Blintzes in a blitz

LAUREN BOOLKIN

For the blinis

3 eggs

2½ cups cold water

1½ cups flour, sifted

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp baking powder

Oil/butter for frying

For the filling

250g cream cheese

1 tbsp cream

2 tsp flour

1 egg

¼ cup castor sugar

¼ tsp cinnamon

Method

Beat eggs and water. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt. Add to the eggs, and whisk till blended. Pour into a jug through a sieve.

Refrigerate the batter for an hour or up to 24 hours.

Beat the egg and castor sugar together. Add the cream, cream cheese, flour, and cinnamon.

Beat until smooth.

To fry

Heat a small, non-stick frying pan over medium heat. Add a teaspoon of oil, and swirl to coat the base. When it begins to sizzle, pour in a little batter. Cover the base of the pan in batter, and pour the rest back into the jug. Cook over a medium heat until you can lift the edge of the blini and see a light brown base. Flip onto a plate. Bear in mind that the first one or two flop. Don’t give up!

To assemble

Lay one crepe on a plate cooked side down. Put two thirds of a teaspoon of the filling in the centre of the uncooked side and roll up by first tucking in the sides. Fry immediately or refrigerate for up to two days. Unfried blintzes can also be frozen.

Orange confit

Segment the oranges over a bowl. Four oranges would be good for this quantity of blintzes. Squeeze the remaining juice out with your hands into the same bowl. The pith is bitter, so be sure not to include it.

Drain the oranges, and reserve the juice in a jug. Add double the amount of castor sugar to the juice. (If you have a quarter of a cup of juice, you will add half a cup castor sugar, and so on.) Bring the mixture to the boil, and then turn the stove down to very low. Keep stirring until you have a jammy mixture. Add this to your orange segments, and refrigerate without stealing any.

Serve the hot blintze with a spoonful of confit on top.