Too Much of a Good Thing?

Never!

My son like crêpes. He really likes crêpes. I'm could probably fill one with brussel sprouts and he'd gobble it up. Well, maybe that's going a bit too far. He likes them for breakfast the most. His favourite thing to have on them are 'lemon' juice and sugar. I find this a little boring and have made a really lovely filling that would work for breakfast or dessert and there are a few more things you could do for non-failsafe family members or guests who join you for brunch.

We had these crêpes on the weekend just gone. It was the long weekend, so theoretically we had unlimited time to spend making breakfast. Batter was made, batter was resting, filling was gently simmering on the stove, I started to cook the crêpes and suddenly everything stopped. We had run out of gas! That has never happened before. We are not connected to town gas, but have two enormous cylinders that are solely for the cook top. They do nothing else and last forever. We have been here nearly six years and have only needed one replaced in all that time. But alas, we were out of gas.

Out comes the trusty old electric frypan that I haven't used in years and almost threw away recently. Thank goodness I didn't because we won't have gas until Wednesday. It took ages to cook the crêpes one at a time on that thing and the filling was finished off in the microwave.

This is the same basic crêpe recipe that I have posted previously.

Basic Crêpe Recipe

Ingredients

• 250g plain gluten free flour
• pinch of salt
• 1tsp sugar
• 2 eggs lightly beaten
• 410ml (1 2/3cup) milk of choice - I used rice milk
• 125ml (1/2cup) water
• 1tbsp melted nuttelex
• Failsafe oil for frying.

Method

1. Sift flour, sugar and salt into a bowl and make a well in the centre.
2. Mix the eggs, milk and water together and pour slowly into the well.
3. Whisk until everything is incorporated and you have a reasonably smooth batter.
4. Stir in melted nuttelex. Cover and stand for at least 20mins.
5. Heat a crêpe pan or medium sized non-stick frying pan over a medium heat. Wipe or spray with a little oil. 
6. Pour in enough batter to thinly coat the base of the pan (a soup ladle was pretty spot on for my pan), tipping it around to get it to the edges.When the crêpe starts to lift away at the edges give it a gentle shake so it comes loose and turn and cook on the other side for a minute of two. They should be slightly golden.

Stack on a plate (you could put baking paper between them to make sure they don't stick, although mine didn't stick together) and cover with foil until they are all done. They can be frozen with paper between them.


I had previously made this filling on Fathers Day, just so there was something else that my boy could eat, and it was just so good. The smell alone is drool worthy.


Vanilla Pears


Ingredients

• 3 ripe pears, peeled, cored and chopped into smallish pieces (roughly 1cm cubes) or use tinned pears in syrup.
• 1 cup lightly packed brown sugar
• 1 cup of water (or if you use tinned pears you could substitute part of this for some syrup)
• 3cm piece of vanilla bean, split lengthwise.

Method

1. Put sugar, water and vanilla into a saucepan over medium heat
2. Stir until the sugar dissolves and mixture comes to the boil
3. Simmer until the syrup reduces by about a quarter.
4. Add pears and simmer until they are soft.
5. Spoon into crêpes and fold over.

 

Sweet and caramely and fragrant with vanilla

Variations
Have 'lemon' juice and sugar or just pure maple syrup or golden syrup.
Salicylates - Add a small piece of cinnamon stick to the pot. Or fill with fresh strawberries and maple syrup.
Dairy - Serve with big dollops of whipped cream or ice cream
Amines - Place some broken up good quality dark chocolate on half of the crêpe while it is still in the pan. When the chocolate starts to melt fold crêpe into quarters and serve. I have incredibly fond memories of eating crêpes au chocolat noir while wandering around Paris at midnight.

If you are having visitors you could put all the different fillings into bowls on the table and let everyone help themselves.

crêpe au chocolat noir

Strawberries, maple syrup and whipped cream