Breakfast Crepes

Sky High Crepes

Crepes, one of my favorite foods on Earth. I love them plain or filled, with sweet or savory. Give me thin and delicate over their thick and fluffy pancake sisters anytime.

Taking a hiatus from baking cakes this week, but not ready to hang my baking mittens, I decided to give these thin pancakes a go, and prepare some yummy breakfast for the family as well.

Sizzlin'

Adapted From The Cook's Book
125g / 4 1/1 oz flour
2 eggs
20g / 1T sugar
Pinch of salt
250g / 8 1/2 oz cold milk
40g / 2t melted butter

Drizzle Of Honey

1. Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl, whisk into a smooth batter.
2. Cover & leave to rest in the fridge for 2 hours.
3. Heat a heavy pan (25cm / 10in will do fine).
   
4. Remove from heat and ladle a small amount of batter into pan.
5. Swirl to cover the bottom of the pan.
6. Cook for 45 - 60seconds, until the edges turns light brown and start to come away from the pan.
7. Carefully flip over and cook the other side for 30-60seconds until the bottom is lightly brown as well.
8. Pile the crepes as they are made and cover with a cloth as the remainder are being cooked.
   

Crepes Staked Up High, Ready For The Spreadin'

Once the crepes are ready to go, it is a free for all. You can have them plain, covered with yogurt and fresh berries, filled with nutella and bananas...whatever tickles your fancy! This morning, I have dressed mine up simply with honey in one half and jam in the the other.

Wrap & Roll!

Be careful not to fill them up too much, else the crepes will split when you try to roll them up. Carefully fold one edge over, roll, fold the 2 sides over, roll all the way. Easy peasy. :)

It may be breakfast, but who's to say you cannot have them with a big scope of ice cream and chocolate sauce as well? ;)

Enjoy!

Lunch For The Blood, Dessert For The Soul

Vegetable Terrine

Baby G and I tried out a new place this week. Well, it is not exactly new, it's been there for a while, I've walked passed the place, looked in with some interest, and walked on by. With a name like "Food For Your Blood Type" across the panels, it was not exactly beckoning a ravenous lunch time crowd.

Then again, it promotes light, healthy, filling fare, which is how a workday lunch should be. So we dived in, gave it a shot, and here is our verdict.

The vegetable terrine sat pretty on the place, alongside some equally veggie mighty salad. It was a cold dish that tasted pretty good, retaining both the fresh colors and flavors of the veggies.

Scrambled Eggs On Toast

Organic scrambled eggs and sweet potato fries. Yummy and yummy. I love eggs, whatever the form, as long as it is done right. And these were done right, although I honestly could not tell the difference from these organic eggs and the normal farm fresh ones we always get. I have not gotten on the organic wagon yet.

Overall verdict was favorable, but with a bill coming to more than S$50, it was not as light on our wallets as it was for our happy bellies.

Curry Dolce At Ricciotti

Life is about balance, maintaining the Ying and Yang of the universe, hence Baby G and I had some good-for-the-soul-desserts that night to counter the good-for-the-blood-type lunch we had. (Notice we skipped deserts at the Blood Type joint.)

Dig In!

Ricciotti has some pretty creative desserts, and we went for the curry dolce, he most unique sounding flavor on the menu. Unfortuntately it did not deliver as we had hoped. The white chocolate ricotta filling was light but tasteless. Sitting on a chocolate oil sugar dough (they should simply call it a disc of chocolate biscuit coz that was what it was and what it tasted of), we could not pick up any spicy kick we were expected, the single curry leave nonwithstanding.

The desserts are delicated created and presented, if only they gave as much thought to the taste as well. Good thing we had pizza for dinner just before!

Honey Yogurt Rum Cake

Honey Yogurt Rum Slice

The ingredient obsession of the moment is yogurt. I am fascinated by how such an uncommon ingredient (common since old French days, unknown to the rest of us), added in the slightest dosage, can alter the taste and texture of the final product so subtly, bringing moisture and tang to complete the composition.

So I tried my hand at making a basic yogurt cake this weekend, with a little help and a lot of useful tips from Chocolate & Zucchini.

Pretty As A Sunflower

Adapted from Chocolate & Zucchini
2 eggs
250ml (1 cup) honey yogurt
100g (1/2 cup) sugar
80ml (1/3 cup) vegetable oil
2 cups flour
1 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 tablespoon rum

Cooling Down...A Long Wait

1. Preheat the oven to 180° C (350° F).
2. Grease and line a round 25-cm (10-inch) cake pan with parchment paper.
3. Combine the yogurt, eggs, sugar, vanilla, oil, and rum.
4. Sift the flour and baking powder.
5. Add the flour mixture into the yogurt mixture, and gently mix together.
6. Pour the batter into the cake pan.
7. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes, until the top is golden brown and a cake tester comes out clean.
8. Rest for ten minutes, and transfer onto a rack to cool.

Rise to Glory!!

The cake looked slightly burnt when I took it out of the oven so I thought it was doomed. Turns out it was the honey working its caramelizing magic. The sweet, thin crust encased a very moist and fragrant crumb, and the combination of honey and rum? Mm-mm-mm! :)

I can't wait to try more yogurt baking next week, I've discovered a new ingredient can't wait to work its magic in everything now. The possibilities are endless! Stay tuned, folks!