Blintzes, aka Jewish crepes, are traditionally filled with cheese, blueberry or potato. But why stop there? For Rosh Hashanah, I was inspired by the sweet side dish known as tzimmes. Tzimmes is a stew of sweet potatoes and carrots with dried fruit in a sweet sauce. It’s the perfect balance to your Rosh Hashanah brisket.
Potato blintzes reminded me of sweet potatoes, which reminded me of tzimmes, and here we are! I made a mashed sweet potato and carrot mixture, sweetened with brown sugar and honey, and folded in some prunes because my Bubbe would want me to. Topped with a cardamom yogurt sauce, these blintzes make a wonderful Rosh Hashanah side, and you can even have the leftovers for breakfast.
Tzimmes Blintzes With Cardamom Yogurt Sauce
Prep time: 30 minutes. Cook time: 30 minutes. Makes: 8 blintzes. Note: You will also need an hour to rest the batter.
Ingredients
- For the blintz batter:
- 1 cup all-purpose flour
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- ⅛ teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs, room temperature
- ½ cup whole milk
- ½ cup water
- Zest from 1 medium orange (use the orange juice in the filling)
- 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- Unsalted butter for cooking
- For the tzimmes filling:
- 2 pounds sweet potatoes, peeled and diced into large pieces
- 1 pound carrots, peeled and diced into large pieces
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 1 tablespoon orange juice
- ½ teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 tablespoon brown sugar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- Salt to taste
- ½ cup diced prunes (optional, but Bubbe would say they’re good for you!)
- For the cardamom yogurt sauce:
- 1 cup full-fat Greek yogurt
- ¼ cup honey
- ¼ teaspoon cardamom
- Toasted walnuts for garnish
Directions
- First, make your blintz batter. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. Then add the eggs, milk, water and butter and whisk until no lumps remain. Let your batter rest in the refrigerator at least one hour.
- Meanwhile, make the filling. You will probably only need about half the filling, but it’s tasty so make the full recipe and sneak some bites! Put the sweet potatoes and carrots in a stockpot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and then lower to a simmer. Simmer for 15 minutes or until the pieces are fork tender.
- Drain the water and place the sweet potatoes and carrots back in the pot. Immediately add the butter, orange juice, cinnamon, brown sugar and honey and mash with a fork or hand mixer until combined. Season with salt to taste. Fold in the prunes, if using.
- To make the yogurt sauce, combine yogurt, honey and cardamom in a medium bowl and set aside.
- Now, time to make the blintzes! Have some parchment paper ready to layer between the blintzes. To make blintzes, butter a nine-inch nonstick pan with a thin coat of butter over medium-high heat. Then pour ¼ cup of batter into the pan to coat the bottom. Swirl the pan to coat evenly. After about a minute, you will see the ends begin to curl up—your blintz is done! No need to flip. Slide blintzes onto parchment paper to cool.
- Put a heaping spoonful of the sweet potato mixture toward the bottom of each blintz. Fold the bottom of the blintz up to cover the filling, and then fold the sides in. Then roll like a little blintz burrito!
- Add 1 tablespoon of butter back to the medium nonstick pan over medium-high heat and cook blintzes on each side until golden brown, or about 1-2 minutes per side. Repeat with remaining blintzes.
- Serve warm with cardamom yogurt sauce and toasted walnuts.
- You can make the blintzes and filling up to three days ahead of time and assemble and fry right before serving.
Amy Kritzer Becker is the founder of the modern Jewish cooking blog What Jew Wanna Eat, co-owner of the cool Jewish gifts website ModernTribe and author of the cookbook “Sweet Noshings.”
