Crepe cake, or gateau de crepes

et's not talk about how long it's been since I've posted a recipe, OK? (Crazy long, that's how long.) I'm calling "bygones" on the recent past, and have made some new year (post-birthday, anyway) resolutions about doing better in that regard. Remember that old tag line to Sweet Tea&Sunshine? "A little food, a little gratitude." Well, it's been plenty of gratitude, and most food happening offline... time to get back to posting recipes! I've got plenty in my drafts folder, for sure; just need to get my act together and turn pictures and recipes into actual posts. Wish me luck!

What better way to get back into the groove than to post my birthday dessert? Given the fact that it was crowd-sourced and all, right?! It's hard not to be pleased with what gets picked when you're the one putting all the options out in the first place, but I was super-excited to get to make a crepe cake again. Sometimes you just need the excuse to pull out the sugar and flour and eggs, am I right?

I turned to a food blogging professional (Smitten Kitchen) for the recipe, and found it rather different than ones I've used in the past. The crepe batter was quite a bit thinner, which took me a little to get used to but worked out just fine. And the custard was folded into whipped cream, which I don't remember doing in the past... again, turned out wonderfully. It's no surprise that this is definitely a make-again!

Gâteau de Crêpes
New York Times, 5/15/05, who adapted the batter from Joy of Cooking and the pastry cream from Desserts, by Pierre Herme and Dorie Greenspan.

Serves 10. (Smitten Kitchen thinks it serves way more than 10, which I would mostly concur with. I think we ended up with 16 slices, at least...)

For the crepe batter:
6 tablespoons butter
3 cups milk
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
7 tablespoons sugar
Pinch salt

For the vanilla pastry cream:
2 cups milk
1 vanilla bean, halved and scraped
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
3 1/2 tablespoons butter

For assembly:
Corn oil
2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar or more
3 Tbsp Kirsch (didn't use, not fond of the flavor)
Confectioners’ sugar

The day before, make the crepe batter and the pastry cream.

Batter: In a small pan, cook the butter until brown like hazelnuts. Set aside. In another small pan, heat the milk until steaming; allow to cool for 10 minutes. In a mixer on medium-low speed, beat together the eggs, flour, sugar and salt. Slowly add the hot milk and browned butter. Pour into a container with a spout, cover and refrigerate overnight.

Pastry cream: Bring the milk with the vanilla bean (and scrapings) to a boil, then set aside for 10 minutes; remove bean. Fill a large bowl with ice and set aside a small bowl that can hold the finished pastry cream and be placed in this ice bath.

In a medium heavy-bottomed pan, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch. Gradually whisk in the hot milk, then place pan over high heat and bring to a boil, whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 minutes. Press the pastry cream through a fine-meshed sieve into the small bowl. Set the bowl in the ice bath and stir until the temperature reaches 140 degrees on an instant-read thermometer. Stir in the butter. When completely cool, cover and refrigerate.

Assemble the cake the next day: Bring the batter to room temperature. Place a nonstick or seasoned 9-inch crepe pan over medium heat. Swab the surface with the oil, then add about 3 tablespoons batter and swirl to cover the surface. Cook until the bottom just begins to brown, about 1 minute, then carefully lift an edge and flip the crepe with your fingers. Cook on the other side for no longer than 5 seconds. Flip the crepe onto a baking sheet lined with parchment. Repeat until you have 20 perfect crepes.

Pass the pastry cream through a sieve once more (didn't do, worked out fine. I mean, how strained does a custard need to be?). Whip the heavy cream with the tablespoon sugar. It won’t hold peaks. Fold it into the pastry cream.

Lay 1 crepe on a cake plate. Using an icing spatula, completely cover with a thin layer of pastry cream (about 1/4 cup). Cover with a crepe and repeat to make a stack of 20, with the best-looking crepe on top. Chill for at least 2 hours. Set out for 30 minutes before serving. If you have a blowtorch for creme brulee, sprinkle the top crepe with 2 tablespoons sugar and caramelize with the torch; otherwise, dust with confectioners’ sugar (I used creme brulee sugar, see below). Slice like a cake.

I love a good excuse to get out the blowtorch! Husband walked into the kitchen and said, "Have you been taking tools out of the shop?" No, honey, that torch is ALL MINE!

Since so many of my dear friends and readers know of my hazelnut/Nutella love (there was even a jar on our front porch the night of my birthday, thank you sweet Sara), there had been much encouragement toward a Nutella crepe cake... I could have gone there, easily, with some Nutella folded into the custard while it was still warm--I've done that many times and it works wonderfully. But, as strange luck would have it, when I was making the custard, there was no Nutella to be found in my pantry. The horrors!

