A scrap of the finished hoop cheese

The filling: Hoop cheese, cream cheese, eggs, sugar and salt

The blintz pancakes. They're very yellow. I think it's the corn fed chickens.

The blintzes before baking. The toasty brown one is overdone since they all get brown in the oven. Someone always wants the overdone one, however, so it's all good. In fact, it was the first to go. :)

Props to you on making the cheese! I can't get the right kind where I live.

Looks wonderful plllog! I've never made hoop cheese and you've got me curious. I do love blintzes! But I give... what are chickens doing in your blintzes?

Eggs, m'dear, the eggs! My spare sibling shouldn't have soy, so I've been in the habit of buying soy free eggs. I think the chicken feed is yellow corn. The yolks look normal raw, but they're much deeper color when hard boiled, and the blintz pancakes came out yellow rather than beige.

I never could pin down the flavor profile of blintz pancakes, which is distinctive, because they're in the genre of crepes, but have a different flavor and texture (some commercial purveyors just use crepes because that's what they know but that's not proper blintz pancakes, which are at least twice the thickness and spongy). Y'know how the first one is always a goner? This time, it was an intact pancake, just way too thick (the batter looked right dripping off the eggbeater but was thicker than it seemed and I had to loosen it up). So, this being a big treat and all, and not having had lunch, I ate the whole first pancake while I was making the rest, and I figured it out. Blintz pancakes taste like custard + toast!

2Many, you can make the cheese too! It would be hard without a sous vide circulator, but with it, it's easy.

Lpink, if you ever go sous vide, don't hesitate to try making the cheese. It would be way too fiddly without the circulator, but I made a bunch of temperature mistakes at the outset and the cheese still came out just fine. It's forgiving. But holding a constant temp for 12 hours isn't easy without a high tech shortcut. I have a feeling it used to be a kid's job, as in nothing better to do (adult in charge's point of view) than watching the milk and tending the fire.

As far as I know, fresh hoop cheese just isn't available to buy. It used to be the most common because store's made their own. I've been told that it's because it can't be automated, but I think that means it can't be done in large, factory style batches, I don't imagine that there's a big enough market for a largely forgotten, flavorless, spoilable cheese for there to be enough money in it to fuel an artisanal market. They do have aged hoop cheese still in the South, and also somewhere in the North-Middle -- Wisconsin, maybe, or Michigan, or somewhere there. Perhaps there's someone close enough who would sell some fresh hoop cheese on the side.

Meantime, I'm still dancing tickled from the success! I don't have to depend on anyone making the product to make the blintzes. I could even make the neufchatel/cream cheese, but I won't so long as Kraft exists. :) I'll never (that I can imagine) have my own cows and chickens, however, so I'll be buying the milk and eggs, and the staples for that matter. POF, the milk for the cheese was just Clover Organic, which is what I buy for regular household use. You can't make cheese with ultra-pasteurized, which a lot of organic milk is, but Clover is a good California dairy, with proper milk. :)

I'm utterly red with embarrassment. Clearly paint fumes have gotten to me. Or should I just say... well don't I have egg on my face?! LOL!

I'm thrilled your cheese came out exactly as you wished and you can now make your own fantastic blintzes - I understand that happiness!

The sous vide caught my attention... but you had me at "Blintz pancakes taste like custard + toast!" . We all know what a custard snob I am... : - ) So, this is why my crepe blintzes don't taste like the 'real' ones? Crepe batter, and no hoop cheese. I've always had to drown them with fruit or mint sauces. I knew the cheese wasn't 'just so'. I need a kitchen. Durnit. Thank you plllog, I'm always inspired to try new things by my dear friends in this forum... my favorite forum, ever. Does this mean I need a cheese press and hoop? How many kitchen gadgets am I allowed before I have a working kitchen? Need an answer for the first, but don't answer the last question!

Oh, and now I have to find a source for non ultra pasteurized milk... I think that's doable.

Oh, dear. I didn't mean to embarrass you. I know you're laughing about it, but I apologize for teasing you. If you're breathing paint fumes, can I think that your kitchen is moving into the finishing stage?

You do not need either a cheese press or a hoop to make sufficient hoop cheese for blintzes, unless you're making them daily. You do need fresh new cheesecloth and a small flat sieve with feet and deep sides, though a round one or colander would do in a crunch. You'll also need a board that fits in the sieve to press the curds and some cast iron pans fishing weights or other heavy stuff that will fit. You might also be able to make it work with a couple of dinner plates and said weights. The cheese press is just fun and decorative. :) Keep in mind that the first thing you're going to do with the cheese is crumble it, so it doesn't matter if it's pretty. You just need to be able to squeeze out the whey.

