Ricotta Filled Buckwheat Pancakes w/Fig Relish

I do not think that The Nudge has ever had a blintz, of any kind. I don't even think he's had a dessert filled with ricotta either. I have had both and I like both.

When I saw a recipe for Buckwheat Blintzes with Fig Relish I decided to give it a try.
While not the most healthiest dessert recipe, it was up there on the ladder.

Buckwheat is wonderful for diabetics, along with ricotta and figs. As long as you used the Splenda No Calorie + the Splenda Brown Sugar it got even healthier.

I was having trouble getting the right consistency on the crepes. Recipe called for buckwheat pancake mix and I just think that it was either too think or too tender.
After I added another egg, I had more success and managed to get 10 good crepes.

I used only a 1 tbls cookie scoop of filling in each one, but the corners still split. Bad thing about that is the ricotta, upon heating, gets runny and some leaked into the frying pan.

6 ended up good enough to eat and after taking a forkful each, we both decided that the buckwheat overpowered the mild ricotta and needed extra cream something, so I whipped some heavy cream.

After folding the crepes, you fry them in butter, yes both sides.

Can you see the edges in this pic? The fig relish was very good and would make that again with goat cheese or cheddar crostini's. I could not find my chopped walnuts so I had to omit them.

They looked good, tasted fine but it needed some mascarpone or cream cheese mixed in with the ricotta, just to give it more denseness. If I did these again I would actually roll the crepes up with the fig relish inside and place a dollop of the flavored ricotta on top. Now that would be a good dessert.

Ricotta Filled Buckwheat Blintz with Fig Relish
as written, serves 6
adapted from food52.com

Buckwheat Crepes:
* 1 1/2 cup buckwheat pancake mix (I use Hodgson Mill)
* 2 egg
* 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
* 3 3/4 cups milk

1. In a blender, combine pancake mix, egg, oil and milk. Blend until mixed and let sit in the refrigerator overnight.
2. Heat 1 teaspoon of butter in a 10 inch nonstick skillet over medium heat. Pour in 1/3 cup of batter, swirl pan, and let cook for 4 minutes. You’ll know when its time to flip when the flaky bits on the very edge of the pan where the batter just barely covered the pan start to lift up and peel away – this is what you can grab with your fingers for flipping. Gently pick up the crepe, flip over, and cook for 1 more minute. Set aside. If crepes start to stick to the pan as you go on, add a little pencil eraser size piece of butter and smush it around the pan with a rubber spatula.

Filling and Relish:
* 1 1/2 cup ricotta
* 3/4 teaspoons cinnamon
* 1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
* 2 tablespoons sugar
* 1/2 cup orange juice
* 8 calmyrna figs, cut into eighths
* 3 sprigs thyme, leaves removed and chopped
* 1/3 cup honey
* 1/4 cup toasted walnuts, roughly chopped

1. In a small covered saucepan, gently simmer the figs, orange juice, 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon, and thyme for 20 minutes.
2. While figs are cooking, mix ricotta, 1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, nutmeg and sugar.
3. Lay one crepe on a work surface. Place two tablespoons of ricotta filling in a long rectangle shape in the middle of the crepe. Fold top and bottom over, then fold sides in. Do this with all crepes, and set them aside.
4. Heat 1 teaspoon of butter in a nonstick skillet over medium heat. In batches, add blintzes and cook about 2 or 3 minutes on each side, until a little brown and warm, adding more butter if necessary.
5. While blintzes are frying, add honey to fig pan, bring to a boil and boil until starts to get very bubbly. Turn off heat and stir in walnuts. Serve blintzes with a little bit of fig relish on top.