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.
Tags: appetizer, cheese blintzes, cheese knaidlach, cheese kreplach, cheesecake, dairy, dessert, farmers cheese, grandmother, milchig, mother, Shavuos, sour cream, tradition
