Spring is officially here, and I have a dish to help welcome it into your home. To go along with the emerging buds on the trees and flowers in the garden, you can cook something new. Crepes do not make frequent appearances on dessert menus, and that makes this dish special as well.
Springtime means that strawberries are reappearing in the produce aisle of the market. These crepes combine the lovely flavors of spring berries with another harbinger of spring—maple syrup. The briefly cooked fruit flavored with a buttery maple sauce is enveloped in light buckwheat crepes that play their supporting role well.
This recipe is based on one celebrating Quebecois desserts, created by Marcy Goldman-Posluns for the February 1986 issue of Bon Appétit. A master baker, Marcy Goldman has written several cookbooks that focus on baking and dessert recipes. She also oversees a website called betterbaking.com where cooks can subscribe to her recipe files.
I had rarely cooked with buckwheat flour, but I knew I liked its earthy taste from my experiences with soba noodles. Made from buckwheat seeds, this flour looks a lot like fine sand, but don’t let that scare you off. It adds an appealing layer of flavor to the dish. The gray tint that the buckwheat flour gives the crepes serves as a lovely backdrop for the red, ripe strawberries, singing, “Spring is here!”
Don’t let the word “crepes” frighten you either! If you’ve ever made pancakes, you can handle crepes. Even if you’ve only ordered pancakes up until this point, you can do this. And just think of how impressed your dinner mates will be! Keep in mind that the first one–or two–or three crepes you make will probably be total disasters. They will be ugly, malformed batter babies, and this will frustrate you. But the next crepe will turn out just fine, and you’ll eventually have beautiful ones in your pile. Plus, this recipe is great for entertaining because so much can be done ahead. (You don’t have to fail at the crepes in front of your guests!)
The batter for the crepes can be made up to 3 days before you cook them, and the crepes themselves can be cooked and stored beforehand.
The BA recipe called for using clarified butter in the crepe pan, but my nonstick 8-inch skillet needed no butter at all.
(Goldman suggested a 6-inch pan.) I used wax paper to separate the crepes as they came out of the pan. Once I finished cooking them, I covered the whole stack in plastic wrap and refrigerated them.
When you are ready to assemble the crepes, making the berry filling takes almost no time. After the butter and syrup have heated up, you add the cut berries and a bit of orange zest.
The berries cook very briefly, so they retain their shape, color, and bright taste. You leave the flavored juice they create in the skillet to build the sauce later on.
After the berries were cooked and cooled a bit, I used the waxed paper pieces to assist in rolling the crepes with the berry filling. And instead of putting all the crepes in a large baking dish to warm in the oven as Goldman suggests, I put servings of two crepes each in individual gratin dishes.
While I followed the original recipe’s ingredient lists for the buckwheat crepe batter and berry filling, I reduced the amount of butter and maple syrup that were added to the sauce they are served with. Even though the strawberries cooked for only a few minutes, they produced a lot of juice, and it was sweet in itself.
I thought the smaller amount of syrup and butter allowed the strawberries—and springtime—to shine a bit more.
Strawberry Buckwheat Crepes
Ingredients
For the crepes
- 2/3 cup all purpose flour
- 1/3 cup buckwheat flour
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 3 eggs
- ½ cup milk
- ½ cup water
- ¼ cup vegetable oil
For the strawberry filling
- 2 tablespoons 1/4 stick unsalted butter
- 1/3 cup pure maple syrup
- 2 pints strawberries hulled and quartered
- 2 teaspoons finely grated orange peel
For the sauce
- 2 tablespoons butter
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
For the garnish
- Sliced strawberries
- Grated orange peel
Instructions
For the crepes
- Combine flours, sugar and salt in large bowl. Make well in center.
- Mix eggs in medium bowl until blended well. Pour in milk, water, and oil, and whisk until well combined.
- Pour liquid mixture into well of dry ingredients in a stream, whisking to mix until smooth.
- Let the batter rest at least one hour at room temperature. (The batter can be made 3 days ahead and refrigerated—covered. Bring to room temperature and thin if necessary with water before using.)
- Heat an 8-inch nonstick crepe pan over medium high heat. Remove pan from heat. Whisk batter to mix and ladle about 2 tablespoons of batter into the middle of the pan, swirling and tilting so that the batter spreads evenly across the bottom.
- Cook until the bottom of the crepe is lightly browned (about 1 minute for me), loosening edges with a spatula. Flip crepe (I used my fingers to lift and lay it back down). Cook until second side is speckled (this took about 45 seconds for my crepes).
- Lift crepe out of pan (again, I used my fingers) and place on piece of wax paper on plate.
- Continue with the rest of the batter, which you might stir from time to time to keep in mixed properly. Place wax paper between each crepe and the one above it.
For the filling
- Melt 2 tablespoons of butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the maple syrup to the butter, stirring to combine. Add the strawberries and orange zest and cook for 2-3 minutes, until the berries are just beginning to become soft. Remove skillet from heat and transfer berries to a separate bowl with a slotted spoon, leaving as much juice as possible behind in the skillet.
Assemble the crepes
- Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Lightly butter individual gratin dishes or an ovenproof serving dish. Lift wax paper beneath top crepe and place on working surface. Using slotted spoon, place about 2 tablespoons of berries in the center of the crepe. Roll as with a cigar, folding in the sides first if you wish. Place crepes seam-side down in dish. Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 15 minutes. Remove the foil and bake an additional 5 minutes.
Prepare the sauce
- Using the skillet with the leftover sauce in it, add any juices that gathered in the bottom of the strawberry bowl. Heat over medium heat. Add butter and syrup and cook until thickened a bit.
To serve
- Drizzle some sauce over each serving of warm crepes. Garnish with sliced berries and orange zest (and vanilla ice cream if you’re decadent like we are.) Pass remaining sauce separately.
Mmmm!! Almost time for Chai to start selling his Chandler strawberries on Snow Road. I have only ever made pies with them, but this recipe has creped into contention.