How do you prefer your crepes? How about perfect light batter for thin crepes with pears and a decadant salted butter caramel sauce (here without cream)? Easy, quick. A delight.
There are many ways of eating crêpes in France. Simply, with jam or sugar and butter (some prefer salted butter, mainly in Britany) or more sophisticated as the classic Crêpes Suzettes (recipe to come soon), or all kind of fruit or chocolate sauces. What is your favorite?
This recipe quite easy and quick to prepare, as long as you know how to make caramel.
There are two ways of preparing caramel: with or without water. I tend to prefer without water but you have to have a good quality sauce pan with a thick bottom. With water is just a bit longer.
To come back to the recipe, here are the few steps of the pear caramel sauce: First you’ll have to make the caramel. To stop the cooking process of the caramel, and to get a nice creamy texture, butter is added while stirring. Then it’s time for pear cubes of pear. There is no need to cook the pears for too long otherwise they will become too soft. The best is to cook for only a few minutes, then let it rest, pears in the hot sauce for a while before coating the crêpes. This way, pears and caramel mingle, and the sauce become a delight.
A trick: If it happens that the caramel “masses” or crystallize, I don’t really know which word is more appropriate in English (with the shock of difference of temperature between the hot caramel and the colder butter), caramel rocks might appear. If so, bring to the boil for a few minutes while stirring and it should disappear. If some rock still remain, pour pears in, stir and remove them with a skimmer leaving the caramel sauce and the fruit juice in the pan. The sauce is then more liquid with the pear juice, then bring to the boil, stirring so that the last pieces of crystallized caramel dissolve. But not too long as you need juice for the recipe.
I suggest here a crepe recipe slightly different from that in my article on crêpes basic recipe. There is little less sugar and flour, and I added beer, which makes crêpes lighter. Both recipes are great so feel free to use this one or the one of the other article, and refer to the advices, tips and tricks given in the article.
Note that you can use other fruits (apple, pineapple …). And might also want to flame with rum.
French Crepes with Pears and Caramel Sauce
Ingredients
Crêpe batter
- 200 gr flour
- 30 gr sugar
- 2 gr salt
- 4 eggs
- 500 ml milk
- 50 gr butter
- 100 ml beer
Pear and caramel sauce
- 3 pears large, well ripe
- 90 gr sugar
- 60 gr salted butter
Instructions
First make the crepe batter:
- 1 / In a large bowl, combine flour, salt and sugar.
- 2 / Add the eggs 2 by 2 constantly stirring, until well incorporated.
- 3 / Then little by little still stirring pour in the milk.
- 4 / Then the melted butter.
- 5 / Finally the beer. Cover and place the batter into the refrigerator and allow to rest for 1 to 2 hours.
Then make the caramel sauce.
- Measure sugar and cut butter into small cubes. Peel the pears, remove the seeds and cut them into pieces.
- Put sugar evenly in a medium sauce pan and gently heat over medium-high heat (with or without water, as you prefer, see just before the recipe).
- When sugar has completely melted and the caramel gets a nice amber color, remove from the heat and add butter and stir quickly to incorporate.
- Then add the pears, stir a few moments. Remove from the fire and leave the preparation in the pan until it cools down a bit. If the caramel masses, refer to the advice just before the recipe.
Cook crepes.
- Heat a large pan over medium heat with a bit of butter. Brush butter with a paper towel until completely melted and all pan is coated. Pour ¼ cup batter into hot pan and swirl around until batter covers the bottom evenly.
- After 1 to 2 minutes, flip the crepe and cook the other side. Remove crepe into a plate, ideally placed into the oven heated at low heat (30 to 40°C).
- Continue on and on with the remaining batter.
Assemble
- Assemble by folding one crepe in each dish and coating with pears and caramel sauce.
Notes
Bon appétit !
