Chantilly Crepes With Vanilla Stewed Plums And Ricotta

Its been raining plums thanks to the KitchenAid Contest, IFBM 2014 and the season of course! The team is keeping all participants on their toes dishing out recipes for various contests with attractive prizes. And  before I knew it, I was home with more plums. How can I be immune to the lure and charms of that sleek, gorgeous chopper! The plums soon found their way into some quick and easy, Chantilly Crepes filled with vanilla stewed plums, fresh ricotta and honey.

Being born and brought up in the south of India, the concept of crepes is not entirely new . But the kind I came across later were nothing like we the ones we grew up eating. Versatile and delicious, these were a revelation! The batter being mostly just eggs, flour, milk, butter and sugar whizzed in the blender, you can rustle up crepes in a jiffy. Conveniently, the batter can be made ahead and refrigerated. The crepes can be refrigerated or even frozen. Barely sweet, these lend themselves beautifully to sweet and savory fillings.

Drizzle them with honey or simply sprinkle some sugar on them for a light snack. Fill them with fresh or poached fruit , or cheese and vegetables as you wish for a substantial brunch. Filled with lightly whipped cream or mascarpone, dessert is served! 

Chantilly crepes from The Cake Bible are what I would call as dessert crepes. Made with cornstarch, these are tender, light and delicate, the perfect vehicle for indulgent dessert fillings. 

Chantilly Crepes With Vanilla Stewed Plums And Ricotta 

The quantity of the components of this dessert varies with the amount of filling you would like in them. Use honey and plum puree to taste. It doesn't hurt to have more of each on hand, you can always use leftovers to make more dessert!

You will need: 

Crepes - Recipe below.

Vanilla roasted plum puree - 1/2  cup

Fresh Ricotta - 1 cup 

Honey - 1/4 cup or to taste

Vanilla plums : To make about 1/2 cup

Plums - 10-12 , pitted and chopped

1/2 vanilla bean

Sugar - 2 tablespoons (more to taste)

Butter, soft - 2 teaspoons 

Heat the butter in a saucepan. Add the rest of the ingredients. Stirring occasionally, cook on low heat till the plums are soft and mushy, about 5 minutes.  Fish out the bean, just mash with a fork or puree the pulp. Strain if needed. Refrigerate. You can make this a day or two ahead.

Chantilly Crepes - to make about 21 - 24  6'' crepes, please read note

Ingredients 

Eggs - 150 grams / 3 large

Milk, at room temperature - 240 ml ( I used 3% fat)

Vanilla - 1 teaspoon

Unsalted butter - 43 grams, melted and cooled 

Grand mariner - 15 ml (I have used 15 ml more milk)
Cornstarch - 90 grams / 3/4 cup

Salt - 1/8 teaspoon

Sugar - 1 tablespoon

Clarified butter / ghee - 1 tablespoon for brushing the pan

The recipe recommends using a 6'' crepe pan. I have used a larger non-stick frying pan.

Procedure : Place the ingredients in the given order in the medium or large sized jar of your blender. Blend at high speed for 10 seconds.

Heat the crepe pan on medium high heat until hot enough to sizzle a drop of water. Brush lightly with the clarified butter and pour a scant 2 tablespoons of batter into the center.  Ladle scant 2 tablespoons of batter in the center of the pan. Immediately tilt the pan to the left and then down and around to the right  so that the batter moves in a  counter-clockwise direction, covering the entire pan. 

Cook until the top starts to dull and the edges begin to brown. about 15- 20 seconds. Rose recommends using a sharp metal spatula to lift the edge to see the color. Flip carefully as the crepes are quite delicate. Cook for another 10 seconds or until lightly browned. Invert the pan over a plate. 
 
Turning out perfect lacy crepes am sure is an art in itself and I hope to get there some day. If these are good, I can imagine the perfect ones can only be even better!

Storing : Refrigerate the crepes for upto 2 days, freeze upto 3 months. If using the crepes on the same day, its fine to stack them. If refrigerating or freezing them, use parchment pieces to separate them. 

