Claire Tastes

Snow Day: Take Two! Last snow day I made a batch of french toast with caramelized bananas, raisins, and honey. This time, more snow and ice. More eggs, milk, and bread. Fridge is dwindling. Husband is hungry. Claire needs an indoor project. We still have power (thank the Lord).

All this = the need to up my game. None of this lame french toast stuff. This time, we’ll do another French recipe (seriously, what is it about those Frenchmen and their yummy breakfasts?) but we’ll do crêpes. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the heavenliness of these, crêpes are a very thin pancake that one fills with fruit, yogurt, meat, greens, cheese… basically anything in the world you could possibly be in the mood for. Actually, my very first dish cooked for Ben was an assortment of brunch crêpes! Pictured below 🙂 Ohhh, how young and inexperienced in the kitchen I was. I served them with very overcooked scrambled eggs, but I have to say I did a good job with the crêpes. And they’re not easy to do! I think I did a few ham and cheese, one with cottage cheese and berries, and one with PB and banana.

Okay, so I didn’t have the nice camera I do now… but pretty good for my first meal ever, right? It was the thought that counted. And Ben loved them! Sweet memories of our dating years and his visits to Duke while he was in grad school at CMU.

This morning I thought to myself, “hey- I have nothing to do, and lots of leftovers to use up! Why not make crêpes?” Yes, they’re a bit high maintenance, but since I had the time, I went for it. I decided to go in the savory direction rather than sweet (based on a poll that some of you may have seen on my Facebook page) and fill them with different types of savory things I already had on hand.

First I had to make the batter, which is a simple mixture of flour, milk, eggs, water, salt, and butter. Couldn’t be easier. The trick is to get the batter nice and even (lumps are not okay like they are in pancakes, so keep whisking even after you start cooking them!). The batter should be very thin, because when you spread it in the pan, it spreads really quickly onto the bottom- which is crucial because these babies cook SO FAST! One flip after about a minute and you’re done. Also, make sure to coat your pan with cooking spray between each crêpe, and make sure the pan doesn’t get too hot, or else you’ll have burnt crêpes and the fire department trudging through the snow because your smoke detector won’t shut off and the neighbors called 911. If the oil starts to burn, turn down the heat a bit and dab off the burnt oil with a dry paper towel.

Then the fun part. I made 4 combos: 1) hummus/ham/spinach/cheddar cheese; 2) leftover fondue cheese (gruyere and fontina blend), more ham, fresh parsley, and some pepper; 3) quinoa salad filling (leftover from last weekend, dijon mustard, chopped broccoli, parsley, feta, and balsamic drizzle); and last but not least, since it’s a classic and SO GOOD, 4) PB, banana, and raisin drizzled with honey and sprinkled with cinnamon.

It’s easiest to just fill one half of the crêpe, and to not get overzealous with how much you try to pack in. It won’t taste better, I promise. You’ll be left with filling spilling out of every possible direction, onto your fingers, all over your floor… not sexy. And crêpes should definitely have some sex appeal. 🙂

For the first three that were filled with savory goodness, I baked at 300 degrees for about 8 minutes, until the crêpes got nice and crispy and the cheese had melted nicely. No need to do this for the PB & banana, unless you really want your peanut butter melty.

Basically, you can have fun with these! After all, it’s Snowmageddon! Who knows where we’ll be tomorrow!? Okay, we will probably still be in the exact same place, doing the exact same thing. Because we can’t get out our door. But it’s still a good day to live like it’s your last 🙂

Happy crêpeing!

Batter all mixed up and ready to pan-fry

Cook for about 1 minute on each side, until they look just like this! (air bubbles are okay)

Crêpes all done and ready to be filled! You can stick them in the fridge or freeze them for filling later!

A perfect assortment of crêpes. They’ll only get better from here!

An assortment of savory fillings.

Crêpe #1: Hummus, ham, spinach, and cheddar

Crêpe #2: Fondue cheese, ham, parsley

Crêpe #3: Leftover quinoa salad, broccoli, dijon, feta, balsamic drizzle

Crêpe #4: Peanut butter, banana, raisin, cinnamon, honey drizzle

Fold them in half, or quarters if you can.

Bake at 300 degrees for 8 minutes or so, until crispy and cheese is melted.

Fancy crêpes for a snowy morning! What’s your favorite crêpe combo?

What do you call it when the lines at the grocery store are three miles long and the shelves are wiped clean of milk, eggs, and bread? It must be a SNOW DAY in Durham! I can’t remember the last time we got enough snow to cause Duke to actually cancel class… my sophomore year as an undergrad, we actually got a few inches and a ton of ice and we STILL had to go to class. I think they think we’re here to learn or something. Anyhooooooo, today I have no complaints. Classes canceled for the whole university, which means I get to stay in and BLOG!- er, I mean, be extra submissive and sacrificial by hand-feeding my wonderful husband delicious morsels while he works hard to make us money. 🙂

 A view of my snow-covered Jeep from the upstairs office in our townhouse!

I love making brunch foods. And I love making Ben happy with yummy things. So when we woke up and I asked, “French Toast or Pancakes?” I was extra-pleased when he immediately answered “French Toast!” instead of the usual “ohhhh you don’t need to make me anything!”

So downstairs I clamored, anxious to please. And take pretty pictures!

I got a little inventive with this recipe to make up for the fact that we didn’t have the best bread for “french toasting”- ideally I’d want a crustier white bread that’s just a TAD stale to prevent the batter from making the bread fall apart, but I had to make do with what we had. (After all, we are snowed in. Good thing I got that extra bread, milk, and eggs yesterday!)

Snowed in, and only two ripe bananas left in the entire house (seriously, ya’ll, the bananas in this house disappear like hot cakes!). I needed to stretch those bananas! Instead of just topping the french toast with bananas after it’s cooked like I usually do, I decided to actually incorporate them into the recipe. But it didn’t seem like a good idea to put the bananas right in the batter, since I’d be dipping the bread and all the bananas would probably just slide off on the journey to the griddle. No one likes slidey-bananas. So instead, I decided to press the bananas and raisins right into one side of the toast while it was cooking, and while it was still “soggy” enough to be able to press right into the bread. I also decided to sprinkle a little more brown sugar and cinnamon on top, to (hopefully) result in a nice sticky caramelization when I flipped it!

The result was (almost) just what I’d hoped for! It was a bit difficult to flip the bread, but not so much because of the bananas falling out- it was more due to the fact that the sandwich bread I used got so moist when dunked in the batter that it wanted to fall apart when I was flipping. In the future, I’ll try using a crustier loaf. The caramelized bananas, though, were magical. They formed this beautifully thick, sticky glaze over one side, so that it was almost like cooking syrup right into the french toast!

Hope you enjoy your snow day, wherever you are!

When is it not a good morning for french toast?