Crepes de montagne

[idun]

 Yesterday I had friends round and for something different made some Crepes de Montagne for pud.

So simple and yet very nice. Plain crepe, spread with a thinnish coat of sweetened creme de marron and folded neatly and then the mountain....... a spoon of whipped chantilly on the top, and then to decorate a little grated chocolate.

The crepes can be made in advance and warmed and finished just before serving.

I rather like sweetened creme de marron on gaufres too, with a dollop of chantilly too, naughty but nice.

[NormanH]

Much better than Nutella...

but I am off all that as I am avoiding all that starchy and sugary stuff

[idun]

 I cannot eat nutella, I find it is claggy in my mouth........... is claggy a 'northern' word??? if so, I cannot think of another![:D]

[5-element]

Claggy is nice.[:D] As I am addicted to Nutella, I just won't have it in the house. Instead, about an hour ago, I started looking for recipes for "pâte à tartiner au chocolat maison" but many of them have "lait concentré sucré" which I don't like. So with a bit of luck, I won't even manufacture any Nutella substitute.

Nothing like a bit of palm oil to make something smooth and unctuous.. (claggy?)

[NormanH]

I can still here 'claggy' in my father's mouth to describe the consistency of stools which at  a later period were given the nickname Klingons [6]

[YCCMB]

Claggy...a wonderful word. I guess it is quite northern, as I remember it from my yoof.

I was watching the news the other night and heard a police spokesman talking about the injured from a terrible motorway accident being "tret" in hospital. I love that there are so many words and expressions that so clearly pin down the area where they are used.

On a more topic-related note, I hate Nutella. It appears to be compulsory at breakfast in Italy, for some reason.

[Hoddy]

In my bit of Derbyshire we used the word clags to describe the balls of mud and poo which accumulated on the long wool of the sheep.

"Rattle your clags" means "hurry up".

 

Hoddy 

[NormanH]

My Romanian friends make a layer cake of about 6 layers of crêpes sandwiching a  Nutella filling between each layer, but idun's idea of crème de marrons would be much better

[5-element]

Well, thanks for inspiring me Idun. I've just made pancakes and ate about 5 of them. Since I didn't have any Nutella or other chocolate spread, I invented several fillings. First: creme fraiche (15%) with lemon juice and icing sugar. Then another, also with creme fraiche and caramel sauce. It was all rather delicious - that was my dinner for tonight! (oh no, also an apple and a kiwi, to make up the number of fruit and veg for the day!)[8-|]

I did love the idea of creme de marrons and chantilly - but did not have either in the house!

[Clair]

[quote user="5-element"]Claggy is nice.[:D] As I am addicted to Nutella, I just won't have it in the house. Instead, about an hour ago, I started looking for recipes for "pâte à tartiner au chocolat maison" but many of them have "lait concentré sucré" which I don't like. So with a bit of luck, I won't even manufacture any Nutella substitute.[/quote]

I'm addicted to Nutella too and I simply don't buy it (or I'd eat the lot by the spoonful!)

Here is a recipe for a home-made substitute (no condensed milk listed.)

I haven't made it (yet)...

[5-element]

Aie aie aie, that recipe looks positively dangerous, Clair. The quantities are for making 2 jars, and the chocolate-hazelnut spread keeps in the fridge for ONE week. I think you have to live with teenagers for it to be more manageable.

Looks really nice, though, enough to make me drool.  Let's skip the crepes, go straight for the Nutella! [:D]

And those who declare they don't like it can donate their share to Clair or me!

[mint]

Id, give us your proportions of milk, flour, water, eggs, oil, etc for your crepes STP.

I experimented loads as both Clair and 5-e (when asked) airily said, well, you just make the mixture till it's the consistency of matt emulsion, nobody measures anything to make crepes, been making them since I was 3 years old, etc.

I think I've just about got mine the way I imagine it should be:  4 oz of flour, 2 eggs, 3 fl oz milk and 7 of water.  Stir and I now do rest it for about half an hour; then a splash of oil just before cooking.  I don't have a creperie or even one of those T-shaped scrapers but, even if I say it myself, the crepes taste great!

[idun]

Au pif sweet17 I'm afraid. Vaguely equal quantities to the eye of egg, flour and milk and a touch of salt. The mix should be like single cream, I'll add more water or milk to get that consistency. ie yesterday, one egg made four and a half crepes.

My friend puts sugar and melted butter in her mix, the sugar, bien sur just for sweet ones.

I have three crepe pans, I never use them. I heat my frying pan and then put some oil or melted butter on several folded bits of kitchen roll and gently rub the pan and then put in about a third to a half soup ladle into the hot pan, rolling it as I do it. My crepes are thin.

Family favourites are: once the crepe is turned, remove from the heat and put some emmantael and ham onto the cooked side, fold the crepe and gently cook until the cheese is melted, turning after a few minutes. It throbs when ready.

And cook both sides and then remove from the heat and then put some emmantael and a raw egg on the crepe, then fold the crepe edges over, sometimes leaving the egg exposed and gently cook until the egg is set and cheese melted.

[mint]

I KNEW IT!  NOBODY measures anything when making crepes.

However, I couldn't do mine with all milk or even with more milk than water as they come out all thick and, as Idun would say, all claggy.

Now, I do more water than milk and they are very thin but could be a tad too crispy around the edges.

Back to the frying pan then.....

[idun]

But they won't go claggy sweet17 even if you use all milk, believe me.

My frying pan is about 24cms and I use about a third of a soup ladle of mix.

 Use less mix and get that pan hot and then swirl  the mix around the pan away from the heat,  it should be an opaque coating but no more than that. The first one usually sticks incidentally and I don't know why , so rerub with oil and get it hot and start again with the same amount of mix and if that first was a little thick, then put less in.

Have confidence, you can do it.

I always put milk instead of water in my shortcrust pastry and people have 'told' me that it makes it, well wrong, and mine is good.

[5-element]

Au pif is also what I usually do - but my pif is nowhere near as good as Idun's. For years my pancakes were more like chapatties[:'(], until I realised that I need to add an egg, that I need to use milk and not water, and that if I use buckwheat flour I should also have wheat flour.

Yesterday I used 2 eggs, all milk (skimmed, just to stay on the strict side), less buckwheat flour and more wheat flour (80%). That was a HUGE improvement on my usual monastic version.[:D]: thinner, lighter, fluffier crepes.

Idun, your directions "ne tombent pas dans l'oreille d'un sourd": I take them on board, and so the next batch should improve even further! But I was using butter instead of oil in my pan (a proper crepiere, all flat - but I don't have one of those flattening spatula-like devices to make the crepe very thin).

Looks like I might have to make crepes/pancakes every day for a while, to get them right.

[idun]

Rightly or wrongly I mix buckwheat with normal flour when making crepes breton wonderful for our family favourite savoury pancakes.

I cannot manage the spatula, I do envy those few I know who can. As I said, I have crepe pans, but I just use my usual pans.