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Make Your Own Preserved Meyer Lemons

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Quick Preserved Lemons Have you seen Meyer Lemons in your grocery store and wondered what you can do with them?  Try preserving the lemons so that you can use them year round.  The thin skin of a meyer lemon makes them perfect for preserving.

If you are a fan of lemons then this is a quick and easy recipe that you must try!  Preserved lemons couldn’t be easier to make and they will elevate any dish that you cook with lemons to the next level.  If you are wondering what preserved lemons are the simple answer is they are lemons that have been pickled in salt and their own juices.  Think of using them in salad dressings, chicken and fish!

So let’s get started!  You simply need a jar, lemons (meyer lemons if you have them), kosher salt and water. Preserved-lemons-ingredients

First clean your jar and lemons.

Preserved-Lemons-sliced Next you’ll need to decide whether you want to preserve your lemons quartered or sliced.  I did a jar of each.  The quartered lemons are more traditional and the sliced lemons will take a little more time upfront but they sure are pretty in the jar.

Slice the ends off the lemons but save them for their juices.  If you want them quartered then quarter the lemons but don’t slice entirely through the lemon so they will stay whole in the jar.

Preserved-Lemons-start-with-salt Add a tablespoon of salt into the bottom of your jar.

Preserved-lemons-layering Now you layer lemons and salt into the jar.  For the quartered lemons add a tablespoon of salt inside of each lemon and stuff the lemon into the jar.  Top with salt and continue until your jar is full.

Save one lemon to squeeze into the jar and cover with bottled water.

Leave the lemons in a cool place and shake every day for 3-5 days.  Now you can leave the lemons alone until they are soft and ready to be used in cooking!

Preserved-Lemons I leave the lemons on my counter until the skin of the lemon is soft (that’s how you know they are ready) and then I move them to my refrigerator to store.

In less than a week your lemons will look like this and will be ready for use.

Preserved-Lemons-ready-to-eat

Make a few jars and you’ll have the perfect hostess gift ready at a moments notice!

Friday Family Favorite: Quick and Easy NO Bake Frozen Peanut Butter Pie

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Quick and Easy Frozen Peanut Butter Pie

Growing up this was one of my favorite desserts!  It wasn’t until I was an adult that I realized just how easy it is to put together a frozen peanut butter pie.  There’s a lot to love about this pie-oreo cookie crust, frozen creamy peanut butter filling and shaved chocolate on top-YUM!

frozen-peanut-butter-pie You can see from my recipe card that this recipe is well loved and tried and true!

peanut-butter-pie-recipe-card This is one of those pies that you can keep in the freezer and anytime a craving comes you have something ready…of make one to take to a friend-they will appreciate it!

frozen-peanut-butter-and-chocolate-pie Here’s the recipe.

Friday Family Favorite: Quick and Easy NO Bake Frozen Peanut Butter Pie
 
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This is one of our families favorite desserts-frozen peanut butter pie. The best part-it's quick, easy and requires NO baking!
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Cuisine: American
Serves: 8 slices
Ingredients
  • 1 chocolate cookie pie crust
  • 1 cup creamy peanut butter (I always use JIF)
  • 4 ounce cream cheese, room temperature
  • 1 cup powdered sugar
  • ½ cup milk
  • 1 10-ounce package Cool Whip (small container) (or other whipped topping), thawed
  • 1 chocolate bar, cold so that you can shave the chocolate for the topping
Instructions
  1. Stir together softened cream cheese, peanut butter and powdered sugar and mix until smooth. Add cool whip and milk. Beat until smooth. Filling is complete!
  2. Pour the filling into the pie shell and smooth the top of the filling.
  3. With a vegetable peeler, peel the chocolate bar to make chocolate shavings.
  4. Top the pie with the chocolate shavings.
  5. Freeze pie until frozen.

I hope that you enjoy one of our families favorites!

