Blintzes with spiced apple filling

How to make, fill and fold traditional apple blintzes – golden pancakes wrapped around a spiced fruit filling. A delicious vegetarian dessert!

What is a blintz?

Blintzes are traditional Ashkenazi Jewish filled pancakes. They are made by pouring a thin batter into a frying pan and cooking to make a crepe-style pancake. However unlike crepes, blintz pancakes (sometimes known in Yiddish as bletlach or ‘leaves’) are fried on one side only. Each pancake is then folded around a filling, cooked-side innermost, and the whole parcel fried again until golden brown.

The batter for making blintzes typically contains flour, eggs, and milk or water. Dairy blintzes may be fried in butter while parve blintzes are cooked in oil.

Blintze fillings

Blintzes can be prepared with a range of savoury or sweet fillings. Savoury fillings include potato, mushroom, and kasha (buckwheat). They may be served with a sauce or without.

Sweet fillings include various fruits and compotes such as berries and cherries. The most popular sweet filling for blintzes is a rich cheese mixture, sometimes also containing raisins. Sweet blintzes are often served with a dollop of sour cream.

When are blintzes eaten?

Cheese blintzes are traditionally eaten on Shavuot, along with other dairy-rich foods.

Blintzes are also served at Chanukah, when fried foods are in abundance.

However they are also served up at anytime of year, because they are just so delicious! They can be served for breakfast or brunch, or as dessert after a larger meal.

How to make blintzes

Blintzes are surprisingly simple to make. The basic batter consists of the following everyday ingredients:

• flour
• eggs
• milk, water, or a non-dairy milk (I use oat milk)
• oil or melted butter

To make the batter for blintzes, first put the flour into a mixing bowl or a large jug, and make a well in the centre. Whisk the liquid ingredients together in another jug, and pour about a third of the mixture into the well in the middle of the flour. Use a balloon whisk to gradually incorporate the flour into the liquid.

As the batter gets thicker and harder to whisk, pour in a little more liquid. Continue in this way until all the liquid is added and all the flour absorbed. You should be left with a smooth batter, with the consistency of single cream.

Ideally, you should leave the batter to stand for at least half an hour before frying it into pancakes. This gives the flour time to absorb the liquid and expand. You may find that your batter thickens slightly during this time as a result.

It’s also possible to whisk up your blintz batter and store it in the fridge overnight, ready to fry the next day. Be sure to cover it tightly if you do this.

How to fold blintzes

Once the pancakes have been prepared, simply add your chosen filling and fold/roll them up. The easiest way is as follows:

1. Place your pancake cooked side uppermost, and put a spoonful of filling in the centre of the pancake
2. Fold in each side of the pancake to partly cover the filling
3. Cover the filling completely by folding up the bottom of the pancake
4. Fold down the top of the pancake, to make an ‘envelope’
5. Flip the filled blintz over so the ‘seam’ is underneath

I asked my daughter Kipper to draw a diagram to illustrate the process. Here’s what she came up with!

Not bad eh? (Proud Mum kvelling here!)

Spiced apple blintzes

My Mum used to make apple blintzes as a dessert, especially after a meat meal. She used a smooth apple puree mixed with raisins and cinnamon for the filling.

I prefer my apple blintzes to have a bit more texture, so I use chopped apples which I mix with spices and a little brown sugar. I then fry the apples in butter until soft. My Mum used to add raisins to the mixture, and I considered it, but at the last minute decided to leave them out. If you’re a big raisin fan, feel free to throw a handful in!

Apple blintzes – fry or bake?

Traditionally, blintzes would be fried a second time after they were filled and folded. However frying them one by one, or even a few at a time, is a time-consuming and labour intensive task. Not to mention that it’s difficult to serve a crowd all at once using this method.

Instead, my Mum would arrange the filled apple blintzes in a well-greased dish and bake them in the oven to crisp the outsides. This meant she could cook a large batch and have them all ready to serve at the same time.

I’ve gone with my Mum’s method and given instructions for how to bake these delicious apple blintzes to golden perfection. However you’re welcome to fry them individually in the time honoured way if you prefer!

Apple blintzes – toppings

There are a range of classic toppings and accompaniments served with blintzes. These include sour cream, applesauce, and berry sauces such as strawberry or blueberry.

Apple blintzes like these are also sometimes dusted with cinnamon sugar – yum!

My favourite topping for these yummy apple blintzes is a yogurt or sour cream. A cool dollop of creaminess to compliment the hot blintz with its slightly tangy fruit filling is absolutely delicious!

A traditional make-ahead dessert

Although these aren’t quite cooked in the traditional way, apple blintzes are still a very traditional Ashkenazi dish. Another benefit of baking them rather than doing a second round of frying is that they can be prepared ahead of time.

Then, about half an hour before you want to serve them, just pop them into the oven! What could be easier?

You can use this ‘prepare and bake’ method for any kind of blintzes – cheese blintzes, savoury blintzes, or whatever takes your fancy.

Apple blintzes for a crowd

This recipe makes 12 delicious filled and folded baked apple blintzes. I would say this serves 6 people, but they are very delicious, so it might only serve 4!

Only you know your family and friends, so I’ll leave it to you to estimate how many people 12 blintzes will feed!

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📖 Recipe

Or if you’re after more Jewish-inspired breakfast and brunch ideas, how about Queen Esther’s Toast, an Israeli breakfast platter, or the Full Jewish Breakfast?

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