Crepes Vs. Blinnas, An Easter Showdown

My family's new Easter tradition is very nontraditional. We forgo the big Easter dinner and do an Easter brunch instead. We skip the ham, asparagus, and potatoes and choose to prepare crepes in their place. We don't limit our day to enjoying our family, but rather we invite everyone we know and love, friends, neighbors, friends of friends, anyone who wants an awesome home cooked meal on Easter. 

Joy of Cooking cookbook older than me

We started this tradition last year when my mom and I were in the mood for a new Easter tradition. Who says you can only spend Easter with your family? We have so many wonderful friends, and we wanted to see if there was any chance they might not have plans or would rather spend their day with us. We were surprised how many people showed up! I guess we weren't the only ones tired of the same ol' Easter dinner. 

Last year we made crepes. A lot of crepes. We also had many other food options to choose from. My mom and I were at the stove all day making crepes to order. Our friends could choose from a sweet crepe or a savory crepe made with their choice of a big selection of ingredients that we sauteed up on the spot while simultaneously cooking the actual crepe itself. Then we assembled and served with a smile.

 Cooking blinna

I am sure you realize how labor intensive this was. As a result, this year we decided to modify our Easter brunch concept a little bit. Instead of cooking the savory crepe filling to order we made one filling ahead of time that we used in all the savory crepes. To keep with the Easter tradition a little, we baked a beautiful ham to use in the filling of the savory crepes. We used my favorite ham recipe of all time, one that always turns out phenomenal! (See the recipe at the end of this post!) We diced the ham, and added it to sauteed onion, garlic and mushroom, wilted spinach, and a store bought pesto sauce. We topped the mixture with a white bachamel sauce and mozzarella cheese. It was a delicious combination!

For our sweet crepe option we cut up a big bowl of fresh strawberries, blueberries and banana. We piled fruit inside a crepe with a dallop of fluffy tapioca cream, and topped the whole thing with whipped cream. It was a very fresh and simple way to make a tasty crepe!

 Bourbon Honey Glazed Ham

Sounds easy enough, right? Well, it gets a little more difficult. My mother is German, and often feels very nostalgic about traditional German recipes that she would watch her German grandmother make when she was a child. One of these such foods is blinnas, or German crepes. The previous year we had prepared solely French crepes, but this year my mom wanted to do both. She just loved the yeast-y flavor that blinnas have. 

Crepe in the foreground, blinna in the background

So there you have it. Our lucky guests were given the option of French or German Crepe, and sweet or savory. Well, needless to say everyone wanted one of each option. So we had to make sure we had enough crepes for everyone to have two. We had made about 40 crepes by the end of the party.

When the guests started arriving my mom and I took our place at our stations. I was the crepe girl. And she was right next to me, the blinna girl. We each had our own pan and our own bowls of batter (about 4 recipes worth of each). On the counter next to us we each had our own chafing dishes where we were to put our crepes in when they were made, to keep them warm before we started serving them. I am proud to say that my first crepe turned out great, but unfortunately I cannot say the same for mom. To her credit, she did have to try out a few pans first because I had the only official "crepe pan" in the house. 

This is where a little friendly competition came in. 1, 2, 3, 4 crepes made, but no successful blinnas.  I began joking to the guests sitting at the eating bar watching us that this was now a contest and the score was now crepes: 4, blinnas: 0. But my mom told them all that she would win in the taste category.  None of our guests had ever had a blinna and surprisingly a few had not even had a crepe before. 

Before long my mom took off to do other things, leaving me in charge of both the crepes and blinnas. Luckily, my cousin's girlfriend stepped in to help. After a while I got so good at making crepes I didn't even have to think about what I was doing anymore. I could socialize, eat, drink and make a crepe all at the same time. Maybe someday I could get a job as a crepe maker at my favorite creperie in Portland, Le Happy...

 Sweet crepe with a banana berry and tapioca filling

Honestly, I don't know if crepes or blinnas won. I do know for a fact that I made a lot more crepes than my mother made blinnas (I really think she stopped at 1), so crepes won in that respect. But in the taste category, blinnas might have won. They are made with yeast and sit overnight. They certainly do have more flavor than crepes, but the real question we need to ask ourselves is: are crepes meant to serve the sole purpose of containing and featuring the great flavors inside, or should the crepes themselves have a distinct flavor of their own? Honestly, I don't know the answer to that, and if I did my answer would probably change depending on what I was putting inside the crepe/blinna. So...what do you think? 