So, cut the cheesecloth to fill the sieve, up the sides and with a couple inches of margin. Cut another piece that will cover the top with an inch margin, and cover the board with muslin or parchment paper or something. Dampen both and wring out. Line the sieve with the cloth and place it in a dish, or even better the draining mat from a dishdryer with a spout into the sink, if you have one. Put the dish in a large vessel to catch the whey or put the spout over the edge to the sink. You can try to catch the whey, but it may not be worth the mess. Most of it will have separated from the curds and be ready to make ricotta or other whey stuff. So, once you have that set up, put the curds in the cloth, cover with the other cloth, put the board on, and about 8 lbs. weight on top. After a couple of hours (emptying the whey occasionally), put 20 lbs. total on the board for maybe half an hour, until no more whey is running out.

I'm confident that will work. An alternative would be to get a real cheese mold and "followers" (or make your own disks to fit) and use your own weights. A cheese press is overkill for this purpose, but it does mean that you have everything right there for pressing the cheese.

You did not embarrass me, I embarrassed myself! I think my brain was just 'shut' when I read chicken and blintz! And yes, I have a sense of humor about my own silly goofs!

I was not expecting such a wonderfully detailed explanation... but perhaps I should have, given it was you. Oh, thank you so much pllog! I've saved this to my recipes folder. There is just nothing like a nicely detailed how-to description if one has never done it themselves : )

ETA: kitchen in the finishing stage... hmmm. I need to know the exact definition of 'finishing stage'! LOL! It's mid-June, so we are 2 weeks past the latest finish date I expected. One of our cabinet makers broke 5 ribs and while we have most cabinets in, there is still a lot to go. DH is working on plumbing and electrical again now that appliances and sinks are semi-in place. No countertops yet, and yes, I'm painting the whole house by myself, weekends. Still much to do, and still no furniture moved back. So, no, far from being done. The best laid plans, and all that. It will be worth it, I know, but gosh, I'm pretty much over it. I miss two things... a clean home, my cooking. Make that 3 things - a soft chair to sit on!

Yeah, that's the finishing stage. :) It doesn't feel like the word "finish", especially when you're painting the house yourself. You could pick up a soft garden chair for the meantime. I bought a little garden table set at the grocery store for an absurd price. It came with comfy chair pads, though comfortable without. It's cheap junk, so the pads live out of the sun. :) I figured the set would last a couple of years. There are some chips in the powdercoating, but they don't look bad, given the color, and it's otherwise fine. My "good" furniture should only be so good.

Sorry. Tangent. :) "Finishing" in a remodel is putting in the cabinets, et al. The "model" part of remodelling is the destruction, construction, walls, services, etc. The plumbing and electric that are about installing the appliances is "finishing" too. Finishing as in installing finishes, not as in ending. :) I can't tell you (because I forgot) how long I had a box of grout in the middle of the kitchen floor. There was some kind of final grout stage after the kitchen was useable. It'll get there. I was just thinking I should put together a ten years later album. It does happen.

Meantime, my new toy arrived. The new Anova insulated box. I think I really like it. It's a perfect intermediate size between pot and ice chest. The hinged lid comes completely off. And a feature that made it really attractive is that it's supposed to eliminate most evaporation. And it fits my 5L box I used for the hoop cheese just right. Most of all, I think it'll make me more likely to do sous vide when it's just food rather than a project.

So, when you do get a proper kitchen back, and are in the mood for blintzes, send me an e-mail (or PM here) and I'll send you my odd and old fashioned directions. BTW, the sieve idea is just for hoop cheese, and similar. If you want to try making aged cheeses, you'll want a proper mold or hoop, though you can still do it with your own weights rather than needing a press for the simpler ones.

That looks delicious.

It takes me back to eating something like that in my childhood but with raisins, I seem to remember. Do you ever sweeten them like that?

I'm waiting for ... the kitchen sink ... to help round out this thread. It truly is remarkable. Y'all can come help me catch up on spring cleaning, cuz I been tending to 'franken foot'. My lovely SO broke her ankle and had to have it pinned ... restricting movement significantly. She has resorted to washing her hair in the 'kitchen sink'

See what I did there?

Islay, I haven't ever seen blintzes made with raisins, but they range from slightly sweet, like ours, to slightly savory with herbs, to very sweet like dessert. And raisins are so classic, especially thinking of when and where sugar would have been very dear. It makes total sense.