Frozen-peanut-butter-pieFrozen-peanut-butter-pie

Tomato and Garlic Bruschetta with Grilled Garlic Baguette

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tomato garlic bruschetta with grilled garlic baguette

 

We are reaching the end of summer here in Nashville but we can still get some great tomatoes so I thought I’d share our families favorite summer appetizer~Tomato and garlic bruschetta with grilled garlic baguette.

If you have some ripe tomatoes you should make this immediately before they are all gone!  This is such a simple bruschetta but the flavors are classic and  you can go wrong.  Children and adults alike have enjoyed this all summer in our house.

summer stable tomato and garlic bruschetta The trick is to make some garlic infused olive oil for the grilled baguettes and then use that same minced garlic in your bruschetta!

I hope that you are able to make this at least once before summer is completely gone.  If not, there’s always next summer! tomato and garlic bruschetta with garlic grilled baguette

Tomato and Garlic Bruschetta with Grilled Garlic Baguette
 
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A summer staple. This our families favorite summertime appetizer. Tomato and garlic bruschetta with grilled garlic baguette.
Author:
Recipe type: appetizer
Cuisine: Italian
Serves: 25
Ingredients
  • 3 large ripe tomato
  • 3 garlic cloves minced
  • ½ cup olive oil
  • ¼ cup chopped basil
  • pinch red pepper flakes
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 1 teaspoon pepper
  • 1 baguette loaf sliced
Instructions
  1. Prepare the garlic infused olive oil
  2. In a small pan add garlic, red pepper flakes.
  3. Bring to a simmer over medium-low head. Simmer 5 minutes.
  4. Allow olive oil to cool.
  5. Strain olive oil. You will use the garlic in the bruschetta.
  6. Prepare the tomatoes for the bruschetta
  7. Peel tomato skin by cutting a small X on the bottom of each tomato. Place the tomato in boiling water for 30 seconds. Remove from boiling water and place in ice bath to cool. The ice bath will keep the tomatoes from cooking.
  8. Once cool peel the tomatoes.
  9. Remove the seeds and dice the tomato into equal sized pieces.
  10. Add the minced garlic that was used to make the olive oil.
  11. Add basil, ¼ cup of the strained olive oil, salt and pepper
  12. Stir together.
  13. Bruschetta is ready!
  14. Prepare the grilled garlic toasts.
  15. Bruch each side of the bread slices with the remaining garlic infused olive oil.
  16. Gril each side for approximately 30 seconds until desired crispness.
  17. This appetizer is best served at room temperature and the bruschetta gets better with time!

favorite-summer-appetizer tomato bruschetta with grilled baguette

Kids in the Kitchen: Meatloaf and Mashed Potato Cupcakes

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Kids in the Kitchen meatloaf mashed potato cupcakes

My children LOVE to be in the kitchen helping me with whatever I make, especially desserts! I’ve had them helping me since they were really little.  Today I’m going to start a series of post titled Kids in the Kitchen where I show you all of the amazing things that kids can do in the kitchen!  I hope that this will inspire you to get your children into the kitchen.  Today we are baking cupcakes…meatloaf mashed potato cupcakes!

This summer my girls enjoyed watching the TV show MasterChef Junior and now they are even more excited than ever to be in the kitchen helping with my every move.  They are training to be their own MasterChefs.

My daughter recently went to a sleepover where they made their own version of meatloaf cupcakes.  I knew we had to make them at home when she individually told everyone in our family about them. This is a great way to get kids in the kitchen helping and then eating the food they made!

For this meal you can use your favorite meatloaf and mashed potatoes and turn it into savory cupcakes! favorite meatloaf recipe

I have learned with my girls that the mess is exponential when the kids help out!  Be prepared for a mess.  Today I pre-measured all of the ingredients.  I knew the fun would be in making the meatloaf and then the mashed potato icing.

  • First we mixed the meatloaf mixture.  Clara thought it was great that she got to use her hands to mix the meatloaf.

    mixing meatloaf

    Kids were shocked and thrilled to use their hands to mix the meatloaf!

