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Prague · 28 Cheshvan 5787

Shabbat this week · 16:02–17:11

Ashkenazi

Cheese blintzes

Awaiting expert review

Thin crêpes filled with sweet farmer cheese, folded into parcels and fried golden in butter. A Shavuot classic.

Servings
6 servings
Prep
45 min
Cook
30 min
Difficulty
moderate
Kashrut · dairyCategory by ingredients, not a certification. Details below.
For holidaysShavuot
Cheese blintzes

Ingredients

6
servings

Crêpes

Filling

For serving

Method

  1. Step 1: Whisk the flour, milk, eggs and salt into a smooth thin batter and let it rest for 20 minutes.

  2. Step 2: For the filling, mix the farmer cheese with the egg yolk, sugar, vanilla sugar and lemon zest.

  3. Step 3: Brush a 20 cm frying pan with butter and cook thin crêpes on one side only, until the surface turns matte (about 1 minute). Turn them out onto a towel, cooked side up.

  4. Step 4: Place 2 tablespoons of filling near the edge of each crêpe, fold over the bottom edge, then the sides, and roll up into a rectangular parcel.

  5. Step 5: Melt butter in a frying pan and fry the parcels seam side down for 2–3 minutes on each side until golden.

  6. Step 6: Serve warm with sour cream, or with fruit or jam.

Tips

  • Let moist farmer cheese drain for an hour in a cloth-lined sieve, otherwise the filling will run out.
  • Folded blintzes can be frozen and fried just before serving.

History and origins

MinhagAshkenazim⁂ To verify

The custom of eating dairy foods on Shavuot is mentioned in the gloss of Moses Isserles (the Rema) on the Shulchan Arukh.1

Interpretation⁂ To verify

There are many explanations for dairy foods on Shavuot, for example that after receiving the Torah the Israelites did not yet have kosher meat prepared, or a reference to "a land flowing with milk and honey".

HistoryAshkenazim

Filled crêpes (blintzes, from the East Slavic blin) came into Ashkenazi cooking from Ukraine and Poland.2

Regional variations

Folk customAshkenazim

Besides farmer cheese they are filled with apples, cherries or blueberries; savory versions with potatoes and onion (these can be parve if fried in oil).

Folk custom⁂ To verify

Two rolled blintzes side by side are sometimes interpreted as a reminder of the two tablets of the Law.

Goes well with

Sources

Primary sources

  1. 1Shulchan Arukh, Orach Chayim, 494:3 – glosa Rema text ↗