Although this is dessert resemble a cake it is not a real cake.  The “cake” is made of layers of crepe in between pastry creme.

Crepe cake or mille crepe…is originated in France and yes, this crepe cake requires a labor of love…in reality it is very simple and you will not have the issue of the cake not rising of collapsing…

The intense hands on are mainly when cooking the crepes one by one…and making sure that they do not tear up. I patted myself on the shoulder when cooking the crepes, somehow, from the very first to the very last crepe, they all came out intact…phew! I gave myself some room for error, since there was none, the crepe cake was made of exactly 23 layers…I was “wow”, that is cool!

This recipe was mainly from here, with some minor change. I cut the crepe batter recipe in half but kept the cream the same…the leftover cream can be served with fresh fruits, as a filling for cream puffs or pavlova…you will not have any problem using the cream. Since I love a touch of rose, I added a little rose water when whipping the heavy cream…

The day before assembling the crepe cake prepare the following:

Crepe Batter

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 ½ cups milk
• 3 eggs
• 90 g all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch salt

Melt the butter in a small pan until lightly browned remove immediately from heat and set aside.

In another small pan, warm the milk until steaming, remove from heat and set aside to cool slightly.

In a medium bowl using hand mixer at a low speed, mix together the eggs, flour, sugar, and salt. Slowly add in the warm milk and browned butter. Cover the bowl and refrigerate overnight.

Pastry Crème

1 egg
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

In a small bowl, add egg, flour, sugar, and cornstarch, mix well until a smooth paste forms.

In a saucepan over low heat, bring milk almost to a boil and slowly whisk the milk into the egg mixture. Return all ingredients to the saucepan, over low-medium heat, cook until the cream has thicken, by stirring constantly stirring. Make sure that the cream boils.

Remove from the heat and add vanilla extract .Set aside and cover with a plastic film to cool.When the cream has cooled refrigerate overnight.

On the day of assembling the cake:

Remove the crepe batter from the refrigerator and bring to room temperature.

Set two large flat plates aside to layer the crepes.

In a 6 ½ inch lightly oiled nonstick pan over medium-low heat pour ⅛ cup of crepe better, swirl to cover the pan surface. Cook until the batter has settle and becomes lightly browned. Gently using a spatula turn the crepe over and continue cooking until the other side is lightly browned as well. Remove the crepe and set on the plate. Make sure to not stack the crepes on top of each other. I alternate the crepes on the two flat plates.

Repeat the process until all the batter is gone (I was able to make exactly 23 crepes).

Rose water infused whipped cream

2 cups heavy cream
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon rose water

In a large bowl whip the heavy cream with the sugar and rose water. Fold gently the prepared chilled pastry cream with the whipped cream.

Assembly of crepe cake

Place one prepared crepe on a large cake plate.

With a spatula cover the crepe with a thin layer of the pastry cream mixture.

Cover with another dry crepe and repeat covering with the pastry crème until you have used up all the crepes (23 layers). Do not cover with cream the last layer of crepe.

Refrigerate the prepared cake for a minimum of 2 hours or overnight. Before serving remove the cake from the refrigerator. Garnish with fresh fruits, compotes, jams or dust with powdered sugar.

Slice and serve.

Did you know that in many countries, crepes are also known as pancakes? Crepes varies from sweet to savory.

Thank you for visiting Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

This week I am sharing with you a recipe for avocado ice cream. This ice cream is really creamy, rich and amazingly smooth. There is a touch of vanilla and lemon juice, just like how we used to make avocado smoothie in Brazil.

When living in Brazil, avocado was eaten as fruit, meaning that it was always made into cream or smoothie with sugar. So when I first was introduced to guacamole, I literally was disgusted…it was my first time tasting “salty” avocado…no need to say that I now love guacamole…

Anyway, I saw a post from Ray at Wok with Ray a while ago were he made avocado ice cream, and I just thought…”Wow, how come I never came across avocado ice cream in Brazil? It should only be natural considering that we only eat with sugar”

You should see my husband when I told him that I was planning to make avocado ice cream…he had the same reaction I had when I initially heard of guacamole…so here I am with my version of a very simple recipe for avocado ice cream…the ice cream is very rich, creamy and so good…I really hope you get to try this recipe.

Ingredients:

• 3 medium size avocados
• ½ cup condensed milk
• 16 oz heavy cream, approximately 470 ml
• 1 cup whole milk
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 to 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

Method:

Make sure that place your ice cream maker bucket insert into the freezer for at least 24 hours before you start making this recipe.

Cut the avocados in half and remove the pits. Scoop the avocado flesh into the blender and add all the other ingredients.

Blend until smooth, taste for sweetness, add more sugar if necessary.

Transfer the avocado cream into a container and refrigerate for 2 to 3 hours.

Pour the avocado mixture in the ice cream maker by following the manufacture’s instructions.

Churn until the mixture looks like soft serve, about 12 to 15 minutes.