But I did have a lovely bar of hazelnut chocolate from Laura's recent Europe trip up in my office (where I keep my secret stash, of course!) and I whizzed that up in the food processor with a little hot cream and voila! Hazelnut chocolate sauce... perfect for pouring over and enjoying. The crepe cake itself is not overly sweet. The sauce was WAY sweet, so just a touch went a long way, and it was heaven.

It was indeed the perfect ending to a wonderful birthday day with my guys!





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Valentine's dinner for two: Manicotti

alentine's Day, and what to make for dinner?

Not that long ago I posted a Thursday 13 of recipes I have on my to-do list. And of course, I then got distracted and haven't looked back at the list much in the past couple of weeks, other than the salad dressing recipes and a few ebelskiver omelettes I foisted on Seth last weekend... but when I was pondering what to make my love for Valentine's Day dinner, I knew the homemade manicotti I found on food52 would be a good option.

I culled pieces of the dish from various places. I knew I wanted more than just ricotta in my filling, so I found a spinach ricotta filling at epicurious.com to go along with the crepe recipe from food52. I relied on a jarred marinara and the whole dish came together quite quickly.

The first time I tasted manicotti with a crepe in place of a pasta tube was in 1988 in Sydney, Australia. I was on my own in the city, a squeak of a 19-year-old (well, was I ever a squeak? Maybe not...). I had just landed a studio apartment close to the city center and was gearing up to look for a job waiting tables when I happened upon an Italian restaurant on one of the main thoroughfares downtown. I sat down for dinner and did it up proper--manicotti for my main course and a blueberry ricotta cheesecake for dessert (is it any surprise that I remember this meal more than 20 years later? No, not if you know me.). Apparently I was already a cheese freak, and no one argued with me at the restaurant, of course. In fact, when I inquired about possible employment as I was paying my bill, the manager on duty told me to come back in the morning. I was hired on the spot by what turned out to be an exremely neurotic showgirl-turned-restauranteur's wife and so began a six-month adventure at Cafe Giovanni's.

Oh, but the crepe, the crepe. It made an impression. I didn't even know that a crepe was an option to wrap around the filling--Giovanni's also had a beef cannelloni as well--but I loved it the minute I tasted it. It was so fresh and seemed like the perfect vehicle for the ricotta--no thick, chewy pasta standing between me and my cheese!

Spinach-ricotta manicotti
Crepes
1 large egg
1 cup flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cups whole milk, plus more as needed to thin the batter

Filling
1 pound fresh or whole-milk ricotta cheese
1 cup grated Asiago cheese (about 3 ounces)
3/4 cup chopped frozen baby spinach, thawed and drained, excess moisture pressed out
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 large egg

1 jar (28 oz) marinara sauce
Extra Asiago to sprinkle on top of pan prior to baking

Add the pasta ingredients to the bowl of a blender. Blend, adding more milk a bit at a time, until batter is a pourable consistency. Heat a nonstick 8-inch skillet over medium-low heat. Brush pan lightly with oil, if needed. Hold pan at an angle, and swirl pan as you pour in enough batter to coat bottom of skillet. Cook 30 to 45 seconds, flip and cook for 15 more seconds. And don’t forget, the first one or two might end up being sacrificial until you get the hang of swirling the pan.Transfer to a flat dish or tray. Repeat with remaining batter. You should have 8 to 10 crepes by the end.

For the filling, mix all the ingredients together until well blended. Once the crepes are cooked and cooled, spread a large spoonful of the filling mixture across the surface of each shell and spread it out before rolling each up into a long tube.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Spread a thin layer of marinara sauce on the bottom of a 9x13 baking pan. Place each rolled up crepe in the pan as you finish with them. Once the pan is filled with rolled up crepes, pour the remainer of the marinara on the crepes and sprinkle a half-cup of grated Asiago on top.

Bake in the oven until warmed through and bubbly, about 35-45 minutes, depending on your oven.

We ate our manicotti with a tossed green salad and breadsticks! Very amore!

Oh and this? This is what happens when chocolate cupcakes won't come out of their cute little heart molds. I'm posting this so you're not under any false impressions that everything turns out pretty in this kitchen. Not so. But it WAS still yummy. Chocolate cake and vanilla bean ice cream and strawberry freezer jam from a dear friend (thanks, Sara!). Layered and delish.