This week we’re traveling to France on the blog! Honestly this was a hard week to find a local recipe, because the things I would love to try to make (like pain au chocolat) are just not Liz-friendly and the things I can eat (like a chocolate soufflé) seemed a bit intimidating. But eventually I figured it out! Read below for fun making buckwheat crepes (crêpes de sarrasin) and superglue cookies (actually chocolate brownie cookies).
Local Fare
We’re celebrating the holidays with our family in South Carolina, so I wanted a recipe everyone would enjoy and crepes seemed like a perfect option. (I also had extra buckwheat flour from making our favorite pancakes a few days earlier.) Buckwheat crepes seemed like the perfect option! I found a simple recipe that didn’t require a crepe pan, since we didn’t have one, and gave it a shot!
This was my first time making crepes and it was definitely a learning experience. They got better as I went, though our pictures are from the early less-than-perfect batches. But after much trial and error, I figured it out. I didn’t have to make any replacements with this recipe, so no recipe card entry here! But here are a few tips I learned… First, don’t over butter the pan, or it will be hard to swirl the batter. Second, removing the pan from the heat to pour in the batter will make it much easier to get the batter to spread. Finally, to tell when your crepes are done, watch for the edges to curl up and the steam to stop rising from the pan. You can see the moisture leave the crepes, which is super cool, and that was a good sign to watch for since the color of the crepes didn’t change drastically. (They were quite dark.)
DW: I thought it was interesting to see the process. The later batches definitely looked better than the early ones. I suppose it’s a lot like the difference between the first pancakes on the griddle and the last ones. They all taste great, but they look a little different.
LW: Overall, the recipe was well received. I spread mini chocolate chips on while the crepes were cooking to get the melted chocolatey goodness we all want in a crepe. This recipe is probably something I’ll try again!
Liz-friendly Fare
I wanted to make some cookies to take to work for our week-long Holiday Potluck, so this was the perfect excuse to find a new cookie recipe. While searching for gluten and dairy free cookies, I came across this recipe from Bon Appétit for chocolate brownie cookies. The recipe is super simple and didn’t require any ingredient exchanges for me, so it seemed like a win-win. Little did I know things would get … complicated.
DW: Eating them was not complicated. In fact it was so uncomplicated I ate more than my ration. I do not feel bad about this.
LW: Good news: the cookies turned out great and were a hit both at home and at work.
Bad news: the batter essentially turned into glue while I was making it. So that was fun to live through.
The recipe calls for a lot of powdered sugar and a few eggs, so in hindsight I should have realized it would get firm. I did not. It was so firm, I couldn’t even add the chocolate to the cookie dough and had to sprinkle them on top instead! If you’re going to make this recipe, just be prepared for a very sticky and hard to mix dough, which makes fantastically chewy cookies with a consistency just like brownies. Even a few days later, the cookies were still crunchy on the edges and chewy in the center.