  • We used a measuring scoop to make the cupcakes as even as possible. scooping-meatloaf-kids-can-do-it-all
  • We baked the meatloaf before putting on the mashed potatoes.  (If you want your mashed potatoes crispy like Shepard’s Pie you could pipe before baking the meatloaf). adding meatloaf sauce
  • Next we piped the icing (mashed potatoes).  We used some food coloring to make the icing more fun.  You definitely don’t have to pipe the icing but I think it’s easier for kids to pipe icing than to spread it with a knife. mashed potato icing
  • Finally we added toppings as the sprinkles.  You can’t have cupcakes without sprinkles!  Our sprinkles were bacon bits, shredded cheese and green onions.   cupcake sprinkles

The girls loved not only making their dinner but they also enjoyed eating!  They ate their meatloaf just like you would any other cupcake-with your hands!

eating meatloaf cupcakes

You can eat a meatloaf cupcake the same way as any other cupcake!

 

meatloaf mashed potato cupcakes

You can’t have a kids in the kitchen series without sharing the outtakes!  My 1 year old had to get into the action and the girls had plenty of fun silly moments.  That’s part of the fun.

kids in the kitchen

It’s never to early to start helping in the kitchen

kids in the kitchen outtake kids in the kitchen fun meatloaf mashed potato cupcakes

 

Apple Tarte Tatin: An EASY classic French Dessert to serve for dinner

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Apple Tarte Tatin-The French Apple Pie

Apple Tarte Tatin-The French Apple Pie

Are you looking to try out a new pie recipe?  I’m always looking to try something new and today i’m going for a French classic: Tarte Tatin…the french version of Apple Pie!  This is the perfect dessert to serve when you have company.  This dessert comes together easily and will impress anyone that you serve it to.  Basically this is the apple pie version of pineapple upside down cake.

A slice of Pie

For this dish the ingredients are simple:

  • Butter and sugar come together to caramelize the apples
  • Apples, peeled, cored and sliced.  You can quarter the apples for a rustic tart or slice thinly for a prettier presentation.
  • Crust–use your favorite pie crust or to make it even easier use frozen puff pastry!  Today I’m using puff pastry-I like the flakiness of the crust with the caramelized apples.

butter and sugar caramelize apples Add apples to butter and sugar

Caramelized apples ready for a crust

If you open any french pastry cookbook the chances are that you will find a basic recipe for Tarte Tatin.  I’m combining several favorites together to make this one today.  The “twist” that I’ve included today is to flavor the butter with chai tea!  One of my favorite cookbook authors, Dorie Greenspan, adds vanilla tea to her tarte tartan in her cookbook, Paris Sweets.  I didn’t have vanilla tea in my pantry but I did have chai tea.  I love the spicy flavors and they pair perfectly with apples.

Go impress your friends with this simple but stunning classic french ‘pie’!

Tartu Tatin: An EASY classic French Dessert to serve for dinner
 
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A simple French classic: Tarte Tatin. This simple and stunning dessert will impress any dinner guest
Author:
Recipe type: Tarte Tatin
Cuisine: French Dessert
Ingredients
  • Puff Pastry (one pre-made frozen sheet)
  • 1 stick unsalted butter
  • 1 bag chai tea
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • Juice of ½ lemon
  • I ⅓ cup sugar
  • 6 to 8 medium apples, any sweet firm apple. Peeled and quartered or sliced (my preference is sliced)
Instructions
  1. I make this recipe in a cast iron skillet because I can prepare everything in the same pan. The cast iron skillet can bemused on the stove and oven and does a great job of caramelizing sugar. If you don't have an oven proof skilled you can prepare the apples on the stovetop and then transfer to a baking dish to finish in the oven.
  2. Roll puff pastry until it is ⅛" thick and about one inch larger than the pan that you will use for baking.
  3. Use a fork to prick over the entire surface. Put the puff pastry on parchment paper or plastic wrap and return to the refrigerator until ready for baking.
  4. Preheat oven to 375.
  5. Prepare apples for baking. Peel, core and slice apples. Place in a bowl with lemon juice and ⅓ cup sugar. This will help pull out some of the juices and help make the finished pie have a thicker carmel coating.

