Crepes in Strawberry Syrup with Whipped Cream

Holy sh-t, I need to update more often. Work and miscellaneous travel has had me really busy for the past few months, and my cooking has slowed down noticeably. But things are easing up a little, thank God, and I'm starting to try some new dishes out. This one is from mid-June. My then girlfriend offered to make me dinner, as long as I made a sufficiently sweet dessert. Bear in mind a couple of things:

1. Growing up, my family didn't really do dessert very often. We'd have the occasional Haitian sweet potato pudding at a big family dinner, or store-bought desserts at parties. But the concept of "I just finished dinner on a regular weeknight. I need dessert!" is just foreign to me.

2. I don't like really sweet foods. I go as far as sweet fresh fruit, but anything with loads of refined sugar is just too much for me. The smell inside a Krispy Kreme shop makes my stomach turn. Not exaggerating.

Hence, I don't make dessert often... or ever, actually. But I have made crepes in the past, relying on fruit and fresh handmade whipped cream to provide the sweetness. To kick up the sweetness, I figured you can't get much sweeter than syrup. The end product was considered a success. Continue reading for the crepe, syrup, and whipped cream recipes.

Strawberry Syrup

Ingredients:

- 1 cup granulated sugar

- 1 cup water

- 1.5 cups of pureed fresh strawberries.

Procedure:

1. In a saucepan, bring the water to a boil with the sugar. (Note: equal parts of hot water and sugar make Simple Syrup).

2. Add the strawberries to the saucepan and bring it to a boil. Lower the heat to medium, and simmer uncovered for 10 minutes, stirring from time to time. If you want to thicken the syrup further, let it simmer longer, or stir in 1/4 tsp of cornstarch dissolved in 1/4 or 1/2 tsp of water.

3. Pour out the syrup into a container and let cool.

Crepes

Ingredients:

- 1 cup all-purpose flour

- 2 eggs

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1/2 cup water

- 1/4 tsp salt

- 2 Tbsp butter, melted

- 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon

- 1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Procedure:

1. Whisk together the flour and eggs in a mixing bowl. Gradually stir in the milk and water. Then mix in the salt, butter, vanilla, cinnamon and nutmeg.

2. Bring a stainless steel skillet up to medium heat and melt enough butter to just grease it.

3. Pour about 1/4 cup (1 ladle-full) of the batter into the pan. Tilt the pan around to make sure the batter spreads out as much as possible and makes a good circle. When the edges look brown and bubbles start forming, gently flip the crepe (I usually use a silicone spatula). Cook on the other side until golden brown, then

4. The first crepe usually comes out extra greasy and badly formed, but it lets you gauge how much butter and heat the pan needs at any given time. Toss that crap and repeat steps 2 and 3 until you're out of batter.

Whipped Cream

Ingredients:

- 1 cup

- 1 tsp powdered sugar

Procedure:

Some people use an automatic mixer. I say that's the easy way out... and I don't feel like paying for an automatic mixer unless I start getting into baking. Personally, I just combine the ingredients in a pyrex bowl, grab a good whisk, and whip the sh-t out of it by hand until it reaches the right consistency. The goal is to get as much air into the cream as possible, that's how it fluffs up

Crepe Filling:

- Anything you want. I usually go for sliced strawberries and Nutella.