From probably the age of minus all numbers, I watched my mom do this graceful pan swirl of blintz batter in a perfectly oiled, perfectly heated pan, plopping perfect crepe after perfect crepe into an amazing, stove-side, fluffy pile. But even Mom knew that the first few crepes would fail and be sacrificed into the waiting mouths of kitchen lurkers who also knew this fact.
The pan has to be the right temperature. The pan has to be oiled just so lightly. The batter has to be thin enough to swirl and spread before it sets. Yes, a little fussy, but try it anyway. Look on youtube for some pan swirling crepe techniques if you’ve never done it before. Only by making a mess will you get better. The first few are your practice runs.
Then there is the issue of veganizing a dish whose primary ingredient is eggs. The first recipe I tried used good old chickpea flour and produced blintzes so heavy I almost broke the trash can when I flung them within. They were inedible. Frankly, if I never eat chickpea flour again, it will be too soon. The Chickpea Flour Honeymoon is over.
Then I found a recipe with just whole wheat flour and no fancy veganizing tricks or waiting periods. It worked fine although I did have to add more soy milk than the recipe called for to get the batter thin enough, and even then, they do lack the flexibility of crepes with eggs. But they work, they taste great, my family gobbled them up and begged for more.
A couple of notes: The batter calls for sugar, as does the filling. You could definitely leave it out of the batter. No reason the crepes need to be sweetened. The filling will depend on the sweetness the fruit you are using. I was thinking that you could also add a sweeter fruit such as dates, mango or banana if you wanted to avoid the sweetener issue altogether. There is a large range of modifications that can be made as per your dietary preferences. I’m sure you can use different flours as well, but I just used all-purpose whole wheat flour here. Also I would stick with the soy milk or use coconut, but not the lower fat ones like rice or almond – I think you need the thickness and richness for these to work.
The original crepe recipe can be found HERE.
The filling recipe was adapted from this one.
Ingredients
- 1½ cups whole wheat flour
- 3 Tbsp brown sugar, or maple syrup or silan (may be omitted for a non-sweet crepe)
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1½ cups soy milk
- 1 Tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp vanilla extract (optional)
- 1/4-1/3 cup sugar, agave, maple, whatever you prefer and depending on how sweet you like things (you could skip the sweetener and use a chopped banana, mango or dates, and/or stevia)
- 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon diced lemon zest (optional)
- 3 cups blueberries, fresh or frozen
- Additional oil for final frying if desired.
- Vegan yogurt for topping (optional)
Instructions
- In a large saucepan, combine sugar, cinnamon, lemon zest (if using), and blueberries.
- Toss and place over medium heat.
- Allow it to come to a boil, reduce heat and simmer 2 minutes.
- Remove from heat.
- Adjust sweetness level to your taste.
- Set aside to cool as you make the crepes.
- Mix all the ingredients in a bowl. Batter should be like a thin pancake batter so if needed, add a few more Tablespoons soy milk to reach the right consistency.
- Heat a lightly oiled frying pan over medium high heat.
- Pour 3 tablespoons of the batter in the pan, swirling the batter around to cover the whole bottom of the pan. (I hold it off the fire for this process).
- Cook for 1 or 2 minutes until the batter gets darker, loosen the edges with a spatula and gently flip the crepe.
- Cook one minute until brown the other side of the crepe.
- Remove to a plate and cover with a paper towel to prevent drying.
- Repeat with the rest of the batter.
- Use a slotted spoon to place 1 tablespoon of berries (leave the sauce for garnish) on the lower third of the pancake.
- Fold the bottom up and away from you to cover the filling.
- Fold the two sides in toward the center.
- Roll the pancake away from you, ending with seam side down.
- Repeat with remaining pancakes and filling.
- Now, you can spoon the sauce on and eat your blintzes right now, OR you can do a second frying to seal and crisp them. Just be warned that because this batter is not so flexible, there is a chance they could fall apart. This happened to a few of mine.
- Add some more oil to your pan.
- Fry each side of the blintzes for about 2 minutes until crisp.
- Remove to a serving place, garnish with blueberry sauce and a dollop of vegan yogurt if desired.
- You can store these in the fridge for later serving, but the blue will stain through all of the crepe. It will be delicious, just very, very blue!
