Shavuot is one of the most underrated Jewish holidays. You mean you get to stay up all night eating cheesecake, blintzes, bourekas and other dairy treats?! All to celebrate the ancient Israelites receiving the Torah at Sinai?! I’m in!
It’s unclear where the tradition of eating dairy products on Shavuot originated. “One reason may be biblical: we eat dairy products to symbolize the land of milk and honey,” Emily Black wrote in Hey Alma in 2018. She continued, “Another possible reason may be that a sage wrote, ‘The initial letters of the four Hebrew words in Numbers 28:26, which describe the sacrificial meal offerings on Shavuot, are Meyhalav This indicates the suitability of dairy products for the festival dinner. At Sinai, the Israelites were considered as innocent as newborn babies, whose food was milk.”
But no matter where it comes from, it’s clear that eating dairy is one of Shavuot’s most delicious traditions. So in honor of the holiday, we’re presenting a ridiculously long list of dairy dessert recipes you can try this Shavuot.
Take some lactase (if you’re Ashkenazi) and get started!
Blintz
1. Cheese blintzes
2. Cheese blintzes with strawberry sauce
3. Blueberry Blintz
4. Ricotta Cheese Blintzes
5. Cheesecake Blintzes
Cheesecake
6. Funfetti Cheesecake
7. Rugela Cheesecake Pudding
8. Unicorn Cheesecake
9. Black and White Cookie Cheesecake
10. Kanafeh Cheesecake
11. Instant Pot Cheesecake
12. Cheesecake Pie
Gluten-free options
13. Gluten-free blintzes
14. Gluten-Free Chocolate Chip Cheesecake
Other desserts
15. Tres leches cake
16. Macaron Cheesecake
17. Bessarabian Sweet Cheese Bread
18. Strawberry Rhubarb and Ricotta Bread Pudding
19. Strawberries and cream rugela
20. Labneh and Fig Tart
21. Blueberry Cheesecake Danish
22. Labneh Ice Cream
23. Lemon Poppy Cream Cheese Babka
24. Sweet ricotta and strawberry breka
