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Posts Tagged ‘dairy’

of cheese blintzes and cheese kreplach

27 May
coating the pan with batter to make the blintzes
In my home growing up, my mother and grandmother would prepare and serve dairy delicacies for our milchig meal on Shavuos.  These included Cheese Blintzes, Cheese Kreplach and Cheese Knaidlach to name a few, and an old-fashioned style cheesecake which I did not appreciate at the time.  Being the first in my family to get married, I continued the tradition of making these specialties to serve in my home on Shavuos morning.  Subsequently, two of my brother’s got married, and since my mother wanted them to enjoy these foods and could not expect their wives to make them, she started the tradition of making the blintzes and kreplach for all of us for Yom Tov.  And the cheesecake!  Being in the cheesecake business does not exclude me from getting my own pan of (unbaked) cheesecake, made with the traditional dough on the bottom and dough on top with a farmer’s cheese filling.  Yum!
In the past several years, my mother has been preparing these items with my help in my home, so I can appreciate how much time it takes to cook it and pack it up for the individual families.  Yesterday my mother came over and single-handedly made 80 crepes (still not enough!) and filled them.  With the help of my daughter-in-law and 10-year-old son, dough was rolled out, filled and sealed for approx 180 kreplach, after which my mother cooked them in gently boiling water, drained them and bathed them in breadcrumbs toasted in butter.  Serve with a sprinkling of confectionary sugar either as a dessert or as an entrée, perhaps accompanied by a blintz, a dollop of sour cream and a fresh strawberry.  Ahhh…..
Are you wondering what I did yesterday as everyone around me was put to work?  As a matter of fact, I was taking pictures for this blog post and I made the blintze filling, kreplach filling, and the dough for the cheesecakes.  All in all, we spent hours in the kitchen together, bonding – mothers, grandmothers, daughter and daughter-in-law, and lets not forget the sons and son-in-law – some helping and some watching and tasting.  What a great way to spend a Sunday afternoon!
CHEESE BLINTZES
This recipe is from The Haimishe Kitchen, volume 1.  It makes approximately 16-18 small crepes.

Ingredients

CREPES
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 cup milk
  • pinch of salt
  • 2 tablespoon sugar
  • 1 tablespoon oil
stack of crepes
FILLING:
  • 1.5 lb farmer cheese
  • 3 egg yolks
  • 3 tablespoons sugar
  • 1.5 tablespoon vanilla sugar
    blintz filling

Directions

For crepes, mix together flour and eggs.  Stir until no lumps remain.  Add remaining ingredients slowly.  You may need an immersion blender to make it smooth.  Heat frying pan, brush with oil or butter.  With a ladle, pour some batter into the pan while tilting and swirling it to make a thin layer.  When the underside is brown, turn to brown the other side.  Crepes should be soft and pliable.  Pile them one of top of the other until you are done and are ready to fill them.
For the filling, mix all ingredients together.  Fill and roll blintzes.  Note: The blintze filling is not overly sweet, because too much sugar will make for the filling liquid and it will ooze out. If you prefer a sweeter blintze, top with confectionary sugar (and sour cream ;)). Serve warm by reheating covered in an oven or in a single layer in a  pan with melted butter.
blintz heaven
CHEESE KREPLACH
This recipe was given to me by a customer that asked me to make them for her.  They are soft and delicious.  Do not reroll the extra dough, as it will be tough.  This recipe will yield approximately 60 kreplach.

Ingredients

DOUGH:
  • 8 oz sour cream
  • 1 whipped cream cheese
  • 2 tablespoons oil
  • dash of salt
  • 4 cup flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons water
FILLING:
  • 2 lbs farmer cheese
  • 1/2 tub whipped cream cheese
  • 1 egg
  • vanilla sugar & sugar to taste*
TOPPING:
  • breadcrumbs
  • butter
  • drop of sugar
*note: sugar makes the cheese soft causing a loose texture, so put in the smallest amount that it needs to taste good.  Then a bit of confectionary sugar on top should put on the finishing touch of sweetness.

Directions

Mix all ingredients together for the dough.  Let stand at room temp for 2 hours.  If  it is too soft to roll, refrigerate for 1/2 hour or more.  Heat a pot of water to a gentle boil.  Add a bit of salt to the water.  In a frying pan, melt 1/2 stick of butter.  Add breadcrumbs and a bit of sugar and toast till it’s a nice light brown color.  My mother likes to make her own breadcrumbs, so the pieces are not too fine.  I bought the panko crumbs (not the orange ones), but you can use any unflavored, store-bought breadcrumbs.
Roll out dough to 1/16″ thickness.  Cut dough into 2 -3″ rounds with a cookie cutter.  Spoon a bit of filling in the center of each round.  Fold in half and seal with a fork or with your fingers.
When you have several of them ready, gently drop into pot of water.  Cook for a few minutes.  Remove kreplach from the water and place in a strainer or colander.
When drained, toss in the breadcrumb mixture.  Serve warm with a bit of conf. sugar on top.
 
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Posted in appetizer recipes, dessert recipes, holiday, recipes

 

My favorite cheesecake

05 Jun

I guess we all have our little secrets and now I’ll let you in on one of mine. My mother sends me cheesecake for Shavuos each year!

No, it’s not the New York-Style Cheesecake that I sell in many different sizes and flavors, it is an old-fashioned “European-style” cheesecake with a farmer-cheese filling sandwiched between 2 layers of buttery pastry.

In keeping with the holiday tradition of her mother before her, my mother sends all of her children carefully wrapped packages of this delicious cheesecake along with yummy cheese kreplach, cheese blintzes, and cheese knaidlach (see previous post for recipes).

At times, I buckle under pressure from customers to make these delicacies for them. But don’t think I go it alone. I will only embark on a project like this when my mother agrees to work alongside me, and by teaching me, she is continuing the legacy of a cherished family tradition.

Please understand that the recipes are not exact because grandmothers tended to give over recipes by saying “a little salt, some sugar, melt butter and breadcrumbs etc.” – because they only knew when the texture or taste was right. They managed well – and so can you!

“OLD-FASHIONED” CHEESE CAKE

Dough

  • 4 cups flour
  • 1/2 lb. butter (not whipped)
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 3/4 cup sugar
  • 1/2 cup milk
  • 1 teaspoon baking powder
  • salt to taste
  • vanilla sugar to taste

Filling

  • 3 lbs. farmer cheese
  • 2 tablespoons sour cream
  • 3 tablespoons flour
  • 2 tablespoons farina (uncooked)
  • 3 eggs, separated plus 3 whites (use the left over whites from the dough)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 vanilla sugar

 

For Dough: Crumble the flour and butter till butter pieces are about the size of peas.  Add rest of ingredients.  Do not overmix.  Divide dough into 2, where one half is a bit larger than the other.  Chill for 1/2 hour to 1 hour. Roll out larger half of dough large enough to cover the bottom and sides of the pan.  Roll the dough onto the rolling pin, and unroll into the pan.  Press edges in place.

Mix all filling ingredients together and pour into the dough. 

Roll out the second dough and transfer to top of filling by rolling the rolled out dough onto a rolling pin and unrolling it on top of the filling in the pan.  Using a fork, make holes in the top dough to allow air to escape while baking.  You can freeze at this point to be baked fresh on the day of use or bake now at 350 until dough is a golden color.  Sprinkle with confectionary sugar before serving.

 
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Posted in cheesecake, recipes