Sunday July 26, 2009
Tokyo, Japan
Hot Hot Hot! When Will It END??
Took a fun cake class today. Learned how to make the perfect crepe and made a dessert called Mille-Crepes. It was very easy to make and delicious. Basically all you have to do is spread flavored cream in between layers of crepe and you are done! The cream was so good, I think I'll make that again and just serve it with fruit. Also, the key to making crepes I think is to have a very good non stick teflon pan. I guess I'll have to go to Kappabashi again and buy one :))
Ingredients
- Crepes
- 75 grams of cake flour
- 35 grams of sugar
- 2 eggs
- 250 cc of milk
- 15 grams of melted and cooled unsalted butter
- Cream
- 2 egg yolks
- 50 grams of sugar
- 20 grams of cake flour
- 200 cc of milk
- few drops of vanilla essence
- 10cc of rum
- 200 grams on whipping cream
- 1/2 tsp of white chocolate powder
- One 18cm in diameter and 5-7mm thick sponge cake (optional)
How to Make:
We first made the cream by whisking the egg yolks with the sugar. Keep on whisking until the mixture turns whitish in color. While doing this, warm the milk on very low heat. Then sift flour over the egg mixture and continue whisking. Add 1/3 of the warm milk and whisk. Then add the rest of the warmed milk and keep on whisking. Once well blended, pour the mixture over a sieve into a pot. Stir the mixture constantly while heating it at medium heat over the stove. When it becomes creamy, remove it from the heat and continue whisking. Then put it back on the stove and whisk over medium heat for just one more minute. The mixture will be bubbling but continue whisking. Then pour the cream onto a plate and cover with plastic wrap, flatten and refrigerate until ready to use.
While the cream is cooling make the crepes. Sift the flour into a bowl and then add the sugar and stir. Then add the eggs and whisk until well blended. Add 1/4 of the milk and whisk. When well blended add the rest of the milk and whisk. Add melted butter and whisk again. That's it for the crepe batter.
Now let's make the crepes. Heat a 18cm or so in diameter teflon fry pan over low-medium heat. You can butter the pan if you like to make buttery crepes. Fill a ladle 3/4 full of batter and pour the batter in the heated pan. Shake the pan to distribute the batter. The crepe is ready to be flipped when bubbles appear and the edges are cooked. Now there are 2 ways to flip the crepe.
For the first way. Place a chopstick, about 1/4 from the diameter of the crepe. Take another chopstick and carefully lift the edge of the crepe (you can turn off the heat while doing this). Using your fingers, carefully roll the edge of the crepe over the chopstick. Then lift the chopstick and gently flip the crepe. If you turned the heat off turn in back on and heat for 30sec-1min. Then when done dump the crepe on cooking paper and use your hands to gently straighten the crepe.
The second way is a bit trickier but faster. Carefully, place a chopstick underneath the crepe (again about 1/4 of the way from the diameter). Twist the chopstick toward you gently until you reach the end of the crepe. Then lift the crepe and flip. Scary at first but after 2 tries I was able to do it and preferred this approach as it is definitely more efficient.
You should have about 15 crepes. Now its time to assemble the cake. The first thing we need to do is to "soften" the cream. Peel the cream from the plate into a bowl. If you successful made the cream, you should be able to peel the cream from the plate. Using a spatula, vigorously mix the cream until it gets soft again. Add 10-12 drops of vanilla essence and the rum and continue mixing with the spatula. The cream should be very smooth by now.
In a separate bowl, whip the whipping cream at high speed until it becomes a smooth cream as depicted in the photo below. At this point, one can add gelatin (4grams powdered gelatin dissolved in 16cc water) to "firm up" the whipping cream. I prefer not to do it but it depends on your taste.
Then blend the whipping cream with the cream until well mixed.
Now its time to assemble. If using a sponge cake as a base layer, place a dallop of the cream onto the sponge cake and spread to about 2cm from the edge (as you layer the cake it gets heavy so the cream will disperse to the edge from the weight. If using crepe as base layer do the same. Then top with crepe, repeat with cream and continue repeating until finished. Then sprinkle white chocolate powder over top and your are finished!
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