Cheese Blintzes with Blueberry Sauce

Posted on August 5, 2009

What’s a blintz? It’s a delicious breakfast dish that involves filling a thin pancake, or a crepe, with a cheese mixture and then cooking it again. Actually, you can fill a crepe with many different things – potatoes, apples, raisins, veggies, meats.

This recipe is extra special because it adds depth of flavor with lemon and orange. The end result is a light pancake and filling with a bright, citrus-blueberry finish.

During my catering days, I used to make these by the hundreds and we’d bake them off right before the event. It was then that I learned that crepes aren’t just for the culinary elite. They’re actually very simple if you understand a few simple techniques:

The batter needs to be very cold when it goes into the pan so it can spread out before it sets.
Take the pan off of the heat when you brush it with butter and add your batter. Once the batter has covered the bottom
The first crepe is usually a throw away used to gauge the temperature of the pan.
When you cook the outside of the blintz, the pan needs to be hot enough to set the filling so it doesn’t run.

I like to eat something healthy to get my day started. I am not a fan of sweet rolls or muffins as a daily breakfast dish. These crepes are made with a very small amount of gluten-free flour, cottage cheese, ricotta cheese, milk, eggs, and fruit. Overall, it’s a healthy balance of carbs, protein, and fat that won’t make you crash later on. Also, they’re suprisingly filling and delicious the next day.

I showed Joe some picutres of the last batch of blintzes I made and asked him which one he liked best. He said that none of them turned out very well and I needed to re-take them. I knew I was getting manipulated into making another batch but I didn’t tell him that. I love that he loves my cooking, and even more, I love cooking for him.

Printer-friendly recipe

Cheese Blintzes with Blueberry Sauce
makes 12 blintzes

For crepes:
2 large eggs
2/3 cup 1% milk
½ cup All Purpose Gluten-Free Flour Blend
½ teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon unsalted butter, melted (for batter mix)
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted (to cook blintzes)

For filling:
1 cup 2% cottage cheese
1 cup part-skim ricotta cheese
1 large egg, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons agave nectar
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoon lemon zest
pinch of salt

Blueberry Sauce:
2 cup blueberries
½ cup fresh squeezed orange juice (1 – 2 oranges)
1 tablespoon fresh squeezed lemon juice
1 teaspoons lemon zest
2 tablespoons agave nectar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 tablespoon cold water

To make the crepes:
Put eggs, milk, gluten-free flour mix, salt, and melted butter in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Cover and place in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.

To make the filling:
While batter is chilling, make the filling by putting the ricotta and cottage cheese in a food processor or blender and process until completely smooth, scraping down sides as needed. Add egg, agave, lemon juice, lemon zest, and salt. Process again until smooth.

Once the batter has chilled:
Heat a small, 8 inch non-stick skillet over medium high heat. (The skillet needs to be hot enough to quickly cook and brown blintz but not so hot that you can’t get the blintz batter evenly spread over bottom of skillet before it sets.) Remove pan from heat and brush with melted butter. Hold pat at a downward 45 degree angle. Put 1/8 cup of batter into skillet and quickly rotate skillet so that batter covers the bottom completely. Return to heat and cook blintz until it’s lightly browned. Loosen edges with a spatula and move to waxed paper, browned side up. Cook remaining blintzes in this manner.

When all blintzes are cooked, put 2 – 3 tablespoons of filling on the inside of each blintz. Fold them closed, top to bottom leaving the sides open.

Heat a medium sized skillet over medium-high and brush with butter. Cook blintzes seam side down for a few minutes on each side, until golden brown. Again, the skillet needs to be hot enough to quickly cook the blintz and set the filling. If the skillet isn’t hot enough the filling will run.

For the blueberry sauce:
Combine all ingredients in a small saucepan and simmer over medium-low heat until a few berries begin to burst. Mix cornstarch and cold water, add to saucepan while stirring. Stir, simmering until sauce has thickened and cornstarch taste is gone, about 5 minutes. Spoon blueberry sauce over cooked blintzes.