Hello, and yes…it has been a long while since I’ve blogged. I’m determined to blog more often now but let’s hope things will go well for me (and that I’m not too lazy to blog yes?)

Enough of me rambling about; here’s the main reason why (I hope) you’ve clicked and come to my humble blog post today: learning the recipe for Lemony Crepe Pancakes with Salted Caramel and Bananas.

Phew, that sounds like a mouthful! But so worth it; or at least, it is according to my friends! If there’s one thing people who knows me would learn, it is that I dislike having desserts though I enjoy making them. So yes, they benefit out of this more than me! How sad cool is that?

Unfortunately it never crossed my mind to take more than one photo throughout the cooking process, so please bear with my sad looking photo that I had taken when I was at my friend’s house.

Now I’ve actually made both the crepe pancakes and salted caramel from scratch, but I never did take any photos of the Salted Caramel itself (oops!). So sorry about that, maybe I’ll ask my friend to snap a couple of photos for me, if she hasn’t finished them by now hahaha 😛

One thing to note, by the way, is that I follow the infamous Malaysian style of ‘agak-agak’, which translates to ‘guesstimate’ when it comes to my measurements. So my best advise to you would be to not follow this recipe ‘by the book’ style, and eyeball it as and when you muddle along. Don’t worry, I’ll provide descriptions on how it should be like the best that I can 🙂

Things to note:

• Use a flat pan for the lemony crepes if possible. If not, a standard circle pan will do just fine. Remember that the pan’s base should be flat otherwise your pancakes may just be ‘apam balik’ instead k?
• Use a sauce pan for the salted caramel recipe; I’ve learned the hard way that the caramel bubbles like crazy when other ingredients are added in (no matter how gradually you do this) and a low-walled pan may not be sufficient to curb the heated mixture.
• I’m utilizing IDEAL® Full Cream Evaporated Milk for both recipes. Why, you may ask? It enhances the taste of whatever milky-based recipes that I cook. Click here and here to learn more about this handy ingredient.
• I’m using the Young Living Lemon Essential Oil for this recipe. Ask me more if you’re keen to learn about the YLEO range available 😀

Lemony Crepe Pancakes with Salted Caramel & Bananas

Ingredients (Lemony Crepe Pancakes)

• 1/2 cup Multipurpose Flour
• 1 tsp Baking Powder
• Pinch of salt (I use Himalayan Pink Salt)
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup Milk
• 1 cup IDEAL® Full Cream Evaporated Milk
• 1 tbsp melted butter (salted)
• 10 drops Lemon Essential Oil 

Ingredients (Salted Caramel)

• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 2 tbsp melted butter (salted)
• 4 tbsp milk (or heavy cream)
• 1/2 cup IDEAL® Full Cream Evaporated Milk

 

Instructions

Lemony Crepe Pancakes

1. Sift the flour and baking powder using a fine-mesh strainer into a mixing bowl. Use your fingers to gently ‘pop’ or press down any lumps that had formed. By sifting the flour mix first, your batter will be smooth and not have the ugly lumps that will cause your pancakes to look unwieldy and odd later.
2. Add in egg, salt, milk, essential oil, and melted butter into the bowl.
3. Slowly add in the IDEAL® Full Cream Evaporated Milk as you whisk the batter. Be careful! Flours can be rather tricky and they love to jump as high as they can when agitated.
4. Continue whisking your batter (I hand-whisk mine, mainly because I lack of an electric gadget for this. You can use the electric mixer if you have it)  until it is smooth, lump-free, and has the consistency of a smooth yoghurt. You need the batter to be slightly runny so that you can easily spread the mix on the hot pan later.
5. Once the mix is done, set aside and heat up a flat pan (or saucepan) using medium-heat.
6. When the pan is heated, ladle out one scoop of the batter and pour it in the middle of the pan. Using the back of your ladle, quickly make circular motions to enlarge the circle; making the pancake as thin as possible in the process.
7. Let it cook for a minute or two. Observe the ‘bubbles’ that will be forming on the pancake. Once it has stopped bubbling rapidly  flip the pancake over and cook the other side for another minute.
8. Lift up the cooked pancake and repeat the process until all pancakes are cooked to your liking.

Note: Medium-heat pan would give the pancakes a nice, browned colour. If you prefer a paler colour, simply turn the heat down to low heat instead. By turning it to low heat, it also allows you ample time to spread the batter thinly on the pan instead. So, for practice runs, I’d recommend to start with low-heat and gradually move to medium-heat.

Salted Caramel

1. Melt the brown sugar in a sauce pan using low heat. This process will take a while so be patient.
2. Stir the sugar occasionally. Remember to give it a stir every now and then so that the sugar melts nicely and do not get burned in the process!
3. Slowly add in the melted butter and stir. Be careful, the butter will splatter quite a fair bit due to the hot sugar!
4. Keep on stirring and watch as the sugar melts into a dark, caramelly lump. This should take about 10-15 minutes I think? I never really keep track of the time sorry!
5. At one point you will see that the sugar has caramelized nicely but still has some lumps in it aka sugar not melted nicely yet. Add in the salt and keep on stirring.
6. Once the texture of the caramelized sugar is smooth, slowly add in the heavy cream/milk one tablespoon at a time. Again, be careful. The mixture will bubble up like crazy. Just keep stirring as you add in the heavy cream/milk.
7. Continue stirring for several minutes. Then add in the IDEAL® Full Cream Evaporated Milk slowly and continue to stir. Keep on adding the evaporated milk until you’ve achieved a consistency that you like.
8. Turn off the heat and let the sauce mix rest and cool off.
9. Note: The caramel mix will thicken/harden when cool. So if you’re looking for a runny-ish sauce, please add more evaporated milk OR milk OR heavy cream

 

Put it all together

1. Lie a piece of crepe pancake flat and spoon some salted caramel sauce on one end of the crepe. I prefer to smear only a thin layer of salted caramel cause I’m not a huge fan of sweetness. But you can add in however much you like 🙂
2. Add on a couple of thinly sliced bananas (or any other fruits to your fancy) on the caramel.
3. Fold the pancake over slightly past the caramel bit. Then fold that protruded bit over, using a dab of caramel to ‘stick’ the crepe in place.

You’re done! 🙂

Now enjoy your yummy dessert or breakfast. Hope you enjoyed reading up on this recipe! Please feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions 🙂