We have a peach tree and are thus up to our noses in peaches right now. If your husband brought home too many blueberries, or you woke from a fugue state with a giant bowl of nectarines, those will work well for this, too.
Crepes
- ½ cup (114 g) water
- 1 cup (227 g) milk
- 4 eggs
- 4 Tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, melted
- 1 cup (120 g) all-purpose flour
- 2 Tablespoons sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
Filling
- 1¼ cups (284 g) ricotta cheese
- 4 ounces (1/2 package) cream cheese
- ¼ cup (28 g) powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract or paste
- Zest of 1 lemon
- ¼ cup (the other 1/2 stick) butter
Butter for frying
Topping
(The amounts for this stage of the recipe are maddeningly vague, because even you don’t know how sweet, or juicy, or whatever your fruit is. You’ll just have to taste as you go along.)
- Zest of another lemon
- Several large peaches, or a couple cups of berries, or other fruit you have too much of
- A pinch of salt
- An undetermined amount of honey – I like hot honey. Start with two or three tablespoons.
Put all the crepe ingredients, in the order they are listed in, in a blender. All crepe recipes are fairly insistent about this. I suspect that if you started with the flour on the bottom of the pile of ingredients, things would get gummy and you’d have a layer of glue, which might break up into glue nuggets when you blend it. Alternatively, it might open a portal allowing the ghost of Julia Child through to give you a thorough talking-to. I wouldn’t mind that so much, but it might be Auguste Escoffier or Anthony Bourdain, either of whom would probably be super-grumpy.
Blend the crepe batter until it is smooth. Leave it to rest for 20 minutes, or longer in the refrigerator.
Mix the ingredients for the filling with your electric mixer, one at a time. Unlike the crepe batter, this filling will not throw a princessy hissy fit about the order. I’d suggest starting with the hardest ingredient, which is probably the butter you forgot to take out of the refrigerator. Chill in the refrigerator for an hour.
Add the ingredients for your fruit topping to a saucepan. If you need to peel or pit the fruit, please do so. Cook over medium heat until the fruit softens and makes a syrup. Add honey a little bit at a time until the filling is as sweet as you want it.
Melt a tablespoon or so of butter in a non-stick pan, then make your crepes. You will only need to use melted butter for this first one. (If you haven’t made crepes before, take comfort from the fact that the first one is always wonky for everyone. You’ll figure this out.) Remember to flip the crepe and cook both sides.
Fill each crepe with the cheese mixture, then roll them up and serve them warm, with the fruit topping. If you want to be extra fancy, they go well with sparkling wine.
Featured photo. Photo by John Fladd.