My mom has been doing this fun thing lately where every Sunday she brings me a secret ingredient. Last week's ingredient was Creme Fraiche. I didn't really know what to do with it, as it is not something I come across often. And, to be honest, the first thing that comes to my head when I want to pair creme fraiche is salmon, an no one in my house eats that. But I did a little perusing around the internet and came across a crepe cake and decided that instead of a mousse filling I would use a whipped cream and creme fraiche filling. 

I used this recipe for the crepes, except I added a little lemon zest just to heighten the flavour. The recipe also calls for a 6 inch pan, which we didn't have.  I tried to use a 10 inch nonstick pan, but that didn't work quite so well. 10 inches is just slightly too big of a crepe to be able to flip easily. And of course we didn't have a nonstick 8 inch pan either. So in the end I just poured small batches in the 10 inch and didn't worry about whether or not they were a proper circle. 

***Here is a tip for making crepes: the first few will never turn out well. They won't, unless you're a magician or just overly talented. The best thing you can do is be patient with your pan. Give it time to heat up. Don't rush it and don't rush the flipping of your crepes either. You want them to have a little colour. 

When all my batter was gone I had a pretty good stack of wonky crepes. I used a 2 inch biscuit cutter to make small circles and then set them aside to cool. Next I stirred some lemon juice and lemon zest into the creme fraiche. It's ok if the creme fraiche loosens up quite a bit, because you stir it into a stiff whipped cream. I didn't sweeten my whipped cream at all because I wanted the creme fraiche to really stand out and the sugar would've masked it. 

When I was ready to plate I put a dab of the whipped cream mixture on the plate first, then placed the first circle of crepe on top. This is to help it stick to the plate and not slide around while you stack the rest. Put another layer of your whipped cream on the crepe, smoothing it out a bit but keeping a little bit of volume. Add another circle of crepe then more whipped cream and repeat until you run out of crepes. (I was making 3 little cakes, and I think each one ended up with 9 layers.) 

To finish the presentation I piped a little of the whipped cream around the stack and stuck a raspberry on each little mound. What I really wanted to do was brulee the top of the stack, but unfortunately I don't own a kitchen torch. So instead I just sprinkled some powdered sugar over everything. That little bit of sugar was just enough to balace the lemony tang of the whipped cream and creme fraiche mixture. If you own your own torch and feel inspired to make this, try bruleeing the top with some raw sugar and let me know how it goes. 

I made this a few hours before I served it and just kept it in the fridge, which kept the cream from falling. Sugar right before serving. This dessert is wonderful with strong tea or an after-dinner coffee. 

I don't take directions or suggestions easily. 'Why do it that way?' or 'Why stop there?' are questions I am fond of. It made me a good, although rather irritating, student. Questioning authority, even if it is only the authority of a label, can lead to great things. 


Take, for instance, my new muffins. I recently started working for the wonder-company that is Williams-Sonoma. There are a million perks to working there, one of which is the generous employee discount, another of which is being around when marked-down products and slightly expired food get discovered.  

Last night, my second day of work, I managed to come into possession of the above items: raspberry spread and chocolate chocolate-chip pancake and waffle mix. I'm a fan of pancakes and waffles but quite frankly, they are a lot of work. Thus, my decision to repurpose the mix into muffins! 

I fudged all the measurements like normal, adding one more egg than the recipe for pancakes called for, a little less butter and less milk as well. This was also my first time trying out almond milk as a substitute for real milk. It didn't seem to affect the consistency or baking at all and not having made these before, I can't tell whether or not it affected flavour. Oh, I also added some steel cut oats for good measure. 


After I spooned the batter into my little mini-tins I hollowed out little spaces in the middle and put a dollop of the raspberry spread in the depression. 

They baked up nice and fluffy, with a slick of raspberry sitting on the top of each. Their texture remained close to that of a pancake; they weren't dense at all. The oats and chocolate chips added some crunch and the raspberry keeps the muffins from tasting too dry and it gives them that extra little sugar kick. 

I would definitely make these again and of course will be repurposing the mix in other ways as well. 


I can't wait to bring you more Williams-Sonoma products! Working there is already fantastic and will bring great additions to the blog.