Baked Ricotta and Lemon Crêpes (Gratinirane skutine palačinke)

Pancakes go back a long way- roughly 30,000 years back, based on analyses of starch grains on grinding tools. But back then they must have tasted very differently, as stone age cooks used flour that was made out of cattails and ferns. Pancakes were even found in the stomach of Ötzi the Iceman who lived more than 5,000 years ago! 

The first written record of a pancake is due to the ancient Greeks - it is a fragment from a comedy from around 500 BC written by Cranus. He writes And a pancake hot and shedding morning dew. The context for these lines is not known, but he was probably referring to Tiganites, pancakes of wheat flour, olive oil, curdled milk that are served sweetened with honey.

Pancakes have arrived in Slovenia by the way of neighboring Austria and Hungary. They are usually much thinner than, say, American style pancakes, which is why I refer to them here as crêpes. Baked crêpes with farmer's cheese filling are often served as a main course in Slovenia along with soup as an appetizer.

There is a version of this recipe that is traditional in Ljubljana - it is similar to the recipe here, but raisins and lemon zest should be skipped, and instead one bunch of tarragon (20 g) used in the filling.

Bogataj, Janez.  Taste Slovenia. Ljubljana: Rokus Gifts & National Geographic, 2007.

Hot off the Griddle, Here’s the History of Pancakes , National Geographic

Recipe

Ingredients:

Crêpe Batter:

• 2 eggs

• 400 ml milk

• 15 g sugar

• 1 tbsp oil

• 250 g flour

• 50 ml mineral water

• pinch of salt

Filling:

• 750 g farmer's cheese or ricotta

• zest of one and a half lemon

• 60 g sugar

• 1 egg

• 25 ml spiced rum

• 50 g raisins

• 2 tsp vanilla essence

Topping:

• 150g sour cream or crème fraîche

• 50 g heavy cream

• zest of half a lemon

• 15 g sugar

• 1 egg

• 1 tsp vanilla essence

Instructions:

Crêpes

1. Mix all the ingredients for the crêpes except the mineral water.

2. Once the mixture is uniform, slowly add the mineral water.

3. Let the batter rest for 30 minutes in the fridge.

4. Butter a 20 cm skillet and put on medium heat.

5. Pour one ladle of batter into the center of the hot and buttered skillet. Lift the pan up and twirl it so the batter stretches as far out as it can go.

6. Once the bottom side is set (after about 2 minutes), turn the crêpe around and cook on the other side for about 30 seconds.

7. Transfer the cooked crêpe to a warmed up plate and repeat with the remaining batter.

Filling and Topping

1. Soak 50 g of raising in 100 ml of rum for at least 10 minutes (the longer, the better).

2. Mix the rest of the filling ingredients.

3. For the topping, mix all the ingredients.

Preparing crêpes for baking

1. Butter a rectangular 35x24 cm baking pan and set the oven to 180 (355 F).

2. Add a few tablespoons of filling to the center of each crêpe, spread it, and then roll up the crêpe. Put the crêpe into a baking pan.

3. Pour the topping over the crêpes.

4. Bake for 45 minutes, cut into slices, and serve sprinkled with vanilla sugar.