 

Everything but the Kitchen Sink Cookies

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kitchen-sink-cookie-snack

Do you sometime want to get into the kitchen and make something only you can decide if you want salty or sweet?  If so then this is the cookie for you.  My children were recently out of school for a week for ice/snow and they wanted to help bake!  We were limited to what we had in our house and the kids couldn’t agree on one specific item so we created these!

The original inspiration for these cookies is from the cookbook Milk by Christina Tosi.

I love the cornflake marshmallow chocolate chip cookie but I’d been wanting to try out her compost cookie so we combined the two together and this is what we came up with!

kitchen-sink-cookie-closeup

We used the basic cookie recipe for the Compost cookie and made a few substitutions with the add-ins.  We included cornflake crunch, marshmallows, a variety of chips and of course the coffee grinds.  Do you see those black specs in the cookie?  They are the coffee grinds and if I had to choose one must have add-in ingredient it would be the coffee!

Christina has a very specific creaming process for her cookies and explains in the cookbook that this is what helps give the cookies the crispy outside and chewy interior.  It takes a little time but set the timer and trust the recipe!
creamed-butter-and-sugar

I have a hard time getting pictures straight from my mixing bowl but here’s a snapshot of the butter and sugar after creaming for the full amount of time.

cookie dough

I often find that one recipe for cookies makes more than we want to eat before they get stale.  We’ve all been known to finish off a stale cookie but why do that when you can freeze cookie dough and have fresh, warm cookies in a matter of minutes.  You can see below that I froze individually scooped cookies that are ready anytime that you want a cold glass of milk and a warm cookie!

freezer-ready-cookies

These cookies do taste best if you let them rest for a minimum of one hour in the refrigerator before baking…this is another advantage to freezing the cookies.  The bake up just perfectly from the freezer!

kitchen-sink-cookie For the recipe for these cookies I’m going to share what I did for the cookies but I encourage you to just mix up whatever you have in your pantry to put into the cookies!  The only thing that I’d recommend is to have similar amounts of salty, sweet and crunchy to make the most of the cookie.

Enjoy!

Everything but the Kitchen Sink Cookies
 
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The perfect salty, sweet, crunchy and chewy cookie to satisfy all of your cravings.
Author:
Recipe type: cookie
Cuisine: american
Serves: 3 dozen
Ingredients
  • 1¼c corn flakes
  • 1¼c rice kris pies
  • 20g milk powder
  • 20g sugar
  • 1g salt
  • 65g melted butter
  • 225g butter at room temperature
  • 200g sugar
  • 150g brown sugar
  • 50g glucose
  • 1 egg
  • 2g vanilla
  • 225g all purpose flour
  • 2g baking powder
  • 2g baking soda
  • 4g salt
  • 40g oats
  • 125g chocolate chips
  • 75g butterscotch chips
  • 75g marshmallow bits
  • 50g mini pretzels
  • 50g potato chips
Instructions
  1. Prepare cornflake/rice krispy crunch. Preheat oven to 275.
  2. In medium bowl, mix together cornflakes, rice krispies, milk powder, 1g salt.
  3. Pour 65g melted butter over and stir to combine.
  4. Spread onto cookie sheet and bake for 20 minutes until crunchy.
  5. Set aside until ready to put into cookie dough.
  6. Prepare cookie dough. Preheat oven to 375.
  7. In mixer combine 225g butter, sugars, glucose and mix on medium-high for 3 minutes.
  8. Scrape down sides of bowl.
  9. Add egg and vanilla and continue creaming process for 7 minutes. Do not skip the full creaming time as this is what creates a crunchy outside and chewy inside to the cookie.
  10. On low speed add flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt.
  11. Mix until incorporated but not more than one minute.
  12. Add in "mix-ins" as you choose. For this recipe I added remaining ingredients but you can add whatever salty, sweet, crunchy and chewy items that you'd like to make it your own.
  13. Chill dough for a minimum of one hour or overnight. Better yet, freeze individual cookies and bake straight from freezer.
  14. Scoop cookies onto cookie sheet (about 2 tablespoons each) and bake for 15 minutes.
  15. Allow cookie to cool on cookie sheet for 1 minute before moving to cooling rack to finish cooling.

