Crêpes Suzette

I love crepes, not only eating them but making the batter, cooking them, and thinking about the filling. I prefer the crepes to be thinner than usual, almost paper thin. I really admire french people for making them up and the best thing is that you can fill them up with millions of combinations, chocolate, fruits, cream, stewed fruit, even savoury crepes are delicious. Whenever I need my sugar dose and want to indulge myself, I make some crepes and fill them up with jam, or "dulce de leche" and I'm good to go. Today I give you the crepes suzette, a wondeful and delicious recipe, if you have never tried these before, you will now know what have you been missing.When I have the time, I always always make these, and afterwards I don't even feel guilty, because hey there's fruit in it.

I serve these on a plate or bowl, dressed with the orange butter after flambe them with the liquor we decide to use whichever one we have at home. This is optional. And the only thing you have to make, apart from the crepes is the orange butter, but this is such an easy dessert that it's the one thing I make or bring to a dinner with friends whenever I don't have the time to make an ellaborate pudding. You will need a flat frying pan, special for crepes, or a non stick one. We also need a spatula for turning the crepes over. The first one is ussually the test one, so get rid of it, don't desperate and carry on. Even if you dont flambe the crepes you will need some liquor for the orange butter, I always use Grand Marnier because the taste is delicious, but Cointreau or even brandy will do the trick. This is how I make them...

For the crepes

1 cup plain flour

2 eggs

1 tablespoon sugar

zest of one orange

30g melted butter

1 cup milk

melted butter for cooking the crepes

Method

Mix the flour with the zest, the sugar and the eggs, add the buter and the milk. It should be a light mixtture, like cream, if not, add more milk. Brush a non stick pan with melted butter, when hot, add a laddle full of the batter and move the pan in circles so it covers all the surface, when set, turn it over with a spatula and let set for a few seconds. Place on a plate and carry on cooking the rest of the crepes, brushing the pan with the melted butter when necessary. Pile them up, cover them with cling film, when you finish cooking them all and let rest if you have the time for at least 30 minutes. (you can freeze them at this stage)

For the orange butter

200g melted butter

the zest of 1 orange (yes,another one)

3 or 4 tablespoons icing sugar

1/2 cup orange juice

1/4 cup Grand Marnier

Method

Mix all the ingredients. At this stage the mixture can look a bit curdled but don't panic, as soon as you heat it it will be OK. To do this, place the orange butter in a big saucepan, over a low heat. Reserve. Now we have to prepare the crepes, to do this I like to make them decent by opening them on my cutting board, and place in a plate on top of it, but upside down, I then cut the excess with a knife, this way all my crepes are the same size and they look more pretty.

OK, let's go back to the orange butter. When you have heat the butter and starts bubbling, grab a crepe and place it open in the saucepan, and very carefuly fold it over twice, so you have a triangle in hte end, do this with the rest of the crepes, and yous saucepan will be filled with lovely triangles, you have to spoon the butter on top so to make surethat the whole of the crepe gets sucked in all those wonderful juices. At this point you can flambe them, to do this, graba laddle and fill it with the liquor, place it on the heat and set it on fire, pour it on the crepes and spoon the liquid over until the alcohol has evaporated. If you feel brave take do this at the table in fron of your guests. Serve with ice cream or fresh fruit and don't forget some extra sauce on the side.