Tuesday, December 21, 2010

Crepes Suzette ~ A FLAMBE Experience



Hi…I’m Carmen. Welcome to my blog, Baking is my Zen.

Have you ever tried Crepes Suzette? If you tell me ‘no’, then I want to share with you one thing…it’s so delicious, you’ll thank me many times over for bringing it up.

It’s our twelfth Pastry Techniques Class, (12/18/10), at The French Culinary Institute, and we are now playing with FIRE! Well…not really. We made Crepes Suzette. These are crepes flamed with Grand Marnier.

There are four components combined together that deem this dessert to be called ‘sophisticated’:
1- thin crepes
2- orange butter
3- grand marnier
4- garniture: candied julienned orange rind

“Crêpe Suzette is a French dessert consisting of a crêpe with beurre Suzette, a sauce of caramelized sugar and butter, tangerine or orange juice, zest, and Grand Marnier or orange Curaçao liqueur on top, served flambé.
The most common way to make Crêpe Suzette is to pour liqueur (usually Grand Marnier) over a freshly cooked crêpe with sugar and light it. This will make the alcohol in the liqueur evaporate, resulting in a fairly thick, caramelised sauce. In a restaurant, a Crêpe Suzette is often prepared in a chafing dish in full view of the guests.”

Check out this video of crepes flamed with Grand Marnier.


PASTRY STUDENTS listen as Instructor/Chef Rebecca Kaiser demonstrates how to make Crepes Suzette. Chef Claudia Silva assists Chef Rebecca in the preparation of the dessert components.


The Crepes Suzettes were flambéed, then plated. The students were invited for a taste test. It’s a wonderful dessert! I dare say, WOW! The candied julienned orange rinds bring a dimension to this dessert that makes it memorable.










FCI pastry arts students in action…














FCI students that appear in this blog:
Angel Han
Caitlin Jensen
Carmen Ortiz
Carrie Cullen
Jose Toro
Lloyd Gould
Shahul Hameed
Soo Hyun Kang
Tomoko Kubo
Xiaoran Zheng


Here’s a recipe for Crepes Suzette and Candied Orange Rind I found online if you’re interested in making this dessert. It’s similar to the one we made in pastry class.




Peace in Baking,

Carmen
Baking is my Zen…sweet nibbles for the soul


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