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Well, I finally did it! I used a bottle of Bad Seed Hard Cider I have had since last Christmas! I received it in a Christmas Pollyanna from one of my more favorite foodie people, Debbie Koenig who wrote the fantastic Parent’s Need To Eat, Too cook book!  (I just ordered another copy for a new new-born family!) We’re practically related through my sister-in-law who is not a blood relation to either of us. Families are great.

But I digress…

I started off with a bazillion different ideas of what to do with it. Since I don’t really drink, I needed something to make with it – dinner, dessert, sweet, savory… I had pretty much settled on a savory pork and apple stew once the weather turned a bit cooler, but then I bought a bag of honeycrisp apples.

4 pounds of apples. Two apple-eaters. Quick. Make a dessert.

Okay.

Normally, honeycrisps wouldn’t be my first choice for a cooking apple, but they were what were in the kitchen. I’m a make-do kinda guy. And that cider has been mocking me long enough.

The first thing I did was make a syrup from the hard cider. It’s a 22 oz bottle – just a tad shy of three cups – so I did a basic 2:1 liquid to sugar and put a scant 1 1/2 cups sugar in a pan with a couple pats of butter and the bottle of cider. I brought it to a boil and reduced it to about 1 cup.

I peeled and cored the apples and put them into the hot syrup and let them sit while I made the crepes. They got nice and soft but still held their shape.

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I didn’t add anything at all to the apples – no spices, no nothin’. I didn’t need to.

I plced a few apple slices on the crepe and rolled them up. They then got a nice dousing of syrup.

The final result was a sweet apple without being cloyingly sweet. Honeycrisps are a sweet-crisp apple to begin with but sugar didn’t overpower. And the crepe was perfectly light and tender. They really are just so easy to make…

It looks as if I’m going to need a new item to plan meals around… Time to search the cabinets…

Hard Cider Apple Crepes

syrup and filling:

  • 1 22 oz bottle Hard Cider
  • 1 1/2 cups sugar
  • 2 tbsp butter
  • 2 lbs apples, peeled, cored, and cut in 8ths

Bring cider, sugar, and butter to a boil in a heavy saucepan. Boil and reduce to about 1 cup. Stir in apples and bring back to boil. Turn off heat and allow apples to cool in syrup.

crepe:

  • 1 cup flour
  • 1 tbsp sugar
  • Pinch of salt
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 cup whole milk
  • 6 tbsp butter, melted
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Mix all ingredients in a blender and process until smooth.

Melt butter in small non-stick pan. Add about 2 tbsp batter to pan and swirl to thinly coat. Cook over moderate heat until edges are  lightly browned and crepe is dry. Stack on plate until all are completed.

to assemble:

Place crepe on counter. Add about 4 apple slices to one end. Roll crepe and place seam-side down on plate and continue until all are made.

Spoon syrup over crepes and enjoy!

I highly recommend going out and getting a bottle of hard cider.

Soon.

And don’t wait as long as I did to use it!