 

 

Brown Butter M&M and Chocolate Chip Cookies

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browned-butter-M&M-cookie-afternoon-snack Do you have a go to cookie dough recipe that you can make simple modifications and make numerous types of cookies?  Well if you don’t, look no further!  This is my go-to cookie dough recipe.

browned-butter-cookie-ingredients

Please don’t be scared off by the browned butter—it really is necessary but is not difficult to make.

Browned butter ready for cookies

Browned butter ready for cookies

I know you have seen lots of hype about browned butter and at first I thought, “Is it really necessary in cookies, and could you really taste the difference?” So I had to try it out and I’m officially converted.  The brown butter adds a nutty flavor to the cookies that is just delicious.

There is one more secret in this recipe—glucose.  If you don’t have glucose you can substitute corn syrup in its place and it a close match.  The glucose is what keeps the cookies chewy on the inside.  I like a chocolate chip cookie that is crispy on the outside and chews on the inside.  You can find glucose on Amazon.  Buy a tub to keep unhand for your favorite chewy cookies.   Glucose

These cookies are jam packed with M&M’s and chocolate chips.  Actually I made 1/2 of the batch with M&M’s and the other half with chips per the request of my children.  They both wanted specific cookies and they weren’t willing to combine the M&M’s and chocolate chips! Take a look at just how many candies we were able to squeeze into one cookie.

Browned-butter-M&M-cookie

Brown Butter M&M and Chocolate Chip Cookies
 
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This is my go-to cookie dough recipe for a crispy exterior and chewy interior. The brown butter adds a nutty flavor to the finished cookie.
Author:
Recipe type: cookie
Cuisine: American
Serves: 3 dozen
Ingredients
  • 2 cups all purpose flour
  • ½ teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • ⅔ cup brown butter, room temperature or cooled
  • ⅔ cup sugar
  • ⅔ cup brown sugar
  • 1 egg
  • 2 tablespoon glucose
  • 1 tablespoon water
  • 2 teaspoon vanilla
  • 1½ chips or M&M or combination
Instructions
  1. Brown butter by melting butter in saucepan on top of stove. Bring to boiling and stir occasionally until butter has browned. Watch closely, the butter can go from brown to burnt quickly.
  2. Remove butter from stove and let cool. The brown bits in the bottom of the pan are good! They add to the flavor of the browned butter.
  3. Preheat oven to 350.
  4. Cream butter and sugar until creamy; 2-3 minutes. Add egg, glucose, vanilla and continue to mix for an additional 6 minutes.
  5. Add in dry ingredients until mixed through.
  6. Add chips. It will look like there are too many chips but the dough will hold that many chips and make the finished cookie extra chocolaty!
  7. If you have time to rest the dough, rest in the refrigerator for 1-2 hours or even overnight. This step is optional but does help the finished product flavor.
  8. Bake at 350 for 9-13 minutes.
  9. Let cookies cool for 2 minutes on cookie sheet before moving to cooking rack.

browned-butter-M&M-cookie-and-milk

Try this out with your favorite fillers and let me know your favorites!

Barbecue Buns (Inspired by Siopao (Asian Filled Buns))

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Barbecue-Filled-buns

It’s been awhile since I last checked in!  I have several posts in the works but just haven’t wrapped them up so hopefully there will be a few more post coming soon! I joined The Daring Kitchen late last year and have yet to actually post one of the monthly challenges!  This month I’m late in getting the post but I’m going to go ahead an post about the challenge.

One of the reasons that I joined The Daring Kitchen was to try new things and broaden my baking repertoire.  This month’s challenge was Siopao or Asian filled buns.  As first I was nervous simply because of the recipe name…I’ve never made much Asian food but as I read the recipe it became clear that this was a filled bun and my children would LOVE to participate and devour the food.

