From the kitchen: Black Forest Mille Crepe

Do you have a significant other that has a sweet tooth, or like elaborate desserts, or you rather spend time slogging in the kitchen than spending your entire monthly salary in a fancy restaurant? Not sure how you are going to solve these issues pending Valentine's Day? Do not worry. This next one covers all three.

After several kitchen mishaps and weird experiments,  here is another sure-fire winner from yours truly, where the name is as epic as its flavour: Black Forest Mille crepe.


Black Forest Mille crepe

Part A- Wet ingredients of crepe:
800ml  of whole milk
3 Tbsp granulated sugar
6 large eggs
50 gm of butter

Part B- Dry ingredients of crepe:
2 cup of all purpose flour
4 Tbsp of cocoa powder
1 tsp baking powder

Part B- Fillings:
400 ml of double cream
200 gm of fresh cherries
100 gm of grated chocolate
alot of maple syrup (depending on taste)

cooking oil for frying the pancakes

The holy trinity. 

Steps:
1. Heat up the milk, till it becomes hot, but not boiling.

2. Beat the eggs. Once they are well beaten, incorporate the warm milk a third at a time.

3. Sift all the dry ingredients together. Once they are sifted, incorporate in to the milk and egg combination. Do this a third at a time as well. To prevent lumps, let the mixture pass thru a sieve and mix whatever lumps through the mesh.  Once all lumps are cleared, your batter is ready

Note that the first piece is always a write off. This is for the pan to get used to the heat.

4. Pour a ladle of the batter onto a heated and lightly greased pan. Cooking time will defer from the size of your pan and also the volume of your ladle. For me, it took me 2 mins, which is 1.5 mins on the first side, and 30 seconds on the second side.

5. Repeat the process till you have cooked all of the batter. Leave them to cool while you prepare the filling.

6. Beat the stuffing out of your cream till you have stiff peaks. Add your maple syrup while you do so. Once the peaks have formed, add the grated chocolate. Mix well, but not to vigorously as to lose the peaks. If you do not have maple syrup, you can sweeten the cream with icing sugar or honey.

7. Remove the stones from the cherries and chop them to smaller bits.

Fillings are ready to go

8. Once the crepes are cool enough to be handled, take one and place it onto a workbase, or better yet, a cake base. Spread a layer of your cream filling onto one layer and leave about 1 inch of space left from the edges. Repeat the process till you are out of crepes. You can add the cherries with the cream or place them on top of the last crepe. I put them after spreading the cream, before adding the other layer.

One layer at a time. Leave some space from the edges so the filling does not overflow when it is all pressed down.

9. Leave it to chill, so to let the cream become a bit adhesive. I recommend at least an hour or so. Best for it to be over night for it to be well set.

10. Have a dusting of cocoa powder and icing sugar before serving.

The eye catcher for any table. Great with coffee as well.

Note: this is an impressive and inexpensive dessert to make. And the steps are relatively simple and easy to follow. However, tedium is the name of the game as this is very labour intensive. The total cooking and assembly time is almost 3 hours.  But rest assured that the battle is worth it. I brought it to a colleagues house warming, and it went down like a storm. The ingredients are relatively cheap and easy to find, bar the cherries, especially if they are not in season.

Check out the layering! A shot of the last slice.