Blintz Explained

Blintz
Alternate Name:Blintzes
Country:Eastern Europe
Creator:Ashkenazi Jewish community
Type:Jewish cuisine
Served:Hot, traditionally with sour cream or fruit compote
Main Ingredient:Dough
filling: farmer's cheese or other similar soft cheese, or fruit preserves.

A cheese blintzes or blintz (he|חֲבִיתִית; yi|בלינצע) is a rolled filled pancake in Ashkenazi Jewish cuisine, in essence a wrap based on a crepe or Russian blini.[1]

History

Traditional blintzes are filled with sweetened cheese, sometimes with the addition of raisins, or fruit preserves and then slightly sautéed.[1] They are served on Shavuot.[2] The word blintz in English comes from the Yiddish word Yiddish: בלינצע or, coming from a Slavic word блинец [blin-yets] meaning blin, or pancake.[3]

Like the knishes, blintzes represent foods that are now considered typically Jewish, and exemplify the changes in foods that Jews adopted from their Christian neighbors.[4]

For Passover, matzo meal is used instead of flour.

See also

Notes and References

  1. Web site: blintze a thin, usually wheat-flour pancake folded to form a casing (as for cheese or fruit) and then sautéed or baked . 2015-08-12 . Merriam-webster.com.
  2. Web site: Cheese Blintzes for Shavuot . Mother would know . 30 April 2018 . 20 October 2019.
  3. Web site: Blintz definition . Merriam Webster dictionary . 20 October 2019.
  4. Book: Lowenstein, Steven M. . The Jewish cultural tapestry : international Jewish folk traditions . 2000 . Oxford University Press . 0-19-515800-8 . New York . 80242007.