The bun is a simple recipe; it is basically a pizza dough and doesn’t require kneading.  I’d recently made our favorite slow cooker barbecue (I hope to tell you about this shortly-seriously a favorite slow cooker recipe) and we had leftover barbecue and we were out of sandwich buns!  I realized this would be the perfect opportunity to try out these filled buns.

bun-dough-ingredients

bun-dough-ready-to-rise bun-dough-doubled-in-size

 

 

 

 

 

I made the basic dough and rolled out each piece of dough into a flat circle and then I got my children involved.  Take a look at the ingredients…this couldn’t be any simpler and chances are that you have everything to make this right now!  The girls helped scoop out the filling, close up the buns and then put on an egg wash before baking.

stuffing-baked-buns helping in-the-kitchen

My girls had fun making dinner, the stuffed buns were delicious and we’ll definitely make this again!  Thanks Julie (from One-Wall Kitchen) for the monthly challenge.  I can see us stuffing all kinds of things into these buns…it’s the perfect portable dinner for weeknights on the go.

buns-ready-to-bake

baked-buns

Here’s the recipe for the bun.  I hope you enjoy.

Barbecue Buns (Inspired by Siopao (Asian Filled Buns))
 
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This is a simple yet delicious recipe for a filled bun. I made filled the bun with Barbecue.
Author:
Recipe type: Dinner
Cuisine: Asian Buns
Serves: 16
Ingredients
  • 1 packet active dry yeast
  • 1½ cups (360 ml) warm water
  • 1 tablespoon (15 ml) sugar
  • 2 tablespoons (30 ml) melted butter
  • 1 teaspoon (5 ml) salt
  • 4 to 5 cups (20 oz to 25 oz) (560 gm to 700 gm) all-purpose (plain) flour
  • 1 egg for egg-wash for the buns
Instructions
  1. Mix yeast, water, sugar, melted butter, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
  2. Slowly mix in flour until it's fully incorporated. It will be a very tacky dough, but not wet and sticky.
  3. Cover the bowl and let rise for up to an hour in warm place until doubled in size.
  4. Punch down dough and turn out onto a floured surface. Fold the dough over several times and shape into a smooth ball, then divide into 16 equal pieces.
  5. Roll each piece into a ball and flatten it into a disc about 5-6 inches wide.
  6. Place 1-2 tablespoons of filling into the center of the disc, wrap the dough around the filling, and firmly pinch it closed over the top of the filling. Make sure the dough is fully closed and there are no holes.
  7. Place filled buns on a baking sheet and loosely cover them. Let them rest for 1 hour.
  8. Preheat oven to moderate 350°F.
  9. Beat 1 egg in a small bowl for egg wash and brush on top of each bun.
  10. Bake buns for about 20 minutes, until golden brown. Serve warm. These also reheat well.

 

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cookie Crunch

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Dark-chocolate-peppermint-crunch-cookie

Are you looking for a delicious yet simple cookie this holiday season?  Look no further-this dark chocolate peppermint cookie crunch is just perfect.

chocolate-crunch-cookie-closeup

This cookie is festive (look at the red and green throughout the cookie simple to make, tastes great and will still taste great for days after it’s made.  The best part…you don’t even need an oven!

cookie-slices

This year I participated in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap and these are the cookies that I made for 3 lucky bloggers.  This was such a fun experience.  I had fun making cookies for others and receiving cookies in the mail.  Who doesn’t love getting a package in the mail?

cookie-swap-ready-to-ship

These cookies are all about the combination of ingredients so choose quality ingredients-it will make the finished product better.  You definitely want salty, sweet, crunchy and chewy in the cookie to make the most of the cookie.

