Waffle Yourself a Cheese Blintz

Sweet cheese blintzes are the stars of the stuffed pancake pantheon, but they are, if not difficult, at least somewhat tedious to make and fill. And while I will always choose a homemade blintz over a store-bought frozen one, the less precious nature of frozen grocery store blintzes makes them ideal candidates for waffling.

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There’s no need for oil, no need for a pan, no need for anything other than a nonstick waffle iron, and perhaps some sort of berry-based topping and/or sour cream. The waffle iron creates texture—there are soft spots and crunchy spots—while it warms the cheese filling. I really do enjoy texture.

Much like frozen pound cake, frozen pierogi, and frozen onion rings, frozen blintzes do not need to be defrosted before they are waffled. But, like frozen egg rolls, you have to be careful to not apply too much pressure as you waffle them. Otherwise the filling comes spilling out onto the plateaus and into the valleys of your waffle maker, where it caramelizes into quite the mess.

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To waffle a cheese blintz, start out just below medium heat. Place your blintz parallel to the waffle maker’s hinge to help keep the applied pressure and heat as even as possible across the length of the blintz. Place the blintz in the waffle maker, and let the top plate rest on top of it. Do not press down. Let the waffle maker warm the blintz for a 2-3 minutes until the filling starts to soften.

Once the blintz has softened and flattened a little under the weight of the top plate, turn the heat up to medium-high, give it a slight press, and cook for a few more minutes until the outer layer is golden brown and crunchy in spots. Don’t worry if you get a little bit of spillage; that little bit will turn into what can only be described as “sweet cheese caramel,” and I don’t think that’s a bad thing.