Poppy Seed Crêpes
Thin crêpes are rolled up with poppy seed filling, layered in a baking dish, topped with a sour cream mixture, and baked. Hot out of the oven, they are sliced and served with a dusting of confectioner’s sugar and a scoop of stewed plums. The vanilla sugar mentioned in the recipe is granulated sugar in which a vanilla bean has been stored.
Ingredients
- Stewed Plums
- Cinnamon Stick - 1, broken into 3 pieces
- Whole Cloves - 3
- Water - 1/2 cup
- Lemon - 1/2
- Sugar - 1/2 cup
- Plums - 1 pound, halved and pitted
- Poppy Seed Filling
- Raisins - 1/2 cup
- Ground Cloves - 2 pinches
- Rum - 1/4 cup
- Milk - 1/2 cup
- Sugar - 1/4 cup
- Poppy Seeds - 2 cups, ground
- Honey - 1 tablespoon
- Vanilla Sugar - 1 tablespoon
- Zest of 1/2 lemon
- Crêpes
- Milk - 1 cup
- Pinch of salt
- All-Purpose Flour - 1-1/4 cups
- Eggs - 2
- Egg Yolk - 1
- Confectioner’s Sugar - 1 tablespoon
- Unsalted butter for sauteing
- Topping
- Eggs - 2
- Sour Cream - 1 cup
- Confectioner’s Sugar - 1/3 cup
- Vanilla Sugar
- Confectioner’s sugar for dusting
Instructions
To prepare the stewed plums: Tie the cinnamon stick pieces and cloves together in a small cheese cloth bag to form a spicy bouquet garni. Put the water, bouquet garni, lemon half, and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Add the plums and reduce the heat to medium-low. Cover and cook until the plums are soft and the juices slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Let cool; remove the lemon and bouquet garni.
To make the filling: Put the raisins and a pinch of ground cloves in the rum for 10 to 15 minutes to soak and soften. Bring the milk, sugar, and poppy seeds to a boil over medium heat. Add the honey, vanilla sugar, lemon zest, and a pinch of ground cloves. Add the raisins, rum, and almonds to the mixture. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer until the liquid is reduced and the filling holds its shape.
To make the crêpes: Combine the milk, salt, and flour until smooth. Whisk in the eggs and sugar and beat into a thin batter.
Heat a little butter in a 10-inch crêpe pan over medium to medium-high heat; the pan should not be too hot. Ladle in just enough batter to swirl and thinly cover the bottom of the pan. You may add a little more batter right away if necessary to coat the bottom. As soon as the edge of the crêpe is firm enough to lift, flip the crêpe and cook the other side. When the edge begins to color, turn out of the pan. Repeat to use all of the batter. Stack the finished crêpes on a warmed plate, atop one another, and cover loosely with a towel to keep them warm. Make at least 16 crêpes.
To make the topping: Beat the ingredients together until smooth.
To assemble: Preheat the oven to 350 F. Spray an ovenproof baking dish measuring approximately 7 inches by 11 inches by 2 inches deep with vegetable oil spray and wipe out the excess. Spread the filling over the first crêpe and roll up like a jelly roll. Place it at one end of the pan, letting it curve up against the end of the pan. Continue making crêpes and rolling them up, then stacking them next to one another across the pan. About 4 will fit. Begin the next row, overlapping the first row slightly. Make 4 rows. Spread the topping over the crêpes. Bake 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and let stand 5 minutes.
To serve: Cut the layered crêpes in quarters, then cut each quarter in half diagonally. Place one wedge on each plate. Place a heaping spoonful of stewed plums on one side of each wedge. Dust the entire plate with confectioner’s sugar.
