The lox blintz Photo by @foodaism
By Rob Eshman May 29, 2025
When our kids were young, I often made them crepes for Sunday breakfast. Standing at the stove, pouring the batter into the hot pan, I explained that the first crepe is the dog crepe. That first one always comes out wrinkled, uneven, blotchy, fit only for the dogs.
But if you keep going, I said, every crepe after that gets better and better.
“Dog crepe” became a shorthand way of explaining any initial setback or less-than-spectacular result. Doing new stuff is hard. Toss the first try (or two, or three) to the dogs, and keep going.
I was at the stove again this week, coming up with a new blintz recipe for Shavuot. The holiday, which begins this year on the evening of June 1, celebrates the harvest of first fruits and commemorates the giving of the Torah and Commandments at Mount Sinai. Its roots as an agricultural festival are apparent in the fact that Jews traditionally eat foods made with dairy products on Shavuot — by late spring, the kids and calves are born and the milk is flowing.
Sephardic Jews make bourekas and cheese pancakes for the holiday. Cheese blintzes and kugels are the Ashkenazi go-tos. (Food-ish has a compilation of revelatory Shavuot dishes from around the world.) I wanted to create a savory blintz, and, wonder of wonders, a gift package from Zabar’s in Manhattan appeared on our doorstep, courtesy of very thoughtful friends, complete with cream cheese, lox, Scottish smoked salmon and bagels. The Israelites had manna from heaven, I had scallion cream cheese from the Upper West Side.
I set about making a brunch blintz: thin, light crepes filled with softened scallion cream cheese, smoked salmon or lox, capers and dill, then rolled and lightly browned in butter. (Lox and smoked salmon aren’t the same — both are cured, only the latter is smoked — so I alternated). Each bundle was three or four perfect bites, creamy, salty and savory.
My recipe makes about 18 crepes — minus that first one, of course. I read some actual science about why the first crepe is always so flawed, and there’s a theory: the skillet surface and the oil or butter have not yet evenly heated.
Maybe. But I prefer a different answer: That’s just the way life is. The first kiss, the first tryst, the first day on a job, the first draft — it’s all a dog crepe, and you keep going. You just keep going.
Until, eventually, you get a lox blintz.
A version of this article originally appeared in Rob Eshman’s Foodaism newsletter.
Lox Blintz
This savory, salty, creamy blintz makes a roll-your-own brunch
Servings 6
Ingredients
- 1 cup 120g flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 cup 240 ml milk
- 3/4 cup 180 ml seltzer water
- 1 tsp sugar
- butter or vegetable oil
- 1/2 cup scallion cream cheese softened
- 1/2 pound sliced smoked salmon
- 1/4 cup capers
- 1/4 cup dill and chives chopped
Instructions
- Before you start cooking, tear off 12-16 squares of parchment paper and stack on a plate near the stove. You’ll store your blintzes here.
- Add milk, seltzer, eggs, sugar and flour to a blender. Blend at high speed for a minute until well combined and smooth. You could refrigerate the batter for an hour or overnight to let rest, or proceed with the recipe.
- Heat a non-stick pan over medium heat. Add a little butter or oil to the pan, swirl until just melted — don’t let it burn.
- Pour in the batter with one hand, swirling the pan with the other hand to help it spread.
- When the pancake starts pulling away a bit from the sides, and the top is no longer wet, flip it and cook shortly on the other side as well.
- Transfer to a plate with a spatula, your fingers or by tipping the pantipping pan over. Place a sheet of cooking parchment over the blintz and proceed to the next one. Cook the remaining batter until all used up.
- To roll the blintzes, spread about a tablespoon of softened cream cheese on the darker side of the blintz. Lay on a thin slice of salmon, and sprinkle with a few capers and some herbs.
- Fold two sides of the blintz in to slightly overlap, then gently roll to form the blintz.
- Heat a little butter or oil in the pan, fry each blintz until just golden and warm, about 2 minutes on each side.
- Remove to serving dish. You can keep warm in an oven with the light on while you complete the rest of the blintzes. To serve, pipe a bit of cream cheese on top of each blintz and scatter with more herbs and capers.