Hang on... There are a lot of raisin cheese blintz recipes out there. :)

Dave, I see you wrapped back to the beginning of your post, but it sounds like you're not quite awake there. I'm not sure what you meant about the kitchen sink in this thread, but I do feel for your sweetie and her poor ankle. I imagine having to have pins is next level on the senses and emotions as well. I thought before it was just a foot thing. All my best to her for a speedy recovery.

Well, then yes, we are at the finishing stages pllog! But I'm guessing that might be some months... I have a plastic chair from Wally-world, and added a couple seat cushions - to the seat and back, so that has sufficed. DH sits in one of those canvas chairs - it's sagging so deeply now that whenever I forget myself and attempt to plop down on it, I fall further and make a very unpleasant noise!

I looked for an Anova Brand insulated box (ya got me curious), and couldn't find it. Found a few other brands.

I absolutely will PM and request help with authentic blintz making! You're so kind, and I know I'll get wonderful instruction : )

Islay, I'm of the mind that most anything can be improved with raisins, and some things just shouldn't be without, rice pudding is one, for me. Seems many don't appreciate the wrinkled cuties. My blintzes have been very dessert-ish, with blueberries, sometimes blueberry syrup from the warmed berries, sometimes mint-infused simple syrup with a bit of heavy cream... you get the picture : ) Sweet tooth here, but leaning towards less heavily sweet things of late, thus I love raisins. Especially golden.

Oh bragu, I'm so sorry for your SO - pinned? Sounds awful! FWIW, I often wash my hair in the utility sink, which currently passes as our utility sink and kitchen sink. Which is my pitiful attempt at bringing this back around to cooking... except I failed! LOL!

The Anova box was on a promotional e-mail. I really didn't need it at all, but I'm very pleased with it. The e-mail was entitled "Hurry before they are gone", though it was a pre-issue promotion. Since it arrived immediately, I have to think they were already ready to ship. I don't know if the "hurry" was a marketing ploy or if they're not going to be keeping these in stock permanently. I just was in the mood, having just done the cheese. It's not like blintzes are daily, or even monthly, food. It'll just be so much easier to open the cheese, take its temperature, cut the curds, etc., if the whole deal is on the counter, and a roaster pan has too much evaporation and is too in the way... Anyway, sometimes I get all happy from having a new, mostly useless, toy, and I'm delighted. I think it's the blackest thing I own. It's like black hole black. Even white light doesn't bounce off it. Kind of beautiful and spooky.

Here's the flyer: Anova Box

Re blintz flavors, I think too much sugar overwhelms the distinctively blintzy flavor, though it does well for disguising having the wrong cheese. :) OTOH, nothing wrong with a sweet blintz with blueberries or mint. Or raisins. If you want traditional Northern European, they're served with sour cream and applesauce. You don't combine the two, but many will alternate bites, to maximize the tickling of the taste buds.

My applesauce secret is to cook the apples down in TJ's sparkling apple cider rather than sugar and water. It keeps it very apple-y and has just the right amount of sugar, not too much. (The latter part is why I use that particular cider, but any would do. If it's too sweet, there's always water. :) )

On the blintz making, I can only hope for intelligible instructions. Do you have a hand crank rotary egg beater?

That insulated black hole looks cool! Cutting the pre-heat time would be pretty nifty too : )

Yes, I have a hand crank egg beater - my 30 year old beater with antique egg permanently glued to it was traded in for the Oxo Good Grips Egg Beater, which is 'da bomb' and so easy to clean. Why? for the blintzes, or some super-secret cheese making trick? ; - )

I often have the same recurring thought when I read recipes or ideas here: Why didn't I think of that? No TJ's here, sadly, or not near enough (would be a 2 hour trip), but I'm sure I could find sparkling cider. That sure makes sense. Thanks for the tip!

Late at night if I can't sleep I google on my phone (GW won't let me post from my phone) so you got me curious, and I found mascarpone, souv vide! What?! So hard to find here. Which made me think, are there other uses for hoop cheese?

To be honest, I don't think the sparkling part of the cider has any effect. :) Just use sweet rather than sour cider. :)

The egg beater, which I guess is back in style if OXO makes one, is for the blintz pancakes. The only way I know how to make them is with a four cup Pyrex measuring jug and a rotary egg beater. I could guesstimate how else to do it, and I suppose I should make a few batches with measurements to develop a more useable recipe for posterity, but as it sits now, the egg better is the deal. :)

I bet there are a whole lot of cheesemakers using circulators to maintain the temperature. It took me a minute to think of it, but it's such a perfect marriage! I will say, for something fussier than what I made, it would probably be better to do four quarts in separate containers than a gallon in one, but I also think it's easier to get the curds just so with a larger mass of milk.

