In my family we have a traditional holiday breakfast, we like to refer to as the Christmas pancake, it’s not actually a pancake at all. It’s technical term is a blintz soufflé, I’m not sure how it got the name, though I wouldn’t be surprised if my parents thought the name might make my sister and I run for the hills as kids, since we were not the type to try new things and were particularly picky at that age. The recipe came from a cook book called, Cookery For Entertaining by Marlene Sorosky, and every Christmas eve my mom would take out that book and start doing all the prep work and then just pop it in the oven Christmas morning.
Now, this is not a light meal to start the day with, but when I was young Christmas day meant a lot of traveling going to see grandparents, aunts, uncles, so having a heavier meal helped keep us full until we got to our final destination for Christmas dinner. These days since we have a huge meal consisting of soups, salad, appetizers, main course, side dishes, etc, we have made some modifications to the Christmas pancake tradition. We still have it every year, but instead of on Christmas morning we will have it more often on New Years Day.
No matter what day we take part in this tradition, it always holds a special meaning to us, and is one of my favorite days of the season!
The Christmas Pancake (Blintz Soufflé)
1/4 lb butter softened
1/3 cup sugar
6 eggs
1 1/2 sour cream
1/2 cup orange juice
1 cup AP flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Blintz Filling:
1 (8 oz) package cream cheese cut up
1 pint small curd cottage cheese (2 cups)
2 egg yolks
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Sour cream for topping
Pre heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter a 13x9 baking dish (we always end up with two of these, one of which my mom has been letting me take home with me lately!). In a large bowl mix butter, sugar, eggs, sour cream, orange juice, flour and baking powder until well combined. pour half the batter into baking dish (or a fourth in each dish if you end up using two), prepare blintz filling. Combine all ingredients in a large bowl blend with hand mixer. Drop filling in heaps into you baking pan(s), then pour remaining batter over the filling. Bake for 50- 60 minutes and serve immediately with either sour cream or blueberry syrup. I personally prefer the sour cream topping.
Eat and enjoy!