Crepe with Ricotta, Ham and Spinach Filling

Friday is our "Breakfast for Dinner" day. I was inspired by the video on the Cooks Illustrated website and decided to make crepes.

The ingredients required for the savory crepe were very simple: egg, flour, butter, milk, water and salt. The only thing to keep in mind was that the batter needed to be refrigerated for 2 hours prior to cooking. Using the technique shown on the video, the crepes came out beautifully golden and thin. None of the crepes ripped when stacked on a plate.

The ricotta, ham and spinach filling was also very simple to make. I sauteed fresh spinach leaves (instead of using frozen spinach) after cooking the onion and garlic and it worked well.

I wasn't quite sure how to fold the crepes since the instruction only said "fold as desired". The first crepe was folded in fourth but it looked very thick. After trying a few different ways, I preferred to stack the fillings with additional layers of crepe and tuck in the sides. (Sorry no pictures. Maybe next time!)

One little confusing point on the Cooks Illustrated recipe: the recipe in the crepe video was not the one shown in text. Both the sweet and savory crepe recipes required refrigeration for 2 hours whereas the video said the batter didn't need to be refrigerated.

Overall I liked the recipe and I would definitely do this again with all sorts of fillings. In fact, we put homemade strawberry jam in the extra savory crepe and it was delicious! There was a recipe for sweet crepes, but I think the savory flavor nicely complemented the sweetness of the jam.

Pani Popo Samoan Coconut Buns

I love getting newsletters from the King Arthur Flour Company, especially when they come with bread recipes.

The online recipe for Pani Popo could probably use a bit more details, but the blog version has some helpful illustrations.

Here are some modifications I made:

1. 1 cup of warmed whole milk was used instead of water and dry milk. First I dissolved the instant yeast in a small amount (~3 tbs) of warm water and added to warm milk. Then I added the yeast mixture to the rest of the dough ingredients.
2. I am not sure if I used 3.5 cups of flour or 4 cups. Somehow I had trouble counting to 7 (with 1/2 cup each). The batter was very wet after kneading, so I added another 1/2 cup of flour assuming that I didn't count right to begin with.
3. Melted butter was left out from the dough... saw the butter in the microwave hours later. Ooops!
4. Coconut milk was used instead of water and coconut milk powder.
5. The buns were baked for approximately 24 minutes.

I must have had lots on my mind to have so many mess ups, but the end result was pretty and tasty. Having left out that 4 tablespoons of butter, I convinced myself that it was ok to eat another bun right before bedtime.

This coconut bun would be a fabulous breakfast or brunch item if some rising steps can be done overnight. More experiments on the way, with butter included.

French Toast Casserole

To save a nice baguette from the ACME bakery, I decided to turn it into French toasts. Both the Joy of Cooking and the Cooks Illustrated have recipes for French toast recipe that can be prepared the night before. The Joy of cooking calls for "slices of white or egg bread" while the Cooks Illustrated calls for "supermarket French or Italian bread". I picked the Cooks Illustrated recipe because my baguette resembled French bread more. Personally I also prefer thicker French Toasts.

The preparation was relatively simple. The cut bread pieces were toasted in the oven until golden brown followed by a soaking in a mixture of egg, milk, sugar and vanilla overnight. There's also a topping involving pecan, brown sugar and corn syrup. Unfortunately I had neither pecan nor corn syrup so I skipped the topping all together.

The French toast came out pretty crunchy on the outside, but a little blend in flavor. I am sure it was because it lacked the nutty sweet toppings and more liquid was evaporated without the protective toppings. It wasn't as good as I expected, but I had faith that it would have been great if I followed the recipe completely. This is definitely a good dish for brunch parties or special breakfast, so I will give it a try again!