Bourbon Honey Glazed Ham

From Sandra Lee and Food Network

2/3 cup bourbon or whiskey
1 cup clover honey
1/3 cup molasses
1/2 cup 100 percent fruit orange marmalade
Nonstick cooking spray
1 (5-pound) whole bone-in smoked ham, fully cooked, unsliced
1/8 cup whole cloves

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a medium saucepan, heat bourbon, honey, molasses, and marmalade over low heat for 15 minutes or until reduced by half, stirring occasionally. (When measuring honey and molasses, spray measuring cup with nonstick cooking spray to keep measurements accurate.) Set aside.

With a sharp knife, cut a diamond pattern on the fatty part of the ham. Stud whole cloves in each diamond, at points where lines cross. Spread half of the bourbon glaze over the ham and roast for 30 minutes, uncovered. Baste occasionally with remaining glaze and continue to roast for another 15

French Pancakes, aka Crepes

Adapted from The Joy of Cooking

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon double-acting baking powder

2 tablespoons powdered sugar

2 eggs

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup water

1/2 teaspoon vanilla or 1/2 teaspoon grated lemon rind

Combine and sift the dry ingredients. Make a well in the sifted ingredients. Mix the liquid ingredients and pour into the well of the dry ingredients. Combine them with a few swift strokes. Ignore the lumps; they will take care of themselves. Heat a 5-inch skillet. Grease it with a few drops of oil. Add a small quantity of batter. Tip the skillet and let the batter spread over the bottom. Cook the pancake over moderate heat. When it is brown underneath, reverse it and brown the other side.

**Note from Kami: I found that using a non-stick skillet it was fine not using oil between each crepe. They turned out better when I stopped adding oil each time. 

**Second note: After trying a few crepes I found that the batter was too thick. Don't be afraid to add more milk until the batter is an easy consistency to work with.

German Pancakes, aka Blinnas

3 cups flour

1 tsp salt

2 tbsp sugar

1 pkg dry yeast dissolved in 1 cup luke warm water

2 1/2 cups scalded milk, cooled

1 tsp baking soda

1/3 cup melted butter

3 eggs, beaten

Make a soft sponge by combining the flour, salt, sugar, yeast, and 2 cups of flour, let set over night. In the morning scald 1/2 cup milk, add 1 tsp. baking soda to milk, 1/3 cup melted butter, 3 eggs beaten, add to batter.

Bake in hot skilled, brushed lightly with shortening each blinna the first time, or oftener if blinna stick. Brush with hot melted butter.

**Note from Kami: After trying a few blinnas I found that the batter was too thick. Don't be afraid to add more milk until the batter is an easy consistency to work with. 

Fluffy Tapioca Cream 

Adapted from the back of a Minute Tapioca Box :) 

1 egg, separated

6 Tbsp.  sugar, divided

3 Tbsp. MINUTE Tapioca

2 cups  2% reduced fat milk

1 tsp. vanilla 

Juice and rind of 1/2 a lemon

Beat egg white in small bowl with electric mixer on high speed until foamy. Gradually add 3 Tbsp. sugar, beating until soft peaks form.

Mix tapioca, remaining sugar, milk and egg yolk in medium saucepan. Let stand 5 minutes.

Cook on medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to full boil. Remove from heat. Quickly stir egg white mixture into hot tapioca in saucepan until well blended. Stir in vanilla. Cool 20 minutes; stir. Serve warm or chilled. For creamier pudding, place plastic wrap on surface of pudding while cooling. Stir before serving. Store leftover pudding in refrigerator.

Bechamel Sauce 

From Mastering the Art of French Cooking

2 Tbsp butter

3 Tbsp flour

2 cups of milk and 1/4 tsp salt heated to a boil 

Salt and pepper to taste 

In a saucepan melt the butter over low heat. Blend in the flour,  and cook slowly, stirring, until the butter and flour froth together for 2 minutes without coloring. This is now a white roux. 

Remove roux from heat. As soon as roux has stopped bubbling, pour in all the hot liquid at once. Immediately beat vigorously with a wire whisk to blend liquid and roux, gathering in all bits of roux from the inside edges of the pan. 

Set saucepan over moderately high heat and stir with the wire whisk until the sauce comes to the boil. Boil for 1 minute, stirring. 

Remove from heat, and beat in salt and pepper to taste.