Wednesday, September 30, 2009

BakeSpace International Taste Tour.....Caramelized Maple Cinnamon Apple Crepes


WooHoo—time for another BakeSpace International Taste Tour. This month I am excited to be making crepes!


I first fell in love with crepes when I was in high school. I was a member of the French club and we had the opportunity to take a trip to Montreal and Quebec with my French teacher (Monsieur Hoeft, who was awesome!). Of course, one of our restaurant meals was at a crepe restaurant (a creperie, if you will) and it was fabulous! Later, when I was in college, I was able to spend a semester in France and got to experience the wonder of crepe stands, set up like hot dog vendors, right on the streets of Paris! Nutella, banana, butter and sugar….oh, and the savory, cheesy crepes….I had stains on my trench coat that never came out. When I came back to the states, the crepe mania must have followed me, because suddenly there was a restaurant in Milwaukee, called The Magic Pan. Ooh La La! My favorite was the Chantilly Crepe with apricot jam and bananas and whipped cream. Oh—and the spinach crepe filled with, I believe, Stouffer’s spinach soufflĂ©. I was quite upset when they were all closed down….but, now…I can make my own crepes!

I do like savory crepes, but the sweet ones are my favorite, so I chose an apple crepe this time around. I used a basic Martha Stewart recipe for the crepes, only changing it a bit since I can’t leave anything alone.

Basic Crepes

1 ¾ cups all purpose flour
½ teaspoon coarse salt
2 tablespoons sugar (I added this, since it was a sweet crepe and the sugar helps the crepe to brown)
2 cups whole milk, room temperature, plus more if needed
3 large eggs, room temperature
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, plus more for skillet

Put the flour, salt and sugar in a blender and mix until blended (have I mentioned how much I love the KitchenAid blender I won from BakeSpace.com a few months ago?).


Add the milk, eggs, and melted butter and blend until smooth. Mixture should have the consistency of heavy cream; add more milk if needed.

Heat an 8 inch nonstick skillet over medium heat, and brush with butter. Ladle or pour 3 tablespoons of batter into pan, turning and tilting skillet to coat bottom evenly with batter. Cook until top of crepe appears set, bottom is firm and golden brown in spots, and center is lifted by pockets of air, about 1 minute.

Run a spatula around edge of crepe to loosen. Slip spatula under crepe, and gently flip in one swift gesture. (If it doesn’t land quite right, that’s okay; use spatula to unfold or rearrange it.) Cook until bottom is firm and golden brown in spots, about 45 seconds.

 Transfer to a plate, and cover. (The first one will not be your finest…mine looked anemic.) Repeat with remaining batter, brushing pan lightly with butter as needed (every 2 or 3 crepes).

For the filling, I did what I do best, I winged it.


Caramelized Maple Cinnamon Apples

2 tart baking apples (I used Zestar), peeled, cored and sliced
¼ cup unsalted butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons maple syrup (use the real stuff)
½ teaspoon cinnamon

Over medium heat, melt butter in 10” skillet. Add the apples, brown sugar, maple syrup, and cinnamon. Stir until the butter and sugar is melted and smooth and begins to bubble. Reduce heat and simmer for about 20 minutes or until thickened.









To serve crepes, spoon some of the apple mixture in the middle of a crepe. Fold over the ends, top with whipped cream and sprinkle with toasted pecans if desired.



Alternately, fold over a crepe, and then fold again into a triangle and add to the warm apple mixture in the pan. Turn over to completely cover in sauce, place on a plate and spoon some apples over the top.



Enjoy!


8 comments:

  1. Ok, the one in the pan? swimming in syrup...that's my fav...I'm just sayin'....

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  2. OMG... I think I just died and went to heaven!!!! I cannot wait to try this when I get back to Portland and have access to Gravenstein apples again... YUM-O-RAMA!!!

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  3. OMG....your crepes look so good....I think I may be drooling on my keyboard. I'm definitely going to make these.

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  4. I thought I had commented on this one, yesterday :(
    they look gorgeous. Love that syrup, and apples are always my favourite. So yummy

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  5. Wow! These are beautiful! I need to bake something! I don't know what to do first!

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  6. My four year old daughter loved these! She said they were yummy and to "definitely make this again sometime soon". Now that's a really big complement because she's a really picky eater...

    Thanks!

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