Crêpes Suzette
We love pancakes here, at Wholemilk Club HQ. Ideally, fresh and hot, with sugar and lemon juice.
This year, however, we thought we'd revive a classic: Crêpes Suzette. Once a staple of high-end, French restaurants, it now lies relatively forgotten in dusty recipe books, hidden on top shelves.
It's a delicious, uncomplicated dish, with a rich, sweet, citrusy sauce full of orange flavours. It's also a great way to get your butter intake up.
The pancake batter itself can be flavoured. Michel Roux Sr has recipes in which the batter contains orange blossom water and orange liqueur.
I liked the sound of this and opted for a couple of teaspoonfuls of Cointreau.
The traditional sauce contains more sugar and butter, and less juice than this recipe. That's hardcore, even for us.
For the pancakes (makes 8-10)
120g Plain flour
Pinch of salt
2 Eggs
250ml Milk
50ml Double Cream
2tsp Orange liqueur
20g butter
For the sauce
4 Oranges, one zested, three juiced, one segmented
1 Lemon, zested and juiced
50ml Cointreau
60g Butter
30g Sugar
Method
Start by making your batter. This should be made an hour or more before you want to cook the pancakes, to allow it to rest.
Whisk the eggs and one third of the milk together with the flour and salt until smooth.
Then add the second third of the milk, whisking until smooth, before doing the same with the final third.
Incorporate the liqueur and cream, then leave somewhere warm, to rest.
To make the sauce put all the ingredients into a saucepan and bring slowly to the boil.
Meanwhile, heat the pan you will make pancakes in, and melt the 20g butter in it. Whisk this into the batter, then begin frying the pancakes, lightly buttering the pan between each. Set them aside as they are made, between sheets of greaseproof paper.
Once the sauce has reached boiling point, allow it to thicken slightly and add the segments of orange, then fold the pancakes into quarters and place them in the sauce.
Once they are hot, they should be served as soon as possible.
