Crepes Suzette
(Shared recipe submitted by Frank Barrett.)
Frank writes: "Here is my rendition of Crepes Suzette. Others may vary on mileage."
Instructions
The first thing you want to do is find a recipe for crepes and whip up a bunch of them according to the recipe. Freeze them with plastic wrap or waxed paper between and keep them handy so you don't have to make them when entertaining your friends. Just about any pancake mix will work for crepes if you water down the batter so it makes real thin pancakes or crepes. Even packaged biscuit or pancake mixes will work if you play with the amount of water to mix ratio.
After you get your crepes done and it is time to serve dessert to your guests, this seems to work well. First make your syrup/sauce in advance so all you have to do is heat it up and you can serve your guests without delay while they are having after dinner coffee or dessert drinks.
Put about a cup of sugar in a large frying pan and add orange juice and the peel of an orange that is finely grated. You only want the outer part of the orange peel for its flavor. Avoid the white pithy part of the peel. Add the orange juice slowly to the sugar mixture and turn up the heat until it starts to thicken and add more juice to reach the desired consistency. You can add as much or as little orange juice as you want, depending on how thick you want the syrup. If you put about a cup of sugar with about 2 cups of orange juice and let it cook down you will have a nice syrup or sauce. Next add your favorite orange liqueur, like Deykupers or more exotic brands. It really doesn't matter since you are going to cook out the alcohol anyway. Finally, add in about a half cup of butter or margarine. Let it melt and stir it in with all the other ingredients.
Now that you have your syrup/sauce and crepes ready to put your dish together, the rest is simple and you can put it together quickly for your guests.
Your guests are talking and you excuse yourself to prepare the dessert. All you have to do now is heat up your sauce and put in a 16-ounce can of drained mandarin oranges. Get the oranges warm and set to the side. While you do this you heat up about 1/2 to 3/4 cup of brandy in a separate sauce pan so it is very hot but not boiling. Keep in mind that you have to do all these things at once for the desired effect. Put your crepes in the sauce one at a time to coat both sides with the sauce. Then put a spoonful of the mandarin oranges in the middle and fold the crepe to cover the orange sections. Place in a warm ceramic serving dish. You must do this quickly, so perfect your own method of putting the crepes in the sauce and filling them. Pour the remaining sauce over the crepes in the serving dish. Then ignite the brandy with a long match and pour the brandy over the crepes and serve while flaming. While the flame burns out, you carefully present your guests with a desert dish with a couple of scoops of orange sherbet topped with a sprig of mint. Then serve each guest their crepe(s) beside the sherbet.
Notes: It's a complicated dessert but easy if you practice on your family first. After all, kids will eat anything sweet no matter how much of a mess it is. You can vary this by using peaches and peach brandy and peach liqueur or even strawberries.
Important Note: Since you burn off all the alcoholic beverages except for the flavor, you should be able to operate machinery after ingesting this delicacy.
Teri's Notes: Whenever working with hot or flaming alcohol, exercise the utmost caution. According to the latest research, most, but not all the alcohol is evaporated when an alcoholic beverage is cooked by any method, which might be an issue for some people.
About Frank: Frank is a North Carolina transplant to Metro Atlanta, GA. His email address is frank_1@bellsouth.net.
Additional recipes submitted by Frank:
Disclaimer: This recipe was submitted by a contributor and has not been tested by TerisKitchen.com. Questions can be directed to the email address provided above. The email address may no longer be valid.
No matter where I take my guests, it seems they like my kitchen best.
Pennsylvania Dutch Saying
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