Chocolate Crepes

We have definitely not met our chocolate quota for the month.  In fact, it’s been about two months since our last chocolate recipe was posted.  Well, I am going to rectify that with this simple but amazingly luscious dessert.  Chocolate crepes filled with even more chocolate and strawberries.  They really are every bit as delicious as they sound. 

Here’s what you’ll need:

• 1 egg
• ⅔ cup milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• ½ cup flour
• 2 Tablespoons cocoa
• 1 Tablespoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• Strawberries
• Cocoa almond spread

In a mixing bowl, sift together your flour and cocoa.

It’s really important to always sift your cocoa, or you’ll end up with these lumps in your finished dessert, and that’s not fabulous.  Just push them through the sieve with a spoon or even your fingers.

Add your sugar and salt to the bowl.

Then mix everything together and set it aside.

In another vessel combine your milk, egg, and vanilla.  (Ignore the extra egg in the ingredients picture.  There's only one in this recipe) I like to just measure the milk and add the egg and vanilla to the measuring cup. 

Whisk until it becomes foamy.  I like to use a handheld mixer because I’m lazy, but you could just use a whisk if you prefer. 

Add the wet mixture to the dry mixture and mix until it is smooth.

I like to pour the whole thing back into my (quickly rinsed) measuring cup.  It makes for easy pouring into your pan. 

Now before you start cooking your crepes, you need to prep the filling ingredients.  Wash, hull, and slice some strawberries.  Figure 2 – 3 berries per crepe. 

For the chocolate filling, I used Trader Joe’s Cocoa Almond Spread.  If you have a Trader Joe’s within a two hour drive, it’s well worth the trip.  If not, have a friend ship you some… or if you really can’t get it, I suppose you could substitute Nutella. 

Now it’s time to make the crepes.  Place your pan over medium heat and put a little butter on a paper towel. 

Spread the butter over the pan leaving just a trace across the whole surface. 

Pour a small amount of batter (maybe ¼ depending on the size of your pan) into the pan and tilt it in slow circles, allowing the batter to run to the edges.  You want it to be a very thin layer.

Seeley has some good pictures of this process in her crepes post.  When it looks just about dry on top, carefully lift one edge with a spatula, then give it a few seconds to cool slightly and just grab it with your fingers and peel it up and flip it over. 

Technically you don’t have to flip it.  It’s really already cooked all the way through, but I like to do it for good measure.  Seeley also showed how to keep the crepes warm in the oven while you cook the rest of them.  I’m going to just right to the filling.  Spread a thin layer of the cocoa almond spread over half of the crepe. 

Lay your strawberry slices over that, leaving a gap in the middle where it’s going to fold. 

Fold the top down.

And fold the whole thing in half. 

Sprinkle with a generous amount of powdered sugar and enjoy.  The delicate chew of the crepe filled with rich luscious chocolate and fresh berries is simply to die for. 

What’s your favorite Trader Joe’s product?

 
*This post was not brought to you by Trader Joe’s, I’m just slightly in love with many of their products. I have to admit, though, I am slightly peeved that I lived in Utah for 30 years, and now that I’ve left, they’re finally opening a store there. 

nuts to that

Is it chocolate or is it a nut?

I had a request for cookies with white chocolate chips and macadamia nuts in them. I've heard of this combo before but I'm not really fond of chunky bits of nuts in my cookies so I've never bothered with them. But they asked, and so I make.

I figured though, if I'm going to fill a cookie with these pale bits of stuff, it needs to be something other than a typical drop cookie. So I decided to make a super chocolately brownie style cookie.

Reverse Chocolate Macadamia Nut Chip Cookies

What you need:

• 8 ounces unsweetend chocolate
• ¼ c butter
• 1 ½  cup sugar
• 4 large eggs
• 2 teaspoon vanilla
• 1 ½ cups all-purpose flour (I used 2 cups. DON'T do that; it's too much)
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoons salt
• 1 cup white chocolate chips
• 1 c chopped macamadamia nuts

What you gotta do:

Okay, first off, I used too much flour. I made mine with a full 2 cups and they didn't spread at all as they baked, and they were a little crumblier than I'd hoped for. So, I'm thinking that if you reduce it to 1 1/2 cups, they should have a better shape and texture.

Melt the chocolate and butter together in the microwave. Start with a minute and a half at 50% power, stir, and then a minute at 50% power, stir. You don't want the chocolate to melt entirely in the microwave. Don't worry, the residual heat will get rid of the rest of the chunks.

In a big bowl, mix the eggs and sugar together.

Add the vanilla and the melted chocolate to the big bowl. Stir until it's lovely and dark and glossy.

I had thought I'd be able to bash the macamadamia nuts in the bag they came in with the bottom of the baking powder jar to break them up. Didn't work.

So, chopping them with a knife. They're a much softer nut than say an almond or a pecan, and they seem to shave better than they chop. mmm shaved nuts.

If you feel like sifting the flour, baking powder, and salt before you add it to the big bowl, go right ahead. I didn't. I just piled it all on top (srsly, don't use this much flour) and gave it a bit of a premix before I mixed it all in.

Yay, flour. I was having a seriously spilly kinda of day.

Yup, definitely too much flour.

It all mixed in though... there are times when chocolate really just isn't very photogenic.

Add the nuts and the white chocolate chips to the dough.

Now, if you only used 1 1/2 cups of flour, chilling the dough before you scoop it onto the baking sheet will probably work well to give you a nice soft cookie. Mine though retained their shape a little too well after chilling. So, I left the dough on the counter after the second round.

It didn't help much. There are some things that just can't be fixed, and too much flour in your cookie dough is one of them.

Good enough. They're chocolate, there's lots of them, and though the texture is a little less than ideal, they don't taste half bad. You could do this with bittersweet chocolate, but then they'd be too sweet to eat more than 3 or 4 at a time.

Bake them at 325 for 10 minutes and let them cool on a rack before you pack them up to take to work. Or pile them onto a plate to eat in bed.