|
Blintzes
By Aviva Goldstein
Blintzes have always been a family favorite when I was a young child. My grandmother's blintzes were always tasty. The dough was a beautiful crunchy brown and the filling was a cheese spread delight. My grandmother seemed to be the expert at it and my mother continued the tradition until Kosher frozen blintzes came into the market. My mother ceased her continuation of our family kitchen tradition since blintzes were a "patchka" job.
We began to get used to the kosher frozen blintzes and in truth enjoyed the factory standard item. Years have passed and I have moved to Israel where the delicious blintzes of my childhood do not exist. Instead here we have "blinches", a disgusting blend of insipid rubbery dough filled with tasteless mashed potatoes, ugh! This unsavory imitation of my grandmother's masterpiece has polluted the minds and taste buds of untold Israelis who equate the magnificent blintz with the bland blinche.
Blintzes are a perfect Shavuot treat, since on Shavuot we have a tradition of eating milk based foods before the main meat meal. Not only is a good blintz scrumptious, but they are easy and quick to deliver to the table after a simple initial preparation.
Blintzes have that wonderful quality that they can be frozen half cooked and then reheated to taste super! Here is the recipe:
The blintz is divided into the shell, a pancake crepe like covering for the filling and the filling.
The Shell:
4 eggs
1 ½ cups of flour
1 ½ cups of milk
½ teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
Beat the eggs and milk together. Then gradually sift in the flour, salt and sugar. The mixture must be thin and so if it happens that it comes out thick, add a bit more milk.
Melt margarine in a large frying pan and when hot, put about 3 tablespoons of the batter into the pan, tilting the frying pan to make the blintz thin. Cook each crepe-pancake until it just begins to brown and slide out of pan on to a waiting plate. Put the cooked side up to receive the filling.
Filling:
This should be prepared before the shell so that it may be added when the shell is ready.
2 packages of light cream cheese of your liking
2 egg yolks mixed well
3 teaspoons of melted butter
6 teaspoons of vanilla flavored sugar
1 pinch salt
Mix filling ingredients together until they are smooth.
Place a heaping tablespoon of the filling in the center of the crepe-pancake. Fold over from the four sides to protect the filling from leaking out. Roll over to seal blintz; it should look like a flat cigar.
At this point the blintzes may be fried to be served now or frozen for later consumption.
To serve they must be fried again in margarine until the shell is a golden brown. If you want to enhance an already great delight, mix sugar and cinnamon together and sprinkle on top of the blintz. Even better, put it in a small bowl so that the individual eater may decide for him/herself how much he desires. Or it may be served with jelly.
This recipe should give you about 15 to 18 blintzes
~~~~~~~
from the April 1999 Edition of the Jewish Magazine
|
