Western-Style Crepes with Fillings and Toppings

8 cups of water
6 cups of flour low glutin flour
1 tablespoon salt
2 tablespoons sugar
add later: 6 eggs and oil

The Crepes:  Start with a large bowl, put in 8 cups of water, heat to slightly above luke warm, add 1 tablespoon of salt, stir in 6 cups of low-gluten flour, add 1 heaping tablespoon of active dry yeast, cover, and place on an even larger plate or bowl in an out of the way corner of the kitchen.  Let the mix rise and fall back--will take 3 to four hours, stir with a whip every hour or so. (Now, if you did indeed add the salt, you can get away with just two inches of free-space between the top of the mix and the top of the bowl.  If you forgot the salt, you need twice the depth of the liquid, as it will double in volume before falling back.  That's why you place it on an even larger bowl, so that when you do forget, you don't have to clean the resulting mess off the counter top, the cabinet fronts, and the floor.)  Put in refrigerator.

When it is time to make the crepes, beat the eggs in a bowl, add as much oil as you think it will need to prevent sticking--depends on your griddle--to the eggs, then add the eggs and oil to the batter.  

To bake:  using a 1/2 cup ladle, put 1 full ladle plus a little more onto the hot, oiled griddle.  I use a 11-inch griddle, so the crepe is probably 8-9 inches in diameter.  I cook the first side till there is only a 1-2 inch puddle in the middle.  Turn it over, and bake long enough to make it easy to get up.  Transfer to a plate, spoon on some filling, and roll up.  Place on the dinner plate that is in a warm oven.  Have topping at the table.  Two filled and topped crepes are enough for a light dinner.

The Filling:  I have done a lot of experimenting with the filling.  Straight yogurt is too loose.  I then added dry curd cheese.  Too bland.  I then noticed a product called Quark, which is pressed yoghurt.  It is thicker than plain yoghurt.  Quark and diy curd cheese was too stiff.  I thinned it with yoghurt.  That worked with respect to spooning the filling onto the crepe.  But it was still bland.  Since I was serving it with a fruit topping, I thinned the Quark and dry curd mixture with 1 small licquor glass of Triple Sec.  That was gooood.  No impression of filling-blandness while eating the crepe. ( I suppose the extra half glass of Triple Sec for the cook didn't hurt, either.)

Portions:  4 heaping tablespoons of dry curd cheese and 4 heaping tablespoons of Quark, and 1 small liquor glass of Triple Sec are enough filling for four crepes.

There was still a problem in all this for me.  I am cooking every other day.  A 16-ounce container of dry curd cheese lasts between 3 and 4 meals.  Once or twice, I made it through a container, but most were moldy by the third meal.  Once it was moldy at the first serving.  Bummer!  Definitely not a reliable product.  I wanted something else--the name gorgonzola popped into my head.   That proved to be not just gooood, but Wonderful!  But it is pricey at Tops.  I found that Trader Joe had Gorgonzola bella giacosa, or something like that, at about half the price.  And when that wasn't available, there was a crumbled blue cheese that was even more convenient.  Again, four heaping tablespoons of crumbled blue and four of Quark make a stiff mixture--but the orange flavor is completely lost in the blue cheese flavor, so I loosen it with plain yoghurt.  

The Topping:  The best, all-time, superlative topping/sauce that I have found is the Highbush Cranberry Ketchup that I make from the bushes I planted.  However, it is a lot of work, and I neglected to make more after the second year.  So I haven't had any for the blue cheese filling.  I first found an Apricot/Apple sauce at Trader Joe.  But they have several others.  I like the Mango sauce best, followed by apple-raspberry.  But, to me, they are all substitutes for the true ambrosia of Highbush Cranberry Ketchup.  I will make a couple of batches this summer, but you will have to fend for yourselves.