French Pancakes Filled with Apricot Marmalade or Cottage Cheese

 It’s the first Sunday of the month, so that means it’s recipe day!

Here’s the original recipe as published by the Fred Harvey Company:

Mix well two eggs, one-half cup cream, one tablespoon flour, one teaspoon of sugar, vanilla extract to taste and a pinch of salt, place small amount of dough in a hot buttered skillet and brown on both sides. Fill with marmalade or cottage cheese, roll and sprinkle lightly with sugar. Cottage cheese filling: Four ounces of dry cottage cheese pressed through a sieve and mixed with the yolk of one egg, one tablespoon sugar, a pinch of salt, a little grated lemon and vanilla. Work to a smooth paste and spread over pancakes.

This recipe, as you can see, doesn’t need much updating for today’s kitchens, although some might prefer to reduce the fat content and calories. The real trick to this recipe is flipping those flippin’ crepes!

I made these with blackberry jam for the filling, because we had it and because we had fresh blackberries. I haven’t seen apricot marmalade anywhere, and I forgot to buy the cottage cheese. My husband has put in an order for that for next Sunday.

French pancakes

Makes about 10 pancakes; enough for 2 adults for breakfast along with sausage, bacon or other breakfast meats or scrambled eggs

2 eggs

1/2 c. cream, 1/2 and 1/2, or milk

1 tablespoon flour

1 teaspoon sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Pinch of salt

Apricot marmalade or your favorite jam, jelly, or preserves (including sugar-free) or Cottage cheese filling (recipe follows)

Powdered sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon sugar

Preheat oven to very low (170-200 degrees). Set a baking sheet covered with aluminum foil on a rack in the center of the oven.

Whisk all ingredients together in a medium sized bowl or whirl all in a blender until smooth.

Make the cottage cheese filling, if using.

Heat an 8-inch skillet (non-stick if you have it). Melt a small amount of butter in skillet (1/4 teaspoon or so). Pour in 2 tablespoons of batter and swirl around to coat the bottom of the skillet. Cook until the steaming stops (about 2 minutes or so), batter is set, and bottom and edges are lightly browned. Don’t rush this part.

Flip pancake very carefully -- they are thin and tear easily, but still taste just as good -- and brown the other side. I found that if I gently lifted one edge with my fingers, I could carefully slide the turner under the pancake enough to flip it.

Loosen and turn out onto a plate. (Alternately, do as the French do and, once the first side is browned, just slide it onto a plate, “raw” side up.)

Start the next pancake and, while it is cooking, spread a rounded teaspoon of filling of choice over pancake and roll up. Place on baking sheet in oven to keep warm while repeating steps until all batter is used.

Remove filled pancakes from oven, place on serving plates, sprinkle with sugar of choice and serve.

Cottage cheese filling

1/2 cup cottage cheese or ricotta (add 2 tablespoons cream cheese for an especially rich filling)

1 egg yolk

1 tablespoon sugar

Grated zest of half a lemon

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Pinch of salt

Puree all in a food processor or blender until smooth.