Cheese, cheese, everywhere!

Shavuot, a celebration of the day the Jewish people received the Torah. As with all Jewish celebrations, we have special food related to the holiday. For Shavuot that means dairy.

Cheese, cheesecakes, pasta with lots of cheese and cream, ice cream, and most importantly (to me anyway), cheese blintzes. Yummy crepes filled with a sweet cream cheese mix and fried. They can also be made as savoury blintzes.

I found a recipe on Tori Avey’s site and modified it slightly. They were delicious!! Recipe below. All the lovely pictures taken by Paul.

batter
batter

 

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Fold over the bottom

 

Fold sides in
Fold sides in 

 

Keep rolling up and tucking the sides in
Keep rolling up and tucking the sides in 

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Cream Cheese Blintzes
Yields 9
A yummy sweet cream cheese filling wrapped up in a delicious crepe.
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Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
40 min
Prep Time
10 min
Cook Time
30 min
Total Time
40 min
Crepes
  1. 4 eggs
  2. 1 cup flour
  3. 1/3 cup sugar (I used cup for cup sugar replacement)
  4. 3/4 cup milk
  5. 1/4 cup water
  6. 1 tsp vanilla
  7. Pinch of salt
  8. Nonstick cooking oil spray
  9. Oil
Filling
  1. 1 package cream cheese
  2. 1/4 cup sugar (I used cup for cup sugar replacement)
  3. 1 egg yolk
  4. 2 tsp fresh lemon juice (I didnt have any and it was fine)
  5. 1 tsp vanilla
  6. Pinch of salt
Crepes
  1. Mix all the crepe ingredients together.
  2. Make sure the batter is smooth and there are no lumps.
  3. Transfer your batter to a jug for easy pouring.
  4. Spray a non stick pan with oil spray.
  5. Pour a small amount of batter (about a third of a cup) into the pan and swirl the pan around to spread the batter.
  6. Leave for a minute or two until the crepe is set, the exposed side of the crepe will feel slightly tacky if you touch it but not completely dry.
  7. Do not flip the crepe.
  8. Set aside on a plate and separate each crepe with wax paper or paper towel.
  9. You should get about 9 thin crepes.
Filling
  1. Mix all the filling ingredients together with a fork.
  2. The mix should be thick-ish and slightly lumpy.
Put together
  1. Lay out one crepe.
  2. Place a tablespoon or so of filling onto the bottom half of the crepe.
  3. Roll the crepe up and over the filling and fold in the sides.
  4. Continue rolling (and folding in the sides) until the crepe is sitting, fold side down on your surface.
  5. Set aside.
  6. Continue this process until all the crepes are rolled.
Final Step
  1. Heat a small amount of oil in the pan.
  2. Place 2 or 3 blintzes, fold side down, in the oil and fry for 30-60 seconds.
  3. Carefully turn the blintzes and fry the other side for 30 seconds.
  4. Remove from oil and drain on paper towel.
  5. Repeat this process with the remaining blintzes.
  6. Keep warm in the oven until ready to serve.
Notes
  1. The original recipe called for ricotta cheese as well as cream cheese. I didn't use ricotta and the filling was fine.
  2. If your batter is too thick you can add a dash more milk or water to thin it out. Your crepes should not be too thick or you wont be able to roll them up.
  3. You can leave out the sugar in the filling and add mushrooms, spinach or any other savoury filling.
  4. These are best served hot but I ate one that had cooled down and it was just as delicious.
Adapted from Tori Avey
Adapted from Tori Avey
A Bit of This A Bit of That https://gnatj.com/

Cheesecake Ice Cream

With the Jewish holiday of Shavuot coming up its pretty customary to make a cheesecake and eat ice cream and other dairy yumminess. But I got to thinking, why not make cheesecake ice cream?

Cheesecake Ice Cream
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Prep Time
20 min
Cook Time
3 hr
Total Time
3 hr 20 min
Prep Time
20 min
Cook Time
3 hr
Total Time
3 hr 20 min
Ingredients
  1. 175ml milk
  2. 200g castor sugar (I cannot find castor sugar in Israel, so I took 200g brown sugar and whizzed in in my blender until it resembled castor sugar)
  3. 350g cream cheese (I used a ‘New York’ cream cheese which is kind of salty)
  4. Splash of vanilla
  5. 1 large egg
  6. 3 tablespoons lemon juice
  7. 250ml dessert cream
  8. biscuits for decorating
Instructions
  1. Bring milk to a simmer.
  2. While milk is heating, beat sugar, cream cheese, vanilla and the egg until smooth.
  3. Once milk is heated, add the milk to the sugar mixture and whisk very quickly so the egg doesn’t scramble.
  4. Return the mixture to the stove top and simmer while continuously stirring until the custard thickens.
  5. Remove from heat and leave to cool to room temperature.
  6. Once cool, place in the fridge for an hour or two to start chilling.
  7. Lightly whip the cream and gently fold it into the chilled custard.
  8. Add the lemon juice and mix gently.
  9. Now you can add the mixture to your ice cream machine and churn as per instructions or if you don’t have one, transfer the mixture to a freezer proof dish, cover and place in the freezer for at least 3 hours, removing the dish and stirring the ice cream every hour or so to prevent ice crystals from forming.
  10. Serve with crushed biscuits sprinkled on top or as a filling between two flat biscuits
Adapted from Nigella
Adapted from Nigella
A Bit of This A Bit of That https://gnatj.com/