October 21, 2010

For the bookworm...

Crêpes are thin pancakes.

They belong to the pastry- breads category. They are made by cooking a thin batter sparingly in a very thin layer. Crêpes are cooked in a frying pan or a special Crêpes pan. The batter is usually prepared in advance, and left to rest so that the flour swells and any air bubbles created during preparation have time to dissipate. After standing a little liquid can be added if batter has become too thick. This ‘Standing & Thinning’ Procedure ensure the batter doesn’t rise, and is instead cooked into a perfect even thin layer.

Crêpes are usually made using Wheat or Buckwheat flour. Liquids are usually water, milk or beer. Just bear in mind that beer makes Crêpes rise slightly. Also the use of eggs, lends itself to the liquefying process. As a general rule, Crêpes batter must always be of pouring consistency. They are usually fried in oil or butter, and can be made either savoury or sweet.

A crêpe Suzette is a sweet crêpe flavoured with tangerine and coated with a tangerine-flavoured sauce. The sauce is used to mask the Crêpes and is made using tangerine juice and Curaçao in addition to melted butter & sugar.

Ingredients

For the Batter

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3 eggs
1 cup milk
a pinch salt
Juice of 1 tangerine
1 tbsp Curaçao
2 tbsp oil
1 tsp vanilla extract

For Tangerine Butter

1/4 cup butter, melted
Juice and zest of 1 tangerine
1 tbsp Curaçao
4 tbsp caster sugar

Make the batter

Mix the dry ingredients in a bowl and make a well in the middle.

In a separate bowl, mix all the wet ingredients well together. Add the wet ingredients into the well you created in the centre of the dry mixture. Mix all to a thin batter, let stand at room temperature for 2 hours.

Make the tangerine butter

Separately, mix all ingredients well together to create tangerine butter. Set aside until ready to use.

Start by making the crepes.

Grease a heavy-based frying pan and heating it. Remove the pan from the heat add a ladle of the batter. Lift and tilt your pan to spread the batter into a thin layer. Return the pan to the heat and brown on 1 side only. (you can use specialised crepe machine and spread the batter using the crepe scraper)

To Assemble the Crêpes Suzette

Coat your crêpes with the tangerine butter and fold them in 4 (they will look like a triangle). Return them to the pan to reheat them (you can – if you like – refry folded crêpes in a little bit of Tangerine butter).

For the Flambé Suzettes

Use 1 0z Cointreau.

Add the alcohol to the folds when you are re frying them. To add the alcohol, carefully pour it to the side of the pan, and never the middle in case it lights up, then you can simply move your hand away. Let the alcohol warm up for a couple of seconds, then light using a long lighter or by tipping it ever so slightly to the side for the alcohol catches fire. Watch the video above to learn how to flambe.

Once the alcohol had evaporated it should go off on its own.

Place the overlapping crepes on a warmed plate and serve.