Crepes suzettes

Our food group met for dinner recently and the theme was French. I immediately claimed dessert. Not really because I wanted to make dessert all that much but because I’d seen a Jamie and Julia crepes suzette YouTube (see here) and when he finally tastes it his pleasure is palpable. I wanted that despite my reservations about making crepes in general and crepes suzettes in particular—I’d had a disastrous incident flaming them in about 1976 when my wife-in-the-eyes-of-the-Lord and I were trying to be all gourmet-like and nearly burnt our apartment down.

But, you know, I’m waaaay more gourmet now, have the right pan, and possibly more careful with matches and alcohol. I followed Jacques Pepin’s recipe rather than Julia’s (because it’s easier) and used a “Greenpan” which, if you don’t have one, you should.

There’s a bit of a hoopla right at the end before the final flaming which is messy and somewhat distracting but the whole process proved less difficult and time consuming than I recalled since one can make the orange syrup and the crepes well in advance. I did not add enough cognac to make a conflagration so the dramatic flame at the table was more like a flicker but they were super delicieux, il faut dire.