BERRY DELIGHTS

By Lynn Bain, as featured in Caravan World issue 467, July 2009.

• Crepe mixture
• Finely chopped strawberries or blueberries
• Icing sugar or ice cream, or 4tbsp of jam with 2tbsp of water

When the crepes are cooked, place a generous amount of the chopped berries or strawberries into the centre of the crepe and roll up like a parcel.

Here comes the part where your options have options. You could simply sprinkle the top of the rolled crepes with some icing sugar or top with a generous amount of ice cream. Or (and this is my favourite) heat about four tablespoons of jam or conserve (strawberry jam with strawberries, blueberry conserve with blueberries, etc.) with a couple of tablespoons of water. When the jam or conserve has dissolved, drizzle over the top of the filled crepes.

This also works well with semi-dried apricots and apricot conserve. You do, however, need to gently cook the apricots in the conserve and water for a few minutes to plump them up.

BASIC CREPE RECIPE

The following quantities will make about eight crepes.

• 2 eggs
• 1 large cup milk (about 300mls)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch salt 
• 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons plain flour, sieved
• 2 tablespoons butter or non-stick cooking spray, for cooking the crepes

Place the eggs, milk, vanilla extract and melted butter in a medium sized bowl and mix well. Add the sugar and salt and mix until all the ingredients are well combined. Now add the flour and beat well until you have a smooth batter. Set the batter to one side for at least half an hour to thicken slightly. You may need to add a little water to the batter if it thickens too much.

Lightly butter or apply a non-stick cooking spray to a non-stick frypan and heat over a medium-high heat until the pan is hot. Pour about four tablespoons of the crepe batter into the hot pan, tilting the pan to spread the mixture evenly over the entire base of the frypan. Add a little batter to any holes that you may have in the crepe. Cook for a couple of minutes, until the underside of the crepe is golden and small bubbles start to appear on the surface of the crepe. Using a small egg lifter, loosen around the edges of the crepe and turn it over. Continue to cook on the other side for one minute.

Repeat this process with the rest of the batter mixture. Crepes are best served straight away. If you are planning on serving them later, you can stack the cooked crepes between layers of alfoil, cover them loosely with foil and keep in a warm place until ready to serve.