Sourdough Surprises June: Crepes Suzette with Cinnamon Ice Cream

When I saw that the challenge for this month's Sourdough Surprises was crepes, I almost opted out. I can barely make pancakes; how was I going to make crepes? I have always wanted to try but didn't crepes involve using a fancy wooden tool to spread the batter in the pan? It was definitely beyond my skill level.

But then I thought about it, what was the point of making things month after month that didn't challenge me in some way? Doing this is supposed to be a way to push me outside my current sourdough comfort zone (the same kind of bread almost every single week!). So I looked at a few recipes and then did what I usually do for most new recipes - I asked Alton Brown. I absolutely love Good Eats! I love the tips and the explanations and they have really helped me to understand my ingredients better over the years.

Alton Brown made it look simple enough. He blended his ingredients, let them rest, didn't use a special pan or a special spreading stick. He did swirl the batter in the pan but I knew that I wasn't at that level yet. I decided to adapt his recipe and use a half batch (why waste ingredients?) for my sourdough crepes.

Next, what would I fill them with? Something sweet? Something savoury? As I was scrolling through crepe pictures, I saw a picture of Crepes Suzette and remembered that I also wanted to make whipped milk ice cream. This would be perfect.

And it was! I really enjoyed this. I wished that I had added more sugar to my crepes but I figured that the sauce plus ice cream would have been enough sugar for me. Just a little more sugar definitely would not have hurt. 

As I mentioned, I adapted Alton Brown's crepes and swapped out some of the flour and water for a quarter cup of my 166% starter. I let it rest in the fridge for an hour then heated my pan and hoped for the best. 

For the sauce, I kinda winged it. I saw that some recipes did a mixture of butter, sugar and liqueur while others used orange juice, sugar and liqueur. I just melted an arbitrary amount of butter and sugar in pan, added some orange juice and after it reduced, I let it cool for a bit then poured it over my crepes. I forgot to add liqueur! But not to worry, I have some left, I can still add it.

The whipped milk ice cream was also pretty easy. I whipped one chilled can of evaporated milk with a cup of powdered sugar and cinnamon then chilled it for an hour then whipped some more and chilled three more times then let it freeze for several hours before using. It's soft and melts quickly but tastes amazing!

I can't wait to see what others did this month. Check them out!