Crepes Suzette

The fancy name for "Pancakes in Orange Sauce"



This is a yummy dessert that I typically have just once a year, on Pancake Tuesday. My father is the master of this dish, and made it for me earlier this week as a treat. The sauce is rich and shiny and sweet and buttery and zingy all at once.

Ingredients:

For the pancakes:
3.5 oz flour
2 eggs
Pinch salt
200ml milk mixed with 75ml water (approx)

For the sauce:
2 oz butter
2 oz sugar
About 100 ml good quality orange juice (with bits in is even better)

Method:

For the pancakes, sieve the flour into a bowl and mix in the salt. Whisk in the eggs and gradually add in the milk/water mixture until you have the consistency you desire. I like my pancakes a little thicker than usual, so I tend not to mix in all of the liquid. Add as little or as much as you like really. For thin crepes, the mixture should be just slightly thicker than milk in consistency.

Cook the pancakes one at a time on a medium-hot frying pan, greased with a little oil or butter. Once cooked, fold each one in quarters and set aside.

The sauce ingredients as listed above as fairly approximate, as my father and I never work from a recipe for this dish but just go by eye and by taste. Taste the sauce as you go and add a little more sugar if its not sweet enough, or a little more butter if not rich enough.

To make the sauce, sprinkle the sugar over the bottom of a dry, large-bottomed shallow saucepan on a low heat. Allow the sugar to melt entirely and then add the butter. Mix together and the mixture will gain colour as the sugar caramelises.

Heat the orange juice gently in the microwave and add it to the sauce. Don't panic if some of the sugar crytallises into hard bits - these will melt as the sauce cooks. Once all the sugar is dissolved, let the tasting commence. For a zingier sauce, add the zest of an orange or even some Grand Marnier if your wallets can stretch to it.

Place some of the pancakes into the sauce, and have fun creating shapes like this:



Turn the pancakes a few times in the sauce and simmer for 2 or 3 minutes, until the pancakes are hot and hopelessly drowning in orange sauce. Serve immediately, and with gusto.