Culinarty

Ingredients

• • 100 g/ 3.5 oz crumbled plain vanilla biscuits/cookies
• • 7 Tbsp/ ½ cup of coarsely chopped walnuts + 4 Tbsp – to spoon into the tartelettes once they’re baked
• • 200 g/ 7 oz bleached all-purpose flour
• • 1 tsp Bourbon vanilla extract
• • 4 Tbsp white sugar
• • 5 g/ 0.2 oz baking powder
• • The juice of half an orange
• • 1 medium egg
• • 1 tsp fleur de sel
• • 150 g/ 5.3 oz unsalted butter – icy cold
• • 8 Tbsp orange jam
• • Your favourite vanilla cream with added grated mango

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As you might have noticed, I am in a crêpe phase that just won’t go away. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not anywhere near complaining about this and I’m determined to enjoy it until the last drop, or shall I say crêpe :). Besides, I have a feeling I’m not the only one addicted to these thin layers of melting joy.

The dessert that I’m about to introduce you to has been one of my favourites ever since I was a child. Come to think about it, these layers are my mac ‘n’ cheese of desserts. If you’re looking for that sort of dish, I can assure you that you won’t be sorry. Easy to make and really good at making you ask for a refill. You can even cook them in the microwave oven.

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After experimenting with different ingredients to add to the crêpes batter, the banana crêpe turned out to be the winner when comparing: taste, looks and the batter’s behavior when cooking the crêpes.

What did I learn from trying to add other ingredients to the batter?

First of all, any new ingredient I decide to add, it should mix perfectly with the ordinary crêpes batter in order to get a homogenised smooth batter again (grated raw ingredients tend to get burned while cooking the crêpes and thus pretty much ruin the crêpe’s looks. Grated carrots or Granny Smith apples left small burned spots on the surface of the crêpe).

Second: I will never again combine carrots with ground cinnamon, especially if the carrots are really flavourful. That turned out to be a big no-no for me.

The cinnamon’s flavour is enhanced by combining it with icing sugar. I can hear you laughing you know! You probably already knew that, but I’ve discovered it just now. Yes, really !

From now on, when I will be adding other ingredients to the batter, I’ll make sure the batter’s thickness remains pretty much the same as the thickness of an ordinary crêpes batter.

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Sweet cheese balls are a lifesaver when you don’t have much time or energy to make a sophisticated and complicated dessert. They aren’t just tasty and easy to make, but they’re also considered to be a healthy dessert choice.

If you are extremely weight-conscious, you can remove the sour cream/crème fraîche from the ingredients and sprinkle these cheese balls with just a little bit of icing sugar. They will still be delicious.

And because it’s been quite a rush these days and I still am in a hurry, let me cut right to the chase :).

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