chocolate-crunch-cookie-packages-for-swap

Dark Chocolate Peppermint Cookie Crunch
 
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A simple but delicious cookie that is perfect for sharing!
Author:
Recipe type: Cookie
Cuisine: American
Serves: 16 cookies
Ingredients
  • 1 cup butter, soft
  • 1½ pound chocolate (I used a combination of semi-sweet and dark chocolate) chopped
  • 6 Tablespoon dark corn syrup
  • 1 package butter cookies, broken into pieces
  • ½ cup peeled pistacios chopped
  • ½ cup roasted, peeled and chopped hazelnut
  • ½ cup white mini marshmallow
  • ½ cup pink peppermint mini marshmallow
  • ½ cup crushed candy canes
Instructions
  1. Line an 8x8 pan with parchment paper
  2. Melt butter, chocolate and corn syrup stirring occasionally until smooth. You can use the microwave (50% power in 30 second increments) or a double broiler to melt the chocolate mixture.
  3. Combine cookies, nuts and marshmallows in a large mixing bowl.
  4. Pour chocolate mixture over cookies and stir until well combined.
  5. Pour into 8x8 pan and top with crushed peppermints.
  6. Chill in refrigerator until firm.
  7. Once firm cut into bars and enjoy!

I hope that you will try out some different combinations and let me know what you think!  I think some pecans and walnuts would be wonderful or what about a smores version where you replace the butter cookie with graham crackers and use all white marshmallows?  The possibilities are endless!

What are you baking this holiday?  If you need ideas head over to The Great Food Blogger site for this year’s cookie swap recipes!

chocolate-cookie-plated

Raspberry Creme Brûlée Crepe Cake

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Raspberry-creme-brule-crepe-cake

I am sitting here thinking about all of the yummy food that we’ve eaten during the Thanksgiving holiday and I wanted to share with you a special desert that we made this year.  This year I am participating in the Great Food Blogger Cookie Swap.  One of the hosts of the cookie swap is Lindsay from Love and Olive Oil.  It’s a great blog and she also hosts a monthly cooking challenge.  This month she challenged the blog world to try out a crepe cake and I knew it would be a great addition to our Thanksgiving desserts.

Crepe-Cake-delicous-layers

Our Thanksgivings are pretty traditional and we don’t do much to change our favorite recipes.  By the time you prepare everyone’s favorite recipe there’s not much room left to try new things.  Desserts are the one place we can easily squeeze in something new!  We eat the desserts for several days so it doesn’t hurt to add something new to the mix!

I just LOVE crepes and have wanted to try out this cake for some time.  I started to think about my favorite way to fill crepes. I settled on  raspberry and pastry cream with a cream brûlée topping…you can’t go wrong!

Creme-brule-crepe-cake

For this recipe it helps to break this down into manageable steps and to start early!  I made the crepe batter on Monday; cooked the crepes and made the pastry cream on Tuesday; assembled on Wednesday and it was ready to eat on Thanksgiving (Thursday).  You want to do the creme brûlée topping just before serving so that you have that perfect crunch on top!

Don’t fret it you don’t finish the cake in one night.  It keeps well in the refrigerator.  The creme brûlée topping will get soft but that’s ok–we just topped with raspberry jam.  This cake turned into a perfect addition to a brunch on Thanksgiving weekend!  Remember it’s crepes, raspberry jam and pastry cream…it was a perfect sweet addition to brunch.

I encourage you to try this out sometime!

Crepe-cake-raspberry-sauce

Here are a few lessons that I learned along the way:

  • Crepe batter should rest after being made.  It really does help to let it rest overnight in the refrigerator.
  • Crepes can be made ahead but make sure they are fully covered in plastic wrap so they don’t dry out.  I learned this the hard way.  I had to throw away some crepes because they dried out overnight and you definitely want the crepes nice and soft.
  • This brings me to my next tip–plan on making extras!  There will more than likely be some crepes that you don’t want to use for the cake.
  • Next time I make this I’ll add more raspberry jam.  For this cake I used a 4 to 1 pastry cream to raspberry jam ratio but the raspberry was lost in the cake…that is until I poured some over the top to make a sauce!

What are your favorite ways to eat a crepe (Nutella and banana, lemon and sugar, Dulce de leche-these all sound like delicious crepe cakes!)?  The possibilities are endless to make this a one of a kind creation.

Crepe-cake-layers

I can’t wait to see the other crepe cakes that were made this month!