Crepe Tart with Lemon Cream

Our friend Miriam, author of the blog El invitado de invierno, brings us an original crepe cake she made using the De Buyer iron crepe pan. I hope you enjoy it!

Crepe cakes may not be very popular in our country, but they are easy, pretty and very striking. They are also versatile because of the wide variety of creams we can use to fill them. And if we play with adding flavors to the crepes themselves, the variety we can prepare is almost endless. It's also the kind of cake that lends itself to having the little ones at home help, since we can always ask them to spread the cream between crepe and crepe… if we dare.

I used a basic crepe batter that I flavored with matcha tea. Matcha is a powdered green tea traditionally used in Japan, with a characteristic green color and it tastes delicious in sweets. It's responsible for the slightly suspicious color the crepes have. But if you can't find this tea, you can make simple crepes without it.

For the filling I chose a pastry cream flavored with plenty of lemon, a flavor that contrasts perfectly with matcha. I won't say more — the cake disappeared in record time. Between my partner and me we didn't even leave the scraps.

De Buyer iron crepe pan

INGREDIENTS

For the crepes:

• 3 medium eggs
• 250 ml whole milk
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 pinch of salt
• 130 g pastry flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ½ tablespoon matcha tea

For the lemon cream or lemon curd*:

• 450 ml whole milk
• 50 ml lemon juice
• 2 eggs
• 130 g caster sugar
• 35 g cornstarch
• the zest of one lemon
• 20 g butter

*If you want to avoid making the lemon cream you can also opt to use quality jarred lemon curd, like Tiptree.

PREPARATION

Preparing the lemon cream or lemon curd:

You should prepare the lemon cream in advance to allow it time to cool before assembling the cake.

1. We grate the lemon peel and set the zest aside. Pour the milk into a saucepan, add the lemon zest and the sugar, and heat slowly until it comes to a boil. Turn off the heat and cover the pan.
2. While the milk heats, crack the eggs and whisk them. When the milk is hot, add milk to the eggs by tablespoons while continuing to whisk, so they don't curdle. Do this until at least half the milk has been added.
3. Add the lemon juice and the butter in pieces to the mixture and return it to the saucepan with the milk. Heat the mixture again slowly over the heat, stirring constantly with a whisk, until it boils.
4. When it has lightly boiled and thickened, pour it into a shallow wide container, cover the surface with plastic wrap and let it cool.

Preparing the crêpes:

1. Put all the ingredients in a blender and blend until everything is well mixed. Cover the container and let the batter rest for at least half an hour so the flour and tea hydrate well.
2. After resting, make the crêpes in a good crepe pan over medium-low heat, pouring a ladle of batter and immediately tilting the pan while turning it (or use a wooden crepe spreader if you have one), so it covers the entire bottom. Cook the crêpes on the first side and flip them when you see the edges starting to lift; the second side only needs a few seconds. Stack the crêpes on a plate which you will cover with a clean cotton cloth.
3. To assemble the cake, place the first crêpe on a nice serving plate or directly on a cake stand, and spread the cream on top in a thin layer. Lay the second crêpe on top of the cream and spread again. Repeat until finishing the cake with the last crêpe .
4. Sprinkle the cake with sugar, matcha tea or more lemon zest on top.

This cake keeps very well from one day to the next, always well covered with plastic, so it can be prepared in advance.