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Crepes with Caramel Bananas

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I’ve been walking a lot this month. I want to keep up my “Euro-pace,” activity-wise, so 3x a week I will walk/run between 5-8 miles. And MOST of the time, walking affects my food choices too. I use my Nike+ so that I can track how far I’ve gone (my goal is 15-20 miles a week), and at the end of my workouts, my iPod tells me how many calories it thinks I’ve burned. – Which is great for me, because then I come home, I’m too exhausted to cook anything elaborate, and too calorie-conscious to eat anything terribly fatty


*cough* except… for yesterday. 
I woke up with a craving for pancakes. Or donuts… Or, crepes…
When the crepe-craving calls, I know who to turn to. One of my favorite cookbooks (easily my top go-to book for the last 7 years) is Fast Food My Way, by Jacques Pepin (the book that inspired his highly entertaining television show). His recipe for “Crepes with Banana-Rum Filling” is simple and scrumptious! I modify it slightly because I never seem to have rum handy, and the results are always magnificent. 

Also, it should be noted that this recipe is, in Jaques’ eyes, a dessert. Normally, I make these crepes sans the caramel bananas, but yesterday… ahhh yesterday… I threw my running shoes aside and embraced my inner Augustus Gloop. I wanted sweets darn it! And sweets for breakfast were had!

Jaques’ crepe recipe has always been my preferred crepe recipe- but how had I never made the caramel bananas before?? (Probably because I’d never been compelled to start my day with liquid candy before.)

Either way, the caramel-making process was pretty exciting! My white sugar went from this… 
 
to this…
In no time! I threw in the bananas, and the results were jaw dropping! This is absolutely a dessert! If I had been using my noodle, I would have fried up some crispy bacon to serve with this- you know, to make it a more BALANCED BREAKFAST. But since I omitted the meat, my breakfast food pyramid consisted of only fruit (hey, a sugar-encrusted banana is still a banana!) and grain, and a metric ton of sugar in my system before 9am. Yowza. I got my sugar fix alright.
My inner Augustus Gloop was mighty pleased. My running shoes looked on in judgement… but indulging your inner chunky German boy isn’t really that bad when your dessert/breakfast is so filling that you end up skipping lunch. Besides, I *did* go on a walk later that day…. so quit judging me, SHOES.

Here’s the recipe:

Crepe Recipe:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 large egg
3/4 cup milk
1 tablespoon dark rum – or not. 
1/2 teaspoon granulated sugar
Dash of salt
2 tablespoons unsalted butter

Mix the flour, and egg with about 1/4 cup of the milk, stirring with a whisk until the batter is smooth. Mix in the remaining 1/2 cup milk, add the rum (or not), sugar and salt and stir until well-combined. 

Butter a large non-stick skillet, and add 1/3 cup of the crepe batter at a time. Swirl the batter in the pan so that it spreads evenly and thinly. Cook for about 2 minutes on one side, or until browned. Turn crepe over and repeat. Stack crepes on a plate, cover, and set aside. 

For the Caramel Bananas:
1/2 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons water
3 large bananas
3 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
1 tablespoon dark rum
1 tablespoon powdered sugar
1/2 cup creme fraiche, whipping cream, or sour cream

Put the sugar and 1 tablespoon of water in a large skillet. Bring to a boil over high heat, stirring just until the sugar is moistened. Continue to cook, WITHOUT stirring for another 3 minutes, or until the mixture turns a golden caramel color. Shake the pan to prevent the caramel from burning. 

Add the bananas, lemon juice, butter, and remaining 2 tablespoons water. Cover and cook over medium-low heat for 3-4 minutes. Stir to ensure that there are no lumps in your caramel. Let the mixture come to room temperature, then stir in the rum. (Or not- I skipped the rum here, too)

Divide the banana mixture up among the 4 crepes, and serve with creme fraiche, or whipped cream. 

Enjoy!


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Comments

  2. This looks yuummm, Megan. I need to pick some nice Portuguese recipes for you :-)

    By the way, I’ll be traveling to USA in November (Washington DC and New Yok) :-)

    xoxo
    Celia

    Reply

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