Shavuot is one of the most underrated Jewish holidays. You’re telling me I get to stay up all night and eat little dairy treats like cheesecake, blintzes and bourekas?! All in celebration of the ancient Israelites receiving the Torah at Sinai?! Sign me up.
It’s unclear where the tradition of eating dairy on Shavuot came from. “One reason for this could be from the Bible — we eat dairy to symbolize the land of milk and honey,” Emily Burack wrote for Hey Alma in 2018. She went on, “Another possible reason is that ‘a sage discovered that the initials of the four Hebrew words in Numbers 28:26, which describe the sacrificial meal offering on Shavuot, spell mei halav (from milk), suggesting that dairy food is the acceptable dinner for the festival. At Sinai, the Israelites were considered to be as innocent as newborns, whose food is milk.'”
Regardless of where it came from, however, it’s clear that eating dairy is Shavuot’s most delicious tradition. So, in honor of the holiday, here’s an absurdly long list of dairy dessert recipes you could try this Shavuot.
Pop a Lactaid (if you’re Ashkenazi) and let’s get started!
Blintzes
2. Cheese blintz with strawberry sauce
Cheesecakes
7. Rugelach bread pudding cheesecake
9. Black and white cookie cheesecake
12. Cheesecake pie
Gluten-Free Options
14. Gluten-free chocolate chip cheesecake
Other Desserts
15. Tres leches cake
17. Bessarabian sweet cheese buns
18. Strawberry rhubarb and ricotta challah bread pudding
19. Strawberry and cream rugelach
21. Blueberry cheesecake danish
22. Labneh ice cream
