Gluten-free Ricotta Strawberry Crepes

I get hungry all over again just when I look at them.

I grew up eating 'blintzes,' which is basically Cottage or Ricotta cheese enclosed in a crepe, sometimes with fruit. We bought them frozen, and heated them up until cooked through. I loved those blintzes. So much, that in later years, I would buy them frozen, and heat them up. Definitely brought me back to my childhood. Comfort food.

Well, no need to do **that** anymore. While these are not quite the same as the paper thin crepe folded around sweetened Ricotta cheese, these are even better! This 'recipe' is really just an invitation to get creative with your own Ricotta fillings. Just make it up! That's what I did.

I used the crepe recipe I blogged a while back. Very quick prep, and no special equipment needed.

For this recipe, I wanted to keep the refined sugar content down - keeping it a little more savory than sweet. But you can adjust the amount of sweetener to your own taste. I diced fresh strawberries to incorporate into the mixture, which ensured strawberry in every bite. Yum!



Use your favorite crepe recipe, or mine

Here's what I did for the filling:

Strawberry Ricotta Cheese Filling for Crepes

Ingredients:

• 3/4 Ricotta Cheese (I used skim)
• 2 Tbs Greek Yogurt
• 2 tsp Organic Agave (or your choice of sweetener)
• 4-5 Strawberries, diced and then placed on a paper towel

Directions:

1. Wash and dice the strawberries first, and put them on a paper towel to dry out a bit.
2. Whisk together the cheese, yogurt, and sweetener
3. Add in the strawberries and mix gently.
4. Place a crepe on a plate, and put a few tablespoons of filling on one side, leaving about 1/2 inch border (don't put too much or it will be hard to roll).
5. Roll it up from the filling side, ending with the seam side down.
6. Repeat, eat, enjoy!

Now it's your turn.. how are you going to make your Ricotta filling?

Gluten-free French Pancakes (aka Crepes)

Happy New Year!

I haven't had much time to post recipes this year, but I thought I could add one you might like to try on New Years morning. Hopefully I will have more time in the New Year.

This was so easy convert to gluten-free (I love when that happens). The original recipe is from Joy of Cooking and it's one that I used to make for my kids - it is one of their favorites.

It's a great breakfast recipe because it's quicker to make than regular pancakes, but just as satisfying. The bad news is you can't make them on a griddle - so you can only make one at a time (challenging if you have more than one kid:-) - or you can use two frying pans if you have them.

When I make them, they are not quite as thin as traditional crepes made using a crepe pan (which cooks on the upside-down bottom of the pan). I could probably make them thinner if I used less batter - I'll have to try that some time. But they are definitely thin enough to roll up with your favorite filling if you choose.

The original recipe says to cook them in a few drops of oil in the pan, which I did. They were fine that way, but I also tried cooking them in a tiny bit of butter instead, and I liked the way they tasted even better. No surprise there, I guess.

Gluten-free French Pancakes (adapted from Joy of Cooking)
Makes about 6 - 6"-7" Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup your favorite Gluten-free Flour Mix
• 1 tsp Baking Powder (not needed if your Gluten-free flour mix has it)
• 1-2 Tbs Powdered Sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1/4 tsp Xanthan Gum (not sure if this is needed - I'll try it without next time)
• 2 Eggs
• 1/3 cup water
• 2/3 cup Milk
• 1/2 tsp Vanilla Extract

Directions:

1. Sift together the flour, salt, baking powder, xanthan gum, and powdered sugar and set aside.
2. Beat the 2 eggs. Add the milk, water, and vanilla and beat.
3. Make a well in the dry ingredients, and add the egg mixture. Mix together, but don't worry if there are small lumps in the batter.
4. In a small frying pan (mine is about 7", but you can use even a smaller one) heat a bit of oil or butter.
5. Add about 3 or 4 Tbs of batter, and swirl it around so it covers the bottom of the pan.
6. Cook over medium heat until the bottom is lightly browned, and carefully flip over. The second side usually cooks more quickly than the first side - so watch it carefully.
7. Enjoy with your favorite topping!

Gluten-free Blueberry Pancakes

For when you're not in a rush! Every now and then there is that morning where you can actually slow down and have a relaxing breakfast. What a treat! Here's my favorite recipe for gluten-free pancakes. I don't know if it's because I haven't had a regular pancake in a looonng time, but these don't taste gluten-free to me. They taste like ...well.... pancakes. They are light and fluffy. I happen to have a lot of frozen blueberries at the moment because I stocked up when they were at their peak and the price was low - so they were perfect for these pancakes. I added them still frozen - no need to thaw. You can add any fruit, or anything else you want to the batter (I didn't say it, but you know I'm thinking chocolate chips :-).

I have an electric griddle that I like to use for pancakes. (Did you hear the one about the 500 mini-crumpets I made on this griddle....?? LOL). You can use a frying pan and make one at a time, but griddles are nice because you can make a bunch together. Here are two of the three I made at one time.



With pancakes, you want to cook the first side until the batter starts to bubble before you flip them. Call me crazy, but there's something very satisfying about flipping a pancake :-)



What's a good pancake stack size to you? 2? 3? More????



These really were good!



And I must have been really really hungry!



Oy....



You can use all White Rice flour or all Brown Rice flour, or combine the two to equal 1 cup. I also sometimes use half Buckwheat flour, and/or add ground Flax Seed (superfood!) for additional nutrition and fiber. I made 9 large pancakes from this batter. Needless to say, I froze the rest for another day. Honest, I did!!

Gluten-free Blueberry Pancakes

Ingredients:

• 1 cup Rice Flour (brown and/or white/or half buckwheat)
• 3 Tbs. Tapioca Starch/flour
• 1/3 cup Potato Starch
• 1/4 tsp. NuStevia powder (or 1 Splenda packet), optional
• 1 tsp. Baking Soda
• 1 1/2 tsp. Baking Powder
• 2-4 Tbs. Ground Flax Seed (optional)
• 1/2 tsp. Salt
• 1/2 tsp. Xanthan Gum
• 4 Tbs. Buttermilk Powder (*see note)
• 2 Eggs, lightly beaten
• 1/2 tsp. Vanilla
• 1 1/2-2 cups Water, approximately (I sometimes use half milk/half water; use the lesser amount if you like a thicker pancake)
• 3 Tbs. Canola Oil (I sometimes use melted butter)
• 1 cup blueberries, frozen or fresh

*Note: if you don't have buttermilk powder, you can leave it out, or use milk instead of water. You can even add a little lemon juice to the milk to give it a little tang if you want to.

Directions:
If you're using an electric griddle, preheat it to about 350 degrees. Otherwise, heat your frying pan or gas griddle as you normally do. I usually add a little butter.

1. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
2. Add the water, vanilla, eggs, and oil and beat just until blended. A few lumps are OK.
3. Pour onto hot pan. When they start to form bubbles, flip and cook the other side until golden brown.
4. Serve them up with your favorite toppings!

Tip: To get an 'even' spread of blueberries in your pancakes, instead of adding them to the batter, drop them one by one onto each pancake after you pour them on the griddle. This also keeps them from breaking up in the batter and turning the batter blue :-)

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