Blueberry Blintzes

Charmed's Note:

I found this recipe from Crisco Oil in a very old Hadassah magazine stuffed in the back of a drawer in my grandmother's house. It's a favorite of mine. I think the nutmeg and lemon give the blueberries an exceptional flavor. I usually make it with milk (1 or 2%, but you can use water if you want to make it dairy-free. And if you can get them, try it with fresh blueberries. It is heavenly! (Although frozen work quite well, just taste for sweetness and adjust accordingly). These blintzes freeze very well, and I'll usually freeze them wrapped in packets of two. You can cook them up straight from the freezer; no thawing is needed. It's a really nice treat for kids with a dollop of sour cream, or even dusted with some powdered sugar, with or without cinnamon. They are surprisingly low in fat and calories.

• Total Time: 45 mins
• Prep Time: 35 mins
• Cook Time: 10 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 14

BLUEBERRY FILLING

• 1 ½ cups blueberries (fresh or frozen)
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 tablespoon cornstarch
• ¼ teaspoon grated fresh lemon rind (or 1 tsp. fresh lemon juice)
• ¼ teaspoon nutmeg (freshly grated, if possible)

BLINTZE/CREPE BATTER

• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk (you can use water for dairy-free blintzes)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• 2 tablespoons oil
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour , sifted
• oil (for cooking)

Directions:

1. Make the filling by gently tossing all the filling ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Set aside.
3. To make the crepes, beat the eggs, milk, salt, sugar& 2 tbs.
4. oil together.
5. Stir in flour vigorously until the mixture issmooth.
6. Heat about 1/4 teaspoon oil in a 6" skillet over medium high heat.
7. Pour 2 tbs.
8. batter into the pan, and tilt the pan around to coat the bottom with the batter.
9. Let the crepe brown lightly, approximately a minute or so, then carefully turn out, browned side up, onto a paper towel.
10. Make the rest of the pancakes in the same way.
11. When all the pancakes are made, take one pancake and lay it flat on a plate or flat surface.
12. Place about 1 tablespoon filling near one side of circle, shaping it so it's somewhat rectangular.
13. Fold the top& bottom up and over the filling, then roll up from the other sides.
14. You can freeze the blintzes at this point (I freeze them in packets of 2 at a time).
15. Heat 1 tbs.
16. oil in large skillet over medium heat (you don't need a lot of oil for this-- you want just a thin coating).
17. Fry blintzes until golden brown on both sides.
18. If you are cooking them directly from the freezer, start them on a lower flame and then raise the heat when they are fairly thawed out to medium heat; when cooking from a frozen state, especially if i'm cooking only two, i'll actually just use my fingers to rub a very light coating of oil over each side of the blintze instead of heating the oil in the pan.
19. Serve with sour cream or sprinkled with powdered or granulated sugar; They are even good with some slightly sweetened ricotta cheese.
20. Makes 14 to 18 blintes.
21. NOTE: I often will make 8 or 9 inch crepes and use 2 heaping tablespoons filling to make larger blintzes, but then you get fewer; I often double the recipe to do so.
22. I also prefer the lemon juice to the lemon rind (use to taste, and add a touch more of cornstarch if needed) but use the rind if you prefer a stronger lemon flavor.

Reviews

[Catwhispers]

The fresh blueberry filling was fabulous. Most recipes I've used before had a blueberry sauce type filling and these were much, much better. So good that it made up for any points the recipe would have lost for the crepe part, which I did have trouble with the first time I tried these. They were too small and hard to work with. This time I used a different crepe recipe (2 eggs, 1 1/2 cups flour, 1/2 tsp salt, 1 tsp sugar, a touch of vanilla and 1 3/4 cup water, milk, or a combination of both, done up in the blender. I used 1/4 cup of batter, and this worked much better. I ended up with the best blueberry blintzes I ever had.