Cote d' Ivoire, we have to skip you for now - Croatia here we come

So we should be in Cote d' Ivoire (Ivory Coast) for our next trip, unfortunately we couldn't find any plantains that were ripe enough to make their pancakes.  We did buy some in the hopes that they will be ripe enough for us to use in our next trip.  For now we decided to skip Cote d' Ivoire and head to Eastern Europe, where we discovered Croatian palachinke.

If you've followed our blog since the beginning, you might recall that we had palachinke in Albania as well.  Croatian palachinke are similar in some ways to those in Albania in that they are crepes with cheese in them; however, the final step in preparing them makes them very different.  In the final step, you bake the crepes; and these end up being much more like a blintz than a crepe. 

Here we go on our Croatian palachinke journey.  You'll need the following to make your palachinke:

For the crepes
1 1/2 cups of all purpose flour
2 cups of milk
2 eggs
pinch of salt
1 tablespoon of butter, melted

For the filling
2 cups of cottage cheese
3 eggs, yolks separated from the whites (keep both, as you will use both)
2/3 cup of sugar

For the topping
2/3 cup sour cream
Any left over filling
Powdered sugar, if desired

Begin by making the crepes.  Whisk together the first 4 ingredients in a bowl.

After they are thoroughly combined, mix in the melted butter.  I always try to mix the melted butter last if possible so that I can avoid cooking the eggs in the batter. 

Once everything is combined, you're ready to make the palacinke.  Heat up your crepe pan and lightly oil it with your favorite oil.  The original recipe used butter, but I hate having to wipe the pan after every time, so I used olive oil instead.  Once your crepe pan and oil is heated, ladle batter into the pan and swirl in the usual manner.

Cook until the palacinke is dry, you can see in the above picture it's not quite finished cooking yet.  Once dry, flip and cook briefly on the other side.  Keep palacinke warm under a towel or in an oven.  You can also use what I refer to as our potato steamer because I use it to steam potatoes in the microwave oven.  However, I'm sure that's not the official name for the device.

Continue cooking until all of the batter is used up.  You will probably get 6-8 palacinke from this recipe.

Once you're finished using up the batter, you're ready to make the filling.  First preheat the oven to 375 degrees.  Next separate the egg yolks from the whites, making sure to keep both.

After separating the eggs, use an electric hand mixer to beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form.

Set the egg whites aside, and whisk together the yolks and sugar.

Now add the cottage cheese and lemon zest to the sugar and egg yolk mixture and stir until combined.

Finally, gently fold in the egg whites.

Once everything is combined, take one palacinke and add 1-2 tablespoons of filling to the middle and spread it around.

Next, roll the palacinke and place it in a 9x13 baking dish.

Continue this process until the baking dish is full.  We were able to fit 5 in the baking dish.  You will have extra filling left over.  Don't worry, we'll be using this all up in a moment.

After you are finished rolling all of your palacinke, measure out your sour cream and mix it into the left over filling.

Spread the sour cream/filling mixture evenly over the palacinke, making sure to cover everything and let it drip down in the corners around the palacinke.

Now place it in the oven and bake for 25-30 minutes.  The top should look dry.

Here's a view from the side.

These were so rich and yummy, we found that half of one was plenty!  Just look at all of the custardy goodness!  Mmmmmmmm!