Crêpes à la Normande

[coffee4you2]

Hi guys

Maybe someone can help? My wife was trying to make some "pancakes Normandy style" yesterday but it did not turn out perfectly.

We had them several times in a little coffee house in Ostende at the Belgian coast and she wanted to get the same result.

The delicious thing about them was that they were very thin, with a delicate taste of Calvados, with a cracky layer of caramel over it.
And that's the problem : the layer of caramel.

What she did :
- a few thin slices of an apple in the pan, than the dough
- get it cooked, get the pancake out of the pan
- than melting the sugar in the same pan and putting the pancake inside
- adding a little CALVADOS and "firing" it (french : "flamber")
- than she put a (slightly buttered) plate on top of the pan and turned it 180° to get the pancake on the dish wth the caramelized side up
- the result was not bad but not at all as in the restaurant, where the pancake was even much bigger, but nicely positionned on the plate.

What could she do better?

We didn't put a ball of vanilla icecream but that should come also.

Thank you for any comments.
..
Patrick
http://stores.ebay.com/Belgium4You

[Jock]

I would say, practice, practice and practice some more. These guys in the restaurant are doing this all day and every day and they are good at it. The best way (IMHO) is to do it over and over till you get it right. In the meantime, it will be a chore to eat all the experiments but I'm sure you are up to it - for your wife's sake of course

Jock

[coffee4you2]

Practice makes the master indeed but I would like to limit the degustation of her experiments :-)
So I thought there might be a shortcut to obtain the best result...

[Jock]

Alas, sometimes there is just no substitute. Unless someone else has any ideas???

Jock

[Chef Douglas]

I dont have much experience with Crêpes but from your dilemma, instead of making the caramel in the pan, place the cake on a plate then top with sugar and then take a kitchen torch to the sugar? Such as you would do with Creme Brulee. Dont know if thats what your looking for but my .02 anyway.

[coffee4you2]

I asked her about this option but her answer was that she had to try it, although she was not enthusiast about it.
She made a few times "crême brûlée" but did not really believe it could work like that.

I will convince her to try.

Now she told me that she saw them once doing it, the way she has done it. So it is probably more a matter of "practice makes the master"...
..
Patrick
http://stores.ebay.com/Belgium4You

[Mezzaluna]

I had my first pot of moules with frites in Ostende. Great memories! Sorry I didn't have the crepes...

[cape chef]

Coffee,

You can do a version of Normande crepes like this.

First make your crepes (Thin and no browning) Brush the crepes with melted butter and very thinly sliced apples, then brush the apples with more melted butter and dust with sugar. Pass it under your broiler until the apple are tender and the sugar caramelizes. Then stack them on top of each other (like a layer cake) drizzle with some reduced cream, heat some Calvados, pour over the crepes and ignite table side.

Vanilla icecream? Of course