Crêpes Suzette
With my Québécois background, I grew up eating a lot of French dishes like Salade Niçoise 🥗, Cassoulet, Soufflés, Steak au Poivre 🥩, Blanquette de Veau, Escargot à la Bourguignonne 🐌, Bouillabaisse, Boeuf Bourguignon, Croque-monsieur or Croque-madame 🥪, Fondant Potatoes, Coq au Vin, and the list goes on and on…
When it comes to dessert, you bet the scrumptious selections were vast; Éclair au Chocolat, Madeleine, Profiterole, Mille-Feuille, Macarons, Pain au Chocolat, Bûche de Noël, Pêche Melba 🍑, Mendiant, Crème Brûlée, just to name a few…
There’s another one that I was able to enjoy when I was around 14 and it was Crêpes Suzette! Oh my, oh my! To me, this is the ultimate “grown-up” dessert! With light, fluffy, buttery crêpes along with an orange liqueur sauce, this is pure indulgence as long as you’re the legal age to drink or your parents let you have some – they only let me have a small square with barely any sauce on it… nonetheless, it was delish 😋!
Making crêpes is easy and I use the same batter for my Chicken Stuffed Crêpes with Poblano Sauce with the exception of adding powdered sugar for the sweet version. The sauce is not complicated either; caramelized sugar, add some butter then orange and lemon zest, some orange juice as well as lemon juice 🍋, thicken it, add orange segments before adding the crêpes, fold them, add liqueurs and voilà… the sauce is done!
The success of making nice crêpes is to let the batter rest at room temperature for 30 minutes ⏰. It allows the flour to absorb the liquid and also give the gluten a chance to relax. If you don’t have time to do this step, I recommand using Instant Flour aka Wondra instead of all-purpose flour as it doesn’t need time to hydrate.
As much as it sounds easy, the sauce for the Crêpes Suzette is slightly technical and mistakes can be made easily especially when filming the recipe while having company over… I got so distracted, I’m surprised I was able to serve them to my guests! Here are a few boo-boos I made 🙄 to be avoided…
– We start on medium heat to melt the sugar in the pan BUT 1 minute later, we have to reduce it to medium-low.
– The orange segments are added just, and I’m serious, just before placing a crêpe at a time in the skillet to fold BECAUSE they will break down and you’ll end up with pieces instead of whole segments.
– Technically, this is a flambé dessert and it’s pretty amature to not ignite the Grand Marnier. On the other hand, it won’t make any difference as the sauce is bubbling away. If you are a “fine bouche” (it means foody), you might discern the taste of alcohol to be a tad stronger. But if it’s your dessert and you had a couple glasses of wine during dinner, guess what… you won’t know the difference!
There’s no doubt about it… Crêpes Suzette is an elegant dessert although they can be served for brunch! To make the zests looks even fancier, use a zester instead of a grater or microplane otherwise it will look pedestrian. We want long strings of zest for both orange 🍊 and lemon… it makes the dish look prettier!
If you make the crêpes ahead of time – here’s the link -, this is a pretty quick dessert to make. These delicious Crêpes Suzette are perfect for any special occasion, brunch, Holidays 🎄, dinner parties, etc. With a gorgeous orange liqueur sauce, this French classic will certainly please you and your guests…
Bon Appétit! 🍽
Check out these other incredible dessert recipes… 😀
– Orange Flan
– Chocolate Pot de Crème
– Apple Betty
– Creamy Cheesecake
– Zabaione
– Grand-Pères (Maple Syrup Dumplings)
– Tropical Pineapple Upside Down Cake
– Bananas Foster
and for even more dessert recipes 🍰🍩, click on this link… Recipe Category • Dessert
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Crêpes Suzette
Hover to scale
Ingredients
BATTER
- 3/4 cup whole milk
- 2 large free-range eggs, room temperature
- 1 large free-range egg yolk, room temperature
- 3 tbsp. unsalted butter, melted tips & tricks
- 1 tbsp. powdered sugar tips & tricks
- 1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
- 1/8 tsp. ground Himalayan pink salt
- 3/4 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
CRÊPES
- 1 tbsp. soft butter, or as needed and divided tips & tricks
ORANGE SAUCE
- 1/4 cup granulated sugar
- 3 tbsp. butter, soften
- 2 tbsp. orange zest, divided
- 1 tbsp. lemon zest
- 1/2 cup freshly squeezed orange juice, room temperature tips & tricks
- 1 tbsp. freshly squeezed lemon juice, room temperature tips & tricks
- orange segments from 1 orange
- 1/4 cup Grand Marnier liqueur
- 1 tbsp. Limoncello liqueur see Recipe
- 2 big scoops vanilla ice cream see Recipe
Directions
BATTER
- In the jar of a blender, combine all the ingredients except the flour and process on medium speed until mixed, about 20 seconds.
- Add flour and process until combined and smooth, scraping the sides of the jar if needed.
- Let the batter stand for at least 30 minutes (longer is better) to allow the gluten to relax and the bubbles to settle.
CRÊPES
- In a 10-inch skillet over medium heat, brush on some butter at the bottom of the pan.
- When it gets warm, add about a ¼ cup of batter and swirl the pan around so it evenly covers the bottom.
- Cook until golden brown, about 1:30 to 2 minutes.
- Using a spatula, flip the crêpe over and cook until brown as well.
- Transfer to a plate and place a piece of wax paper to prevent it from drying out. Brush more butter in the pan and continue making crêpes until the batter is gone.
ORANGE SAUCE
- In a 12-inch stainless steel skillet on medium heat, sprinkle granulated sugar and gently caramelize it, about 2 minutes.
- When the sugar starts melting, reduce the heat to medium-low and add butter. Stir until both ingredients are blended and the mixture turns into a gorgeous caramel color.
- Add 1 tablespoon orange zest and 1 tablespoon lemon zest; stir quickly. Pour in orange juice and lemon juice. Increase to medium heat and bring the mixture to a simmer; cook for 3 minutes to thicken the sauce.
- Add orange segments, gently stir to coat and push them aside before placing one crêpe. Using a fork and a spoon, fold the crêpe in half and then half again; repeat until all crêpes are used and are folded into triangles.
- Pour in Grand Marnier and Limoncello liqueur.
- Transfer crêpes on serving plates, spoon sauce over, add vanilla ice cream and garnish with the remaining 1 tbsp. orange zest. Makes 4 crêpes.
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