Cooking With the Season: Spicing Up Your Telluride Farmer’s Market Meals #2

26 Jul Cooking With the Season: Spicing Up Your Telluride Farmer’s Market Meals #2

Learn How to Make Blueberry Brandy Crepes With Peaks’ Chef Lynn Tilyou

by Emily Brendler Shoff

The new brunch at the Peaks Resort is one of the best-kept secrets in town. Andy and I went up there last Sunday and were blown away. Once glance at the menu made us wish that we had gone mountain biking before brunch. How do you honestly decide between a poached egg with a root beer barbeque beef hash or a bacon waffle topped with duck confit and apple cider syrup? We couldn’t and so ordered both.  

We also ordered squash blossoms stuffed with goat cheese and an heirloom tomato and watermelon salad to start. Everything was as visually appealing as the backdrop view of Palmyra Peak from the deck. But as we know, the views of our mountain scenery are just the start; it’s what inside that matters. Everything Chef Lynn Tilyou concocted in her kitchen that morning was equally outstanding, a perfect balance of salty and sweet.

This is not a surprise given Tilyou’s background. She was classically trained as a French chef and has cooked for over twenty years in various restaurants up and down the East Coast. “I like to take something traditional and put a spin on it,” Tilyou told as we sipped a cucumber infused vodka lemonade (the drinks at this place are another thing to write home about).

Given the tastes we had of her brunch Sunday, I’d say she’s succeeded. Check out the video at the bottom of the recipe and learn how to make her outstanding Blueberry Brandy Crepes.

Blueberry Brandy Crepes with Orange Cream Cheese Filling

Crepes
Serves 6

1 cup flour
1 T sugar
½ t salt
1 dash nutmeg
1 egg
12/3 cups milk
1 T butter, browned

Place the dry ingredients in a bowl. Combine egg and milk together and slowly stir into flour mixture. Brown the butter in a non-stick pan and stir into batter. Place 1 ½ ounce of batter into a warm non-stick small pan coated w/ pan spray and spread evenly over pan. Crepe should be thin. Cook over medium heat until the edges turn light brown in color, and the center is dry. Set crepes out to cool.

Cream Cheese Filling

1 lb cream cheese (softened)
2/3 cup powdered sugar
2/3 T vanilla bean paste (vanilla extract is fine)
1 orange, zested and juiced
2 egg yolks
1 egg

Beat together and set aside.

Blueberry Brandy Sauce

½ pint blueberries (or other market fruits)
½ cup orange juice
1/3 cup sugar
½ t vanilla bean paste (vanilla extract is fine)
½ t orange zest
½ cinnamon stick
1 star anise
1/8 cup brandy
cornstarch
water

Combine all the ingredients and bring to a boil. Thicken with cornstarch until gravy consistency.

Place 2 tablespoons of cream cheese filling into each crepe. Roll them like tacos and place in a pan. (9-inch cake pan works well.) Bake at 350° for about 5 minutes until the filling has set. When the crepes are finished baking, drizzle with blueberry brandy sauce. Serve warm. Yum.