Crêpes Soufflées au Cointreau (Souffléed Crêpes Flamed with Cointreau)

Are crêpes making a comeback? Judging by my recent encounter with Lemon Sugar Crêpes at a Seattle food cart called Anita’s Crêpes, I’d say yes. The experience was unforgettable—fresh lemon juice squeezed over a perfectly cooked crêpe, sprinkled with sugar, and then brûléed with a torch. A dollop of whipped cream sealed the deal. Absolute heaven!

This week, I decided to step up my crêpe game with Crêpes Soufflées au Cointreau—souffléed crêpes flamed with Cointreau. While I adore crêpes, I’ve never been a fan of pastry cream. But I couldn’t resist the challenge of combining it with a flambé finish.

Recipe: Crêpes Soufflées au Cointreau (Souffléed Crêpes Flamed with Cointreau)

Serves: 6

Ingredients:

Sweet Crêpe Batter

1 cup all-purpose flour

2 eggs

Pinch salt

2 tablespoons sugar

1 cup milk

5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Grated zest of 1 orange

Pastry Cream

1 cup milk

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 egg yolks

1/3 cup sugar

2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

2 tablespoons cornstarch

¼ cup Cointreau plus 3 tablespoons for flaming the crêpes

1 egg, separated

3 egg whites

Confectioner’s sugar for dusting

Unsalted butter, melted, for crêpe pan

Instructions:

1. Make the Crêpe Batter

• Blend all the ingredients until smooth. Let the batter rest for 30 minutes.

2. Prepare the Pastry Cream

• Heat milk and vanilla until boiling.
• In a separate bowl, whisk egg yolks with sugar, then add flour and cornstarch.
• Slowly pour the hot milk into the egg mixture while whisking. Return to the stove and cook until thickened. Let cool.

3. Assemble the Soufflé Mixture

• Whisk 3 egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold them gently into the cooled pastry cream.

4. Cook the Crêpes

• Heat a crêpe pan with melted butter. Cook each crêpe until golden on both sides. Set aside.

5. Fill and Bake

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Spread the soufflé mixture onto each crêpe, fold, and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 15 minutes until golden and puffed.

6. Flambé the Crêpes

• Heat 3 tablespoons of Cointreau in a saucepan. Light with a match and pour over the crêpes once the flame subsides.

You can find the recipe for Crêpes Soufflées au Cointreau (Souffléed Crêpes Flamed with Cointreau) in the book Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link) or here.

Tasting Notes
I love anything wrapped in a crêpe. By baking these in the oven for 15 minutes, they were crispy and even tastier. My imagination is going crazy thinking of the combinations I could put inside the crêpe instead of the pastry cream. Plus this could be an easy make-ahead dessert since the crêpes can be made early and stored between sheets of waxed paper.

More Sweet Crêpes
• Whisk: Crêpes au sucre (Sugar pancakes)
• 101 Cookbooks: Sweet Crepes Recipe
• Chocolate & Zucchini: Crêpes
• Spectacularly Delicious: Lemon Crepes

Links
• Video: Crêpes soufflées à la crème chiboust, flambées au grand (in French, but it shows the technique)
• No Recipes: 5 tips for making perfect crêpes (recipe for crêpes with buttered apples)
• Food Wishes: How to Make Crepes - Even the Messed-Up Ones Will Be Perfect!

Next Time
Crème anglaise in Oeufs à la Neige (Snow Eggs with Caramel and Crème Anglaise) on page 51

::Whisk::
I'm baking my way through a cooking school curriculum using the Le Cordon Bleu at Home (affiliate link) cookbook  The "classes" are based on the Le Cordon Bleu curriculum found online and used as a guideline. Not all the items in the curriculum are in the cookbook, but most are. Where the items are not in the book, I try to find a suitable substitution.

More to Explore:

• Index of Recipes
• Visual Recipe Index