Eating a piece of tiramisu must be the biggest sin you can commit when you are watching your weight. But when you look at this delicious treat, it looks so innocent and actually also tastes fairly light, one has a hard time believing that a portion contains more calories than a human should consume during a full meal. The treacherous ingredient that makes it a calorie-bomb is the Italian triple-cream cheese mascarpone, made from crème fraîche and cream, which contains about 80% fat. Luckily there is a low-fat alternative which contains only 40% fat and tastes almost just as good, which I used in this recipe. With 420 kcal per portion I still wouldn’t recommend eating loads and heaps of this tiramisu, but it does make indulging in this all time favorite dessert weigh a little less on the conciousness And the best part for me is that this is made entirely without eggs, so there should be no risk even if you keep it in the fridge for 2-3 days.
Tiramisu “light” (inspired by “meine Familie & ich”)
500g low-fat mascarpone
1 tsp lemon zest
100g sugar
1 tsp of vanilla
200 ml very strong coffee (cold)
4 Tbsp Amaretto
150g lady fingers (Italian sponge-cakes)
Unsweetened cocoa powder to dust the top
Combine the mascarpone, sugar, zest and vanilla in a bowl and stir well. Pour the Amaretto into the coffee, prepare a form (square) to stack the tiramisu in. Now drop the lady fingers into the coffe, flip them and start layering the bottom of the form with them. Once done, if you like the sponge cakes to be well imbibed with coffee sprinkle the layer you just made with 2 additional Tsps of coffee. Cover with a layer of the mascarpone mixture and continue this way until you are out of mascarpone and finish with a layer of it. Put the tiramisu in the fridge for 2 hours and dust with cocoa powder short before serving.
Whatever the occasion, crêpes are simply always popular. They can be made quickly, in large quantities and can serve as savory dish as well as dessert. The crêpes in the above picture are filled with ham, grated cheese and mushrooms.
Some people confuse crêpes with pancakes but they are actually very different. Crêpes are almost as thin as a sheet of paper and mostly they are way bigger in size than a pancake. They are almost always served with a filling.
Now I’m often told that making crêpes is very difficult and that the result varies a lot. Common issues are:
Clumps in the batter
Batter sticks to the pan easily
To prevent this a lot of oil/butter is often used
Using a laddle, it is very difficult to dispense the batter equally over the frying pan so the whole surface is covered
Crêpe breaks when one tries to flip it
Luckily I’ve gone through a lot of trial and error (while eating a lot of crêpes :D) and I discovered an amazing method that will allow you to make perfect crêpes, easily, every time.
Ingredients
3 eggs
400 ml milk (lukewarm)
1 cup water
1 tsp salt
250g all purpose flour (perfect would be very fine flour which is made for liquid batters)
4-5 Tbsp vegetable oil
Preparation
Mix eggs, milk and salt in a Blender. Gradually mix in flour and vegetable oil. Blend well until you see no clumps anymore. Now add some of the water until the batter has the consistency of thick pouring cream. Scoop off the foam if there is any. Keep the batter in the blending container.
Use a paper towel to coat a flat skillet with vegetable oil (if you have a crêpière, even better). Heat up the skillet over medium-high heat. Wait until the pan is hot.
Remove the pan from the heat by lifting it. With the blending container quickly pour in as much liquid as you need to cover the whole surface. Pour back excess batter into the blending container.
Put the skillet back on the heat. As soon as you see that the crêpe is golden brown at the bottom, flip it. If your crêpe breaks easily, the batter was probably too liquid. Add a little more flour to the batter in that case.
If you are preparing a savory crêpe, add cheese and other fillings now on one side of the crêpe. Fold it in a half and make sure it’s golden brown on both sides. Remove on a plate.
Continue this way. Maybe you’ll need to reapply a little oil at some point but usually the oil in the batter is enough to keep them from sticking.
Useful Tips
You can add a little butter too the batter to improve the taste.
You can make the batter 2 days in advance and refrigerate it. Just bring it back to room temperature before cooking when you want to use it (and reblend a little).
You can seperate crêpes with wax paper to keep them from sticking.
Crêpes can be refrigerated in a plastic bag for 3 days.
Crêpes can be frozen in a plastic bag for 3 months.
To reheat crêpes, place them in an oven on a cookie sheet at 170°C.
Ideas for fillings: Grated cheese, ham, mushrooms, all sort of vegetables, a fresh egg (yolk), Gorgonzola or Goat cheese. Sugar, cinnamon, chocolate, ice cream, nutella, fruit, marmelade, jam, peanut butter, maple syrup etc…
And the best part for me is that this is made entirely without eggs, so there should be no risk even if you keep it in the fridge for 2-3 days.
