Cheese Blintz with Fruit Topping

Laura treated us with these beautiful Cheese Blintz for a recent breakfast.   They are a simple crêpe, filled with a ricotta filling and topped with a fruit sauce or jam.  This is not an overly sweet breakfast.   But, if you have a sweet tooth, feel free to sweeten the filling to your liking.  Thanks to our favorite food blog Smitten Kitchen for the inspiration.

Crêpes
4 tablespoons butter, melted and cooled slightly
1 cup milk
4 large eggs
1 cup all-purpose flour or cut in half with whole wheat
Few pinches of salt

Filling
2 cups ricotta
6 tablespoons sour cream
1 tablespoon sugar, honey or maple syrup, more to your tasting
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 large egg yolks or 1 large egg, optional

Combine crêpe ingredients in a bowl and whisk by hand until smooth.  Batter can be covered and refrigerated at this point for up to two days.

Heat an 8″ pan (or close to) over medium-high heat. Once heated, brush pan lightly with melted butter.  If batter has gotten too thick to pour thinly,  add an additional tablespoon or two of milk or water to thin it.  Tilt the pan on it’s side and pour 3 to 4 tablespoons batter into skillet allowing batter to run while swirling the pan to coat the bottom.   Let cook, undisturbed, until the crêpe becomes a little golden underneath or at the edges.  This will happen quickly – approximately one minute depending on the heat of the pan.

Flip the crêpe and cook for another 30 seconds, then slide onto a plate to cool.  Repeat with remaining batter, brushing the skillet with additional butter when needed.  You can stack the crêpes one on top of each other even when they’re hot; they will not stick.

Use the crêpe right away, or cover and use them within a couple days.

To continue, mix all filling ingredients together until smooth.  Taste and adjust for sweetness.  Place 2-3 tablespoons of filling across the center of a crêpe.  Fold the bottom half of the wrapper up and over the filling, fold the sides in and then fold the crêpe away from you to form a pocket with the seams down.  If the crêpe will not remain folded, use a toothpick to secure.

You can use these blintz right away, or refrigerate them for up to 2 days or freeze them between layers of waxed paper for up to 2 months.

To serve immediately, heat a pat of butter over medium heat in the crêpe skillet.  Fry the blintz lightly on both sides. Transfer to a plate and serve with fruit sauce or jam of your choice.

Quick Fruit Sauce – For our Blintz, Laura used some of the fruit we froze from our harvest last summer.  She used 1/2 lb. frozen strawberries and 1/2 lb frozen chopped rhubarb with 1/4 cup sugar and 1 T Lemon Juice.  This mixture was cooked over low heat until it thickened, about 10 minutes.  The fruit had the incredible sweetness and flavor of summer ripened fruit.