• Please note : If making crepes for the first time, try using a pan of the recommended size. I must get myself a smaller pan! 
• Take 2 tablespoons plus a little more of batter in a small cup so that you can pour the batter all at once. Hold back the extra batter and use only if needed to fill any gaps.
• The amount of batter and the size of the pan will make your crepes thinner or thicker. 
• Easy and right heat control should help make softer crepes. Cooking them longer will make them dry and kind of crisp, especially if the batter is less spread thin. 
• Cornstarch : You can use upto 120 grams / 1 cup cornstarch if you want the crepes thicker. If using, 1 cup cornflour you will get more crepes. 
• Crepe batter made with all purpose flour normally is refrigerated for a while after mixing. This batter can be used immediately.

      Assemble :

   Place the crepes on a large plate, attractive side down. Spoon some ricotta, then honey and some plum puree.    Roll it up. Serve with more honey and plum puree on the side.

 

Tartine's Clafoutis - With Plums!

Happens every year. The season of gorgeous cherries, blushing peaches and ravishing plums. Not raving fan of these, I see them, I sigh and I walk away.  If only I loved baking with them!  I am not much of a cooked fruit person, which is why you are very unlikely to see me baking crisps, cobblers, crumbles and other fruity bakes.  But I got lured into buying some plums, blame my new camera and my sudden interest in taking pictures! And then a plum clafoutis happened!

Clafoutis (Kla-foo-tee) is a rustic, pudding kind of French dessert, traditionally made with unpitted fresh cherries, the kernels supposed to release kind of almond flavor into the dish. You could use berries, peaches, plums, nectarines, pears or even apples. The fruit is sometimes sauteed in butter and sugar and put at the bottom of a pie tin or a cast iron skillet or ramekins.

The batter is mostly just whizzing together all ingredients in a food processor or just combining the wet and dry ingredients, making it a snap of a dessert to put together.  And even better - you could make this less or more rich using either just whole milk or half and half or cream. A simple clafoutis for breakfast or an indulgent clafoutis for dessert with a dollop of cream or ice cream. Now you see, why I had to bake one! My family loved their dessert, so more clafoutis its going to be!

I stumbled upon this link on Mark's No Special Effects leading me to Tartine's Cherry Clafoutis. The method here is slightly different, process similar to making a custard, though I will know any difference in the texture only after I bake more clafoutis. 

Clafoutis
Serves 8-10

Recipe from Tartine by Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson

•Whole milk - 480 ml / 2 Cups ( you could use part cream)
•Sugar - 150 grams / 3/4 cup
• Vanilla bean - 1 or Vanilla extract - 1 1/2 teaspoons

• Salt - A pinch

• Eggs - 3 large / 144 grams
• All purpose Flour - 50 grams / 1/3 cup + 1 tablespoon

• Plums - 8-10, pitted and sliced ( Recipe used 2 cups cherries)

• 2 tablespoons sugar, for topping

1. Preheat the oven to 220ºC / 425ºF. Butter the dish you plan to use. I have used ten to twelve 60 ml / 1/4 cup capacity ramekins. Recipe suggests using a 25cm (10 inch) ceramic quiche mold or pie dish.

2. In a small saucepan, combine milk, sugar, the slit vanilla bean vanilla and salt. Place over a medium heat and stir to dissolve the sugar until just under a boil. (At this point, you could allow the flavor to steep for some time, say about 30 minutes, fish out the bean, scrape the seeds into the milk and bring it to a boil again)

3. While the milk mixture is heating, whisk the eggs and flour together in a heatproof bowl until smooth. I had to smoothen a few lumps so better to add flour in 2-3 additions. 

4. Remove the saucepan from the heat and slowly ladle the hot milk, say 1/4 cup at a  time,  into the egg mixture while whisking constantly.  Pour the mixture into the prepared mold and add the plums, making sure they are evenly distributed.

5. Bake for 25-30 minutes (30-35 minutes for the 10 '' pie dish, says the recipe), until just set in the center, slightly puffed and browned around the outside. (mine was golden brown and set, did not want to risk over baking)

6. Remove the custard from the oven and turn the temperature up to 260ºC (500ºF). Evenly sprinkle the sugar over the top of the clafoutis. Return to the oven for 5-10 minutes to caramelize the sugar. Watch carefully as it will darken quickly. ( I skipped this step)

6. Let cool on a wire rack for at least 15 minutes before slicing. Serve warm or at room temperature. We liked it better at room temperature when the clafoutis had a creamier set. 

We liked the clafoutis (would have loved it more with ice cream), though can't say the same of the tangy-sweet cooked plums. A recipe and a dessert to be baked again for sure, fruit or no fruit, why ever not when its so easy and a no-fuss dessert idea I would love to play around with!