Yea for the mascarpone coming to your house! The closest I've come is by leaving cream too long in the fridge. :) It really does look and taste like mascarpone that way. :) Making it on purpose would be better. Mascarpone is excellent.

My mother used to use hoop cheese for many things, but I don't know specifically which. She made cheese soufflé from leftover blintz filling and would add in any leftover hoop cheese. CooksInfo says it's for adding creaminess to recipes without adding flavor or fat. I can't think what that would be, though. And duh. It's pressed skim milk curds with no salt. A lot of old American recipe books will have it--but a lot of Southern ones are talking about the aged kind, which is different. I think people have found a lot of substitutes for other dishes, whereas proper cheese blintz filling is dependent on it.

bragu, I'm sorry about your SO and her ankle. I hope that heals quickly and completely, but the pinning sounds like it could be a while.

2many, I hate to sound pessimistic, but it could be a while. Elery and I moved into this house in 2014, with the thoughts that it would be "remodeled" in a couple of years. We still haven't touched the master bedroom or the family/living room. Other things just keep happening. Of course, you can add the fact that I HATE anything that has to do with decorating, my youngest daughter says I'm the only person she knows that could have a stroke painting one room beige, LOL. And of course, whatever I actually like is either not available, won't work, won't fit, or is prohibitively expensive, so there's that.

I hope yours actually IS finished at some point, I don't think mine will ever be.

Plllog, I actually had blintzes once, in Chicago in a diner. They were filled with a cheese filling and blueberries. They were good but the filling was sweet enough and the blueberries "syrup-y" enough that I couldn't really taste the flavor of the blintz itself.

Annie

Too common, Annie. People way oversweeten blintzes. I guess if soda pop is your measure for what water should taste like, normal doesn't cut it. Blueberries are such a good match because they aren't so sweet...if you don't sugar them up and turn them into syrup. The flavor of the cheese should be delicately sweet and slightly tangy. Sigh. Lots of people do sugar them up. I suppose even more do now if they have to use salty cheese and try to counterbalance with sugar.

OT for a moment: Annie, today I needed to hear your pessimistic (can we just call it realistic?) point of view today. You had me pegged a while back - I overdo it, rush-rush, and exhaust myself (and injure myself). The past couple days I hit that Wall I hear about. The mess, the sawdust, the exhaustion, heck, just the dirt I don't have time to clean, and all that is left to do are now bothering me no end. I want my house back. I knew I could hold on to June, but here we are, nowhere done and it's mid-June. I need to just accept it, and keep moving forward. We've both slowed our frenetic 'get-it-done' pace, and are plugging along a bit more slowly. I built my fireplace mantle myself... and 2 years later I finally stained and poly'd it... That took me 6 months. But it's beautiful to me, and I have the satisfaction of knowing the work that went into it. You're right, nothing is every 'finished' here, but I will be happy (now) to just get it to the point where I can move the furniture back into the house and get the kitchen organized so I can cook. That leaves the bedrooms and baths... someday. : ) Thank you dear friend, for reminding me to be realistic, and patient.

plllog, egg beater and a 4 cup Pyrex... yup! Seems the fasted way to do it! For a while I was whirring my crepe batters in the blender, but the pyrex is just easier, and easier to clean! Though it might be some time (see above, ha ha), I very much want to make the hoop cheese because I'd like to have 'real' blintzes! I've since read online hoop cheese can add creaminess to mac and cheese, and I've got a sauce I use cheese in but it makes it sticky rather than creamy so want to try that. As for the mascarpone, the sous vide method sounds so easy, and I love it also!

Will It Sous Vide?: Fresh Homemade Cheese

Thanks for the link, 2Many. I have to say, I like my method better, but if all you have is bags, that works. The thing is, this isn't meat safety we're talking about. A vessel is just an easier thing to make cheese in. :)

So sorry about your blues. I get the exhaustion. My three month kitchen became a year (with no heat!) because of tile issues. The factory for the floor started making my tile on the day it was supposed to be shipped and everything ground to a halt. Then the artisan who made the counter and backsplash tiles had some issues, and some tiles had to be remade, and one kind had to be remade again. I don't know what happened, but my guess is that apprentices were helping and hid their booboos and just shipped them. Ugh! And that was with me only doing the kitchen design, not the work!

Congrats on getting the mantle finished. That's awesome!! May it invite only blessings into your home.