge over night, make sure to seal it with tin foil or saran wrap. In this picture Michael is demonstrating how to keep the batter really fresh by "tucking" in the batter with the saran wrap.

Once the batter has been chilled, begin to form small balls on a cookie sheet with tin foil on it.

After the cookie sheet is filled, put it in the oven at 350 degrees for 7-8 minutes depending on the size. I generally put them in for 7 minutes whether they're really small or a little larger so they are really soft and stay fresh longer.

Immediately after taking the cookies out of the oven, put a half of an Andes mint on each cookie (I try to unwrap and break each one in half sometime before the cookies are ready to be taken out). Once the candy has started to melt, use a spoon to spread the candy around the top of the cookie.

Take the tin foil off the cookie sheet and set it aside to cool and for the candy to harden. As this recipe makes so many cookies you will have to repeat the steps several times before you have finished the batter. After a few rotations it's helpful to get into a rhythm so you get several things accomplished at once. These cookies can be tiring, but they're delicious!

This is the amount the doubled recipe makes (except about 10 cookies were already eaten). They can stay fresh for about 2 weeks if they're stored in Tupperware. Happy eating!

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"Puppy Chow"

Ingredients

9 cups crispy rice cereal squares (I usually use Crispix)

1/2 cup peanut butter

1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 1/2 cups powdered sugar

In a saucepan, over low to medium heat, melt the peanut butter and chocolate chips.

Once fully melted, take the pot off the heat and begin to add the cereal.

Mix thoroughly so all cereal is covered with the melted mixture.

Then, dump the cereal in a freezer bag containing the powdered sugar.

After sealing the bag shake until the powdered sugar has spread and is covering the cereal. You are now ready to "chow" down!

*Thanks Daniel for help with the pictures!

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Roasted Chickpeas

I've tried to make roasted chickpeas a few times before, but they always turned out too soft and/or moist. Today, we tried a new process and they were finally crunchy! These chickpeas are really easy and inexpensive to make. They make a delicious, healthy snack.

First, rinse and drain a can of garbanzo beans.

Spread the beans on a paper towel and pat dry with another paper towel.

Put the beans on a baking sheet and place in the oven at 425 degrees for 10 minutes. Take the sheet out of the oven, shake the pan around to move the chickpeas (be careful not to spill) and bake for another 10 minutes.

In a medium bowl, mix the chickpeas, a teaspoon of olive oil, and the spices of your choice. We used a combination of Italian seasoning, garlic powder, and paprika, taste testing to determine the right amounts of each. Once you reach a desired flavor, put the chickpeas back on the baking sheet and bake for another 5-15 minutes. We took them out after about 12 minutes and they had a perfect crisp.

Let them cool for a few minutes and enjoy!

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Chocolate Chip Oatmeal Cookies

While we were house-sitting for my parents, I wanted to bake a few treats for us to enjoy throughout the weekend. Michael chose coffee cake and chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. The coffee cake did not turn out as well as we'd hoped so we're going to keep searching for a better recipe before posting. However, the chocolate chip oatmeal cookies turned out just as we'd hoped.

Ingredients

1 cup butter, very softened

1 cup light brown sugar

1/2 cup white sugar

2 eggs

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon salt

3 cups quick-cooking oats

1 cup semisweet chocolate chips (we used about 1 1/2 cups because we love chocolate so much)

Directions

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar and white sugar.

Beat in the eggs on at a time and then stir in the vanilla.

In a separate bowl, combine the flour, baking soda and salt. Slowly mix into the large bowl.

Using a wooden spoon or a spatula mix the oats and chocolate chips into the batter.

Make spoonful balls of dough and put onto ungreased baking sheets.

Bake at 325 degrees for about 12 minutes. It's ok if the cookies still look doughy when you take them out, as they will harden a bit while cooling.

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