Passover Cheese Blintzes Recipe | CDKitchen.com (2024)

FAQs

Why do Jews eat blintzes? ›

If you want to serve something special to break the fast on Yom Kippur, consider blintzes. These are very thin pancakes folded around a cheese filling and topped with butter, jam, berries or sour cream.

Certified Kosher by the Orthodox Union.

Serve blintzes warm. They can be served as-is or topped with fruit topping, sour cream, applesauce, whipped cream or maple syrup.

» Because the Torah allows eating only animals that both chew their cud and have cloven hooves, pork is prohibited. So are shellfish, lobsters, oysters, shrimp and clams, because the Old Testament says to eat only fish with fins and scales. Another rule prohibits mixing dairy with meat or poultry.

A blintz (Hebrew: חֲבִיתִית; Yiddish: בלינצע) is a rolled filled pancake in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, in essence a wrap based on a crepe or Russian blini .

Blintzes vs Crepes

The main difference is crepes are only cooked once, and be be served plain, without filings. Blintzes, are always served filled, usually with a cheese mixture, and are cooked twice; once when made, and again after they are filled and pan fried.

The Origin of the Blintz

The blintz originated from Eastern Europe from a Jewish community called Ashkenazi. The Slavic translation is “pancake” since it resembles a pancake. Traditional fillings include sweetened cheese with raisins.

Russian blinis tend to be thicker than blintzes (which came by way of Eastern Europe to the U.S. via Jewish immigrants) because blinis are made with a yeasted batter that's left overnight to rise, whereas blintzes — like crêpes — are made of flour, milk, and eggs.

Along with wheat, barley, rye and spelt, oats are one of the “five grains,” which can become chametz when brought into contact with water. On Passover, it is forbidden to eat or even own chametz. Oatmeal (and most other oat products) is therefore not kosher for Passover.

Can Jews eat potatoes on Passover? ›

Potatoes are the answer to that yearly question, "what am I going to cook for Passover?" Instead of focusing on what you can't eat during Passover, enjoy what you can eat, like potatoes.

Chametz includes grains like wheat, oats, rye, barley and spelt, which are prohibited if they've had contact with water/moisture for longer than 18 minutes, leading to rising or “leavening.” Leavening agents, like yeast and sourdough, are also considered chametz.

Ricotta or fromage blanc can also be substituted. Both the crêpes and the filled blintzes can be made ahead of time; just cover and chill overnight or freeze for up to one month.

Uncooked blintzes can be frozen individually on a tray, then wrapped individually and frozen for up to 3 months. The cooked blintzes can be refrigerated for up to 1 day; they can be frozen, using the method for uncooked blintzes.

Today, Jews commemorate their ancestors' flight to freedom by eating this same unleavened cracker-like flatbread. This is why Jews are forbidden to eat or keep chametz (leavened grain foods) in the home during Passover.

The first known mention of apples and honey being eaten on Rosh Hashanah comes from the 14th-century legal work Arba'ah Turim, which states that German Jews ate apples and honey in order to bring sweetness into the New Year.

The Jewish prohibition against eating dairy and meat together is based on a rule stated 3 times in the Torah: “You shall not cook a kid (baby goat) in its mother's milk.” No reason is given. It's enough that G-d commanded it.

Bagels are created in 17th century Poland as a response to anti-Semitic laws preventing Polish Jews from baking bread. Jewish bakers circumvented these restrictions by boiling the dough before baking it.