CHEESE BLINTZES- NOT JUST FOR SHAVUOT!

FROM PRAGMATIC ATTIC

Blintzes are not really all that hard to make. A blintz is just a thin pancake (crepe or bletlach) wrapped around a filling and then sauteed in butter until golden brown on the outside.

There are two aspects that intimidate people: (1) making the crepe and (2) wrapping the crepe around the filling.

Mostly, making crepes is a matter of practice and adjusting your standards. You are rolling the crepes up, so they do not need to look perfect. A tear here or there can usually be worked around. As you make the crepes, you will improve your technique, figuring out how much batter you need for your pan and the best way to swirl the batter around to evenly coat the pan. You will fall into a rhythm, with each succeeding crepe looking nicer and being easier to make.

Rolling up blintzes is the same as rolling burritos. You put a line of filling on the bottom of the crepe, fold over the bottom of the crepe to cover the filling, fold in the sides, and then roll it up.

Cheese Blintzes
The blintz leaves are adapted from Julia Child’s crepe recipe. The filling is my own.

Crepes (otherwise known as blintz leaves or bletlach)
1 1/2 cups flour
1 cup milk
1 cup water
4 extra-large eggs (large ok, too)
1/4 tsp. salt
4 Tbl. butter, melted

To make the crepes, blend the flour, milk, water, eggs, salt and butter in a blender until the batter is completely smooth. Let the batter rest for a half hour in the refrigerator.

Heat an 8″ omelet or crepe pan over over low heat with a tsp. of oil for ten minutes. Brush (or wipe) the butter over the pan to form a thin film. Heat the pan over medium-high heat for a minute or so. Test the heat by dropping a spoonful of batter on the pan–the batter should set up and start to brown on the bottom in 20 seconds.

To make each crepe, pour 4-6Tbl. batter into the hot pan and swirl to coat. Cook for about a minute, or until the top looks dry. Flip out onto a rack or baking sheet. Repeat with remaining batter. You should be able to get about 1 dozen 8″ crepes from the batter.

Sometimes the crepes stick a bit. A handy tool is a large offset spatula. This is good for un-sticking the crepes and lifting the crepes off the pan.

To make small blintzes, use a small pan (5″-6″ omelet pan). You will need 2-3 Tbl. of batter per crepe, and you will get about 2 dozen 5″ crepes from the above amount of batter.

Cheese Filling for Blintzes
1 lb. farmers cheese
4 ounces cream cheese
6 Tbl. sugar, or to taste
1 tsp. vanilla
zest 1 lemon, optional

To make the filling, combine the farmers cheese, cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and lemon zest in a bowl.

To shape the blintzes, take an 8″ crepe (if the blintz browned a bit, then the browned side should be facing up) and place 1/4 cup of filling on the bottom of the crepe. Make a strip of filling that is about 2″ x 3″. The ends of the strip of filling should be about two inches in from the sides of the crepe. The long side of the strip should be about 2″ from the bottom of the crepe. Lift up the the bottom of the crepe and fold it over the top of the filling to cover it. Fold in the sides of the crepe so that the ends just meet in the center. Roll the now enclosed filling towards the other end of the crepe. After being rolled up, the blintz should be about 2″ wide and 4″ long.

Fry the blintzes in butter, until browned on each side.

To make small blintzes, take your 5″ crepes and fill them with 2 Tbl. of filling.

Yield is 1 dozen regular blintzes (or 2 dozen small blintzes, if you made 5″ crepes instead of 8″ crepes).

Note: if you want to make potato blintzes instead of cheese, just substitute mashed potatoes for the cheese filling.