Remember when I started to tell you about the Shavuot feast that my pal Sara and I put on? Well, the real star of the meal was ricotta blintzes that we made from scratch.

With 2 pans going to make our thin crepe-like pancakes, and the oven on to finish and keep warm the filled blintzes, Sara and I were hard at work.

While this was indeed a fun experience, making blintzes from scratch is quite labor-intensive and in my opinion, not worth the sweat. Next time I would opt for the easier yet equally delicious route by making Ina Garten’s Baked Blintz Casserole from her cookbook Back to Basics.

Alas, biting into a homemade blintz filled with a sweet but not too sweet ricotta cheese and dolloped with homemade lemon curd was really like nothing else. The fruits of our labor were worth all of the sweat. It was a fun process with a delicious outcome. All in the name of love, family, and celebration.

The meal: Ricotta Blinzes, Lemon Curd, Veggie Fritatta Casserole, French Bread

Click HERE for my recipe for Homemade Lemon Curd

Sweet Ricotta Blinzes From Scratch

from Picture and Plate

serves 5

**NOTE: Check out my tips for crepe making HERE as a good base to compare methods and techniques.

Blintz Batter:

1 1/2 cups of flour

1 teaspoon salt

2 tsp baking powder

4 tbsp powdered sugar (don’t use for savory fillings)

4 eggs

1 1/3 cup of milk

2/3 cup of water

2 tsp vanilla  (don’t use for savory fillings)

Sweet Filling:

1-2 cup ricotta mixed with a little bit of cinnamon or lemon zest

½-1 cup Strawberry Jam (optional) **You can also make some lemon curd and serve on the side

2 tbsp butter reserved for baking

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

For the blintz batter, put all the wet ingredients in the blender and blend them for 10 seconds and then pour in all the dry ones and then blend that for 20 seconds. Let the batter sit for a half an hour to relax. It helps the texture get smoother.

When you make the blintzes it’s all about having the right pan and the right heat.  A big wide non-stick frying pan works best if you don’t have a crepe pan. Set the heat to medium high on the stove. I find it easier and healthier to use cooking spray rather than butter to cook the blintzes in. The batter should be thin and spread evenly but just barely cover the bottom of the pan as you tilt it around to spread it. Watch for the bubbles to start to pop on the first side before flipping them over. It takes about 45 seconds on the first side and roughly 30 seconds on the second side. We had two pans going to make it go faster.

**NOTE: I think it is a rule of thumb that your first pancake will always be a mess-up. Just keep on trucking, the pan needs to get to the right heat and then you will be fine.

Fill each crepe with ricotta filling and put in a baking dish. If you are using strawberry jam, spread the ricotta first and then do the jam. Melt the reserved butter and brush it lightly over the top of each blintz. Bake for ten minutes. Eat them.