Apple Crepes

Within hours of moving to New Haven my daughter discovered Claire's Cornercopia - a wonderful vegetarian restaurant that turned out to be within a few easy walking blocks of Emily's apartment. In the ensuing years I have spent many happy hours eating Claire's soups, breads, and wonderful assortment of soul-satisfying foods. I've also had the great privilege of meeting Claire. It's one thing to find good food in a local eatery, quite another to know that the owner is a good person who is giving back to the community in ways that go far beyond tantalizingly tasty food.

Claire recently came out with a new cookbook showcasing many of the wonderful foods from the restaurant. There are plenty of recipes I'm anxious to try but I started yesterday with an apple crepe. All I can say is the final product was more than worth having to scour supermarkets for almond meal and organic apple cider vinegar. Would the crepes have worked with regular apple cider vinegar? Probably, but if Claire said to use organic then, by golly, I was going to follow through with exactly the same detail to ingredients.

I'm getting better with my crepe maker though I do have to laugh at what a luxury it is to have this expensive piece of electronics to do what any large teflon pan could duplicate, with a little more bother. I've tried to get away from some of the specialized gadgetry I so love to collect but my crepe maker continues to make the cut as I pare down to just the essentials of a cook's kitchen.

I made my apple mixture on the tart side and liked it that way, as the crepes themself have a certain delicate sweetness. Not to mention the generous sprinkling of confectioners sugar on the top.

Eating the crepes felt like a guilty indulgence - kinda like if you went in and secretly ate a whole bag of Dove's chocolates. In looking over the ingredient list, however, i have to think it couldn't be too bad to eat apples hidden in a delicate wrapper. Let's hope not, anyway - since I had two for lunch yesterday!

DESSERT CREPES WITH APPLE FILLING

Crepes:
1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
1/2 cup almond meal
3 tbs. sugar
4 eggs
2 cups water
1/2 tsp. almond extract
1 tbs. melted butter

Filling:
2 tbs. butter
4 organic apples, cored and sliced, then cut into small cubes
1/4 cups organic apple cider vinegar
2 tsp. pure maple syrup
1 tbs. honey
1 shake (about 1/4 tsp) cinnamon
Confectioners sugar for dusting crepe

Directions:
1. To prepare crepes, combine the flour, almond meal, and sugar in large bowl, whisking to blend. In separate bowl, combine eggs, water, orange blossom water and melted butter, whisking well to blend. Pour liquid mixture over flour mixture, using spatula to scrape out bowl and whisking until the consistency is of pancake batter. Cook crepes and then transfer to lined cookie sheet.

2. For filling, melt butter in large skillet over med. heat. Add apples and stir to coat. Cook for about 2 minutes, frequently moving pan back and forth until apples have softened a bit. Add apple cider vinegar and cook at a simmer for 3-5 minutes, until apples are crisp-tender.

3. Add maple syrup and honey. sprinkle with cinnamon. Cook for about 2-3 minutes until apples are tender and the liquid has reduced to about a couple tablespoons - the liquid should be a medium caramel color. Test apples for tenderness and taste for sweetness. You can add more maple syrup or honey if you want the apples sweeter.

4. To assemble the crepes, lay them on a plate. Place a heaping tablespoon of the filling onto the center of the crepe. Fold in half, then half again to form a thick triangle. Transfer the filled crepe to a platter and continue with remaining crepes. Dust with powdered sugar.