Tag Archives: dessert

Bananas Foster Crêpes

 

I spent Memorial Day weekend in Virginia with my Paris girls, Sarah and Vessie. We met while studying abroad in Paris, and . . . well, we just love each other. More on that in another post. We went to a little café where they served crêpes . . . but opted for the chocolate fondue instead. It was the right thing to do at the time. However, this engendered a longing in my heart for some amazing crêpes. So the next morning, we made ‘em for breakfast! We used a simple batter recipe that you can make in the blender (from tastykitchen.com), and did a little imitation of bananas foster with some liqueur modifications. Sarah even lit the pan on fire. We folded the bananas inside the crêpes, and topped it all with whipped cream and sugared pecans. Oh my!!!!! Definitely eat these with coffee to cut the sweetness—but they are spectacular! Plus, I learned how to flip a crêpe, which I can tell is going to be one of the major achievements of my life. I’m sure those skills will come in handy in the heavenly realms as well.

CRÊPE BATTER

4 eggs

1 cup flour

½ cup milk

½ cups water

½ teaspoons salt

2 TBS sugar

2 TBS melted butter

Toss ingredients in a blender or bowl. Blend for around 30 seconds, or hand mix for a minute or two (that’s what we did after discovering the blender was broken). Let the batter sit for a while on the counter (covered)—ideally an hour, but we were impatient and only waited 20 minutes.

Now I always mess up the first crêpe, so please don’t be discouraged if that happens to you.

Messing up the first crêpe

It’s important to get the heat just right, and that might mean one sacrificial lamb/crêpe. But don’t worry! Let’s forge ahead.

Get out a medium sized non-stick skillet (or a crêpe pan if you’re too cool for school) with a flat bottom.  If your pan is warped at all, it’s really going to mess up your game. Start the heat on medium to medium high, and melt some butter in the bottom as if you were making pancakes. You want a thin coating of butter all over the pan. Now it’s time to pour in the batter. I think I used somewhat less than ¼ cup batter for each crêpe, but depending on the size of your pan that could vary—the idea is to coat the bottom of the pan with the thinnest layer possible of batter. So as soon as you pour some batter in, immediately tilt the pan back and forth so that the batter runs all about. Then, let it sit. After a few minutes, I try to put my spatula under a side and lift the whole little pancake up—if you can do this, you can flip it at this point. Don’t be jealous of Sarah’s skills:

Master crêpe flipper!

She’s airborne, folks!

You want a few brown spots on each side of the crêpe (in my opinion), and I flipped each one back and forth a couple times to get it where I wanted it (probably breaking 15 French cooking rules while I was at it). Does this sound complicated? If so, please just think of it as making pancakes. It’s exactly the same thing! Except these are really thin. And French.

SPECIAL FOSTER-ESQUE BANANA FILLING

¼ cup (½ stick) butter

1 cup brown sugar

½ teaspoon cinnamon

¼ cup Grand Marnier (orange flavored liqueur)

4 bananas (cut lengthwise and then in half)

¼ cup rum

Whipped cream

Sugared pecans

Combine butter, sugar, and cinnamon in a non-stick skillet. Stir over low heat until it’s all melty and bubbly. Add the Grand Marnier (or get creative and switch up the liqueur flavor!) and stir; immediately, add the bananas flat side down. Cook over low heat until the bananas start to get a little soft.

Getting bubbly

Then, add the rum. If you’re brave like Sarah, ignite the rum … if not, let the alcohol burn off for a few minutes.

Lighting up

And the flames leap higher . . .

Now it’s time to assemble! Lay a crêpe on a plate. Spoon a banana and some sauce inside, and fold. Top with whipped cream, more sauce, and sugared pecans. Don’t skimp on the pecans! The contrast of the soft crêpe with the crunchy pecans is amazing.

Have fun with crêpes—the things you can put in them are only as limited as your imagination (or your grocery budget as some of us may have it). Piles of fresh strawberries … the traditional butter and sugar … and all sorts of savory goodness! I’m envisioning something with blue cheese. And spinach. Sarah and I ate a couple with bacon and melted cheese inside. Make them this weekend and you’ll be thanking yourself.

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Chess Pie



This custard-like pie is so easy to make, it’s practically sinful. It’s an old Southern recipe, and it’s wonderfully sweet—which makes it great to eat with coffee. It’s the one pie recipe I have memorized. Use your favorite crust recipe—or buy frozen crusts at the grocery store (for this recipe, they can go straight from frozen to the oven). It’s also easy to double or triple the recipe. I tripled it this week for a baby shower (2 pies for the shower, 1 pie for my husband), and thanks to my Kitchen Aid, making 3 pies was no harder than making 1 pie. Since I ended up bringing 1 whole pie back from the shower uneaten (a ratio of desserts to people thing—not a reflection on the pie!), it’s a good thing my husband loves this dessert.

Ingredients

4 eggs

1 cup sugar

¼ cup (1/2 stick) softened (not melted) butter

1 TBS cornmeal

1 TBS vinegar

1 TBS flour

1 tsp vanilla

1 pie crust

Mix everything (except the crust, heh heh) in your stand mixer until combined (a few minutes at medium speed). My butter never quite mingles with the rest of the ingredients, and I always have little chunks of it floating around—but that’s never hurt the outcome. Pour into pie crust, and bake at 350 for 45-55 minutes (55 min. usually for me), or until the top is turning golden-brown. If your crust starts to brown too much you can cover the crust with aluminum—but this has never happened to me with this recipe. It will be a little jiggly when it comes out, but don’t worry—everything will turn out OK in the end. Let it cool a bit—and then eat it! With coffee!

Click here for printer-friendly version: Chess Pie