Garnish with mint leave or anything you like, serve immediately or place in the freezer for several hours until hard enough to scoop.

I hope you enjoy this simple recipe for avocado ice cream, please check for Mango Frozen Yogurt recipe or Cherry Ice Cream recipe.

Did you know that avocado has high fat content? Although avocado contains a lot of fat, the main fat in avocado is oleic acid, which is a monounsaturated fatty acid, the same found in olive oil. Therefore avocado share many benefits of olive oil.

Thank you for stopping by Color Your Recipes…have a colorful week!

Before you ask…yes, this is another molecular gastronomy recipe. The technique  I used is called “reverse spherification”, and was based on Surprise Bubbles.

The fascinating thing is that  this technique is so simple that these colored bubbles were mainly made by my niece and nephew, 14 and 11 years old…

They had so much fun making and then eating these popping bubbles filled with grape juice…more specifically white grape juice. Initially we started with the non-color ones (original color of the white grape juice). Since it was kind of hard to see and manipulate the translucent bubbles, we decided to color them by adding a few drops of food coloring into the alginate solution. Erica chose red and Nick blue…and off we went, each one with their bowls of colored alginate bath and water…I played with the non-color ones.

They first removed the frozen half sphere from the freezer and dropped in the alginate bath for 3 minutes. Then they scooped the bubbles from the alginate bath and placed them into a bowl of water to remove the excess  alginate. After “collecting” lots of bubbles we just ate by “popping” one at the time in our mouth…a very fun experience, especially because these bubbles were like 0.3oz size and you sure feel the bubble exploding in your mouth and the refreshing juice.

Ingredients:

½ cup white grape juice or any juice of your preference
1 teaspoon sugar
½ teaspoon calcium lactate

400 ml of filtered water
2 g sodium alginate

Method:

Prepare the alginate bath by mixing the sodium alginate in water, until the sodium alginate is totally dissolved. You can use an immersion blender. Once the sodium alginate is dissolved, let the solution rest in the refrigerator for approximately 24 hours or until all the air bubbles disappear.

A few hours (or 24 hours) before the spherification, mix the grape juice with sugar and calcium until the calcium is dissolved. Carefully spoon in a silicon mold and freeze.

Drop the frozen juice in the alginate bath and let it sit for 3 minutes.

Scoop the bubbles using a slotted spoon and rinse them in a bowl of water.

Remove from the water and they are ready to be served.

If you enjoy this Molecular Gastronomy recipe you might want to check on Spherical Yogurt or Honey Caviar.

Did you know that “spherification” is simply a gelling reaction between calcium and alginate which is a gum like substance removed from brown seaweed. So by adding calcium, we just replace what the manufacturers removed from the seaweed, therefore the gelling texture.

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes [dot] Me and have a great week!

I am so excited to share with you the first dessert that I made from “Flour”, a cookbook published by Joanne Chang…she is amazing, after getting a degree in applied mathematics and economic from Harvard she decided to pursue culinary. You can find all the details about her on her book which I read  with amazement. The cookbook is easy to read and most importantly, it is easy to follow.

Since I was not sure what was the proper way to post a recipe from a book, I contacted Joanne and she personally assured me that I could post her recipe.

These coconut macaroons are delicious and as described in the book “chewy, sweet, soft, crispy…”, and they taste exactly as she described. The center of these macaroons are soft, creamy…yum! I do not have words to tell you how delightful these treats are and believe me they are so simple to make…really, the recipe is so simple that they can make you feel guilty.

Anyway, enough  talk and let’s move to the important part…the recipe!

Ingredients:

Pastry Cream

½ cup milk
3 tablespoons
2 tablespoons cake flour
1 pinch kosher salt
2 egg yolks
½ teaspoon vanilla extract

2-14 ounces bags of sweetened shredded coconut
6 egg whites
¾ cup sugar
1 pinch kosher salt

Preparation:

Mix the cake flour with the sugar and the salt. Add this mixture to the egg yolks.
Scald the milk until almost boiling (do not boil).
Add the scalded milk to the egg yolk mix a little at the time, whisking constantly.
Return the milk and yolk mix to the stove over medium heat, whisking continuously and vigorously until the mixture thickens and boils. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla extract.
Cover the cream with a plastic wrap, placing it on top of the cream and let it cool completely.

Preheat the oven at 350F and prepare the baking sheet, by placing a parchment paper (I used silicone mat).

In a large bowl, combine the coconut, egg white, sugar salt and the pastry cream. Stir all together until well combined. You can then refrigerate the dough at this stage if needed for up to 5 days.
Scoop approximately 1 tablespoon of the dough into the prepared baking sheet.

Bake for 20 to 25 minutes or until the cookies are golden brown. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for approximately 20 minutes and then transfer to the wire rack to cool completely.

The macaroons can be stored in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 3 days, most likely will not last for 3 days.

Thank you for stopping by Simple Recipes and have a great week!