Closet Cooking's Blueberry Blintzes

Here's a great big thank you to Kevin of Closet Cooking for inspiring me with his recent post on blueberry blintzes. I've made blintzes before, but not for quite some time. So when I saw his recipe, and then saw a beautiful basket of blueberries at Costco the next day, I just had to make a batch. I've got this pan that is perfect for the crepes. It has a gently sloped side and is only about 8 inches across, the perfect size for a blintz. Kevin's recipe yielded 4, but I wanted extra for the freezer, so I doubled the crepes ingredients and left the other proportions as written. A small amount of butter in the hot pan, a scant 1/4 cup of batter and a quick swirl of the wrist is all it took to cover the bottom of the pan perfectly. Left alone for a couple of minutes and they were ready to turn out on the counter. I cut squares of parchment paper, enough for a double batch, and as the crepe was cooked, it was turned out onto the paper to cool, then to stack for later filling and frying. The cottage cheese - cream cheese filling was delicious. Not too sweet. I drained a heaping cup of cottage cheese in a yogurt strainer for about an hour to remove some of the excess moisture. Also not too sweet was the star of the show: the blueberry sauce. Made with a Grade B syrup, it had just enough sweet to balance the tartness of the berries. After filling and frying up eight of the twelve, I placed them on a sheet pan, popped them in the freezer, and when firm, placed them into Zip bags for future reheating in the oven. At dinnertime, I fried up the remaining four blintzes, reheated the sauce, and then Eddie and I just dove into the most delicious light dinner we've had in a while. Halfway through, we just looked at each other with smiles on our faces. This is a definite recipe to be repeated in the future.

Blueberry Blintzes

Ingredients:
1/2 cup flour (1 cup)
1 egg (2 eggs)
1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons milk (1 ¼ cups)
1/8 teaspoon salt (1/4 t)
1 tablespoon butter (melted) (2 T)

Directions:
1. Mix the flour and egg in a large bowl.
2. Slowly stir in the milk.
3. Add the salt and butter and beat until smooth. (chill for at least 30 minutes)
4. Pour scant 1/4 of the mixture into a lightly oiled pan heated at medium.
5. Tilt the pan and turn so that the mixture evenly coats the entire bottom of the pan.
6. Cook the crepe until golden brown on the bottom, about 2 minutes. (Here I removed the crepes from the pan without cooking the second side.)
7. Flip and cook the other side until golden brown.

cheese filling
blueberry sauce

butter for frying

Directions:
1. Place 1/4 cup of the cheese filling into a crepe an wrap it like a burrito.
2. Melt the butter in a pan.
3. Add the blintzes, seem side down, and cook until golden brown on top and bottom turning once.
4. Serve the blintzes with blueberry sauce on top.

Cheese Filling

Ingredients:
1 cup cottage cheese (drained in yogurt strainer. Look for farmer cheese for drier mixture.)
1 4 ounce package cream cheese (softened)
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon lemon zest

Directions:
1. Mix everything.

Blueberry Sauce

Ingredients:
1 cup blueberries
2 tablespoons maple syrup
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon water
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch

Directions
1. Mix the cornstarch into the water.
2. Simmer everything in a sauce pan for 5 minutes.