Crepes with Chestnut Cream

It has been quite hectic for me the past several weeks, had to cover some events, then I also decided to renew my real estate license. So I hit the books daily at the same time tending to the kitchen for the family for the evening meal. Oh, such is life in a busy metropolis like San Francisco. But keeps me occupied, more like distracted from the daily stresses of life.

One day a friend updated her Facebook status – that she was having crepes.
That reminded me of the wonderful crepes I would have at Ti Couz in the Valencia/Mission corridor of San Francisco. Authentic French crepes in a French resto – including the rudeness of the wait staff. The alternate place was Crepes A Go Go in the trendy area of Cow Hollow – along Union Street in San Francisco. One would have to decide from its extensive list of crepes which runs from tropical - coconut, banana and jam to the more common ones like sugar and butter (simple but excellent tasting) to chestnut spread and strawberries.
Then I had one of those AHA moments – while shopping in Asian stores (no longer called Oriental stores because its not politically correct) one will notice an abundance of cooked, peel chestnuts that come in tetra packs. All you have to do is to tear open the pack and devour those nice whole nuts. Plus, these are inexpensive - $0.99 cents for a 5 oz serving – some stores like Oceanview Asian store next to the DALY City BART station sell them for $1.50 for two. The catch is you have to get two, if you get one the price is still $0.99 cents.
So one night I tried making the crepes with the chestnut spread and it turned out great. I didn’t have my camera handy that time so no photos will be included in the recipe. Another friend advised me that next time I post a recipe I should include pictures, so I will do it next time I have a culinary inspiration.

Crepes with Chestnut cream:

Ingrédients (for 15 crepes):
- 2 cups of flour
- 2 eggs
- 1 oz of vanilla sugar (or 1 oz of granulated sugar + seeds scraped from a vanilla bean)
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract if vanilla bean is not available
- 1 small pinch of salt
- 3 cups of milk
- butter (for cooking)

Put the flour, both eggs, salt, sugar and vanilla extract in a bowl.
using a wire whisk mix while pouring in the milk slowly.
The mixture has to be very smooth.
Leave the mixture to settle and rest for 45 minutes to an hour. After which heat some butter in a non stick pan and some vegetable oil – adding oil will prevent the butter from burning

Proceed to put 1/4 cup of the mix in the pan and tilt the pan to spread the mix until all the pan is cover to make a thin disc. This is not pancake, so try to make it as thin as you can without breaking the crepe

Wait about 1 min, then turn it over and wait another min for the other side to cook
Serve with chestnut cream - recipe follows

Chestnut cream
400 grams of boiled chestnuts
1 cup milk
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 can sweetened condensed milk (please use the whole milk variety and not the filled milk)
1 cup water – not all will be used.

In a double boiler put the already boiled chestnuts with the milk until it turns mushy. The milk will not be absorbed so discard any liquids when the chestnuts have softened. Drain then run the chestnuts through a fine mesh strainer or use a potato masher. It might take two turns to get the smooth consistency. Combine the mashed chestnuts gradually with the can of condensed milk and vanilla extract. Use a blender if you need to - it has to have a slightly thicker consistency than condensed milk. Should you need to thin it, add some of the water.




NOTE: An excellent alternative is Nutella - which my friend Trish favors





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