Maple Mille Crpes Cake

Gteau Mille Crpes is a classic French cake recipe.

The crpes are layered with maple-scotch pasty cream
and covered in caramelized sugar. Food blogger Marc
Matsumoto explains the technique for making crpes
in a full post on the Fresh Tastes blog.


Ingredients
For crpes
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted, then slightly cooled
4 large eggs
1 cup bread flour
1 cup milk
1/4 cup grade B maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
Butter for the pan
For pasty cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3 whole eggs
1/2 cup grade B maple syrup
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tablespoon Scotch whiskey
1/2 cup whipping cream
1/2 tablespoon powdered sugar
To finish
2 tablespoons granulated sugar

Directions
1. Put the melted butter and eggs into a blender and blend until emulsified. Add the
flour, milk, maple syrup and salt to the blender and blend until smooth.
Refrigerate overnight.
2. Heat a heavy bottomed 9 non-stick pan over medium low-heat until hot. Butter
the pan, then use a paper towel to wipe out the extra butter. The surface of
the pan should be slick but there shouldnt be any pools of butter.
3. Add 2 tablespoons of batter to the center of the pan, and then quickly swirl the
batter around to make a crpe the size of the bottom of the pan. If the batter
solidifies before youre able to spread the batter out, your pan might be too
hot. Try keeping the pan off the heat for a few second before you add the
batter.
4. When the crpe no longer appears wet on top it's ready to flip. Use the corner of a
spatula to peel up an edge, and then carefully use your fingers and spatula to
peel away and flip the crpe. The edge of the crpe should be dry enough
that it shouldn't be too hot, but be careful not to burn yourself on the pan.
5. The crpe should only need 15-20 seconds on the second side to cook through.
Transfer the cooked crpe to a plate (stack the crpes on top of each other to
prevent them from drying out), and then continue making the rest of the
crpes. If the non-stick coating on your pan isnt damaged you shouldnt need
to butter the pan again, but if the crpes start sticking to the pan, keep
buttering the pan.
6. Make the custard while you wait for the crpe to cool completely. Add the milk,
eggs, maple syrup and cornstarch into a blender and blend until smooth.
Pour the mixture into a heavy bottomed pot and heat over medium low heat
while string constantly until it thickens (160 degrees F or 71 degrees C).
Immediately remove the custard from the heat and then stir in the Scotch.
7. Let the custard cool completely. You can speed this up by placing the pot in a
bowl of ice water and stirring the custard.
8. Whip the cream, and then add the powdered sugar when the cream starts holding
soft peaks. Continue whipping until it holds firm peaks, but be careful not to
over whip the cream or the fat will start to separate.
9. Gently fold the whipped cream into the cooled custard using a spatula. If the
pastry cream is loose, place it in the fridge to firm up.
10. To assemble the cake, put a crpe down on a flat plate or serving platter,
then spread an even layer of cream about the thickness of the crpe. If you
make the layer too thin, there won't be enough cream in the cake. If you
make it too thick, the cake won't hold its shape when you go to cut it. There
should be plenty of pasty cream, so dont worry about running out, but dont
try to use it all.
11. Continue layering, saving the best-looking crpe for the top layer. Once your
cake is assembled, cover and refrigerate it for at least 4 hours or overnight to
allow the moisture from the pasty cream to redistribute into the crpes.
12. To finish the cake, sprinkle 2 tablespoons of granulated sugar on top of the
cake in an even layer (passing it through a wire sieve makes this easier). Use
a kitchen torch to brle the sugar. Its important that you do this quickly
otherwise the cream below will start melting. Hold the torch at a 90 degree
angle to the top of the cake, then use a small circular motion working your
way around the cake to evenly caramelize the sugar without burning the
cake.
13. Slice and serve immediately.
Yield: 1 cake




Mille Crpes Cake
(Makes about 1 eight-inch cake)

For the crpe batter:
6 tablespoons butter
3 cups milk
6 eggs
1 1/2 cups flour
7 tablespoons sugar
A pinch salt

For the vanilla pastry cream:
2 cups milk
1 vanilla bean, halved and scraped
6 egg yolks
1/2 cup sugar
1/3 cup cornstarch, sifted
3 1/2 tablespoons butter

For the assembly, this was adapted from the original article:
Vegetable oil
2 cups heavy cream
2 tablespoon sugar or more
Make the crpe batter and the pastry cream the day before.
Crpe batter: In a small pan, cook the butter until brown. Set it aside. In a small pot, heat
the milk until it starts steaming and then set it aside to cool for 10 minutes. On
medium-low speed with your mixer, beat together the eggs, flour, sugar, and salt.
Slowly add the hot milk and browned butter to the mixture. Pour the batter into a
container, cover and refrigerate overnight.
Pastry cream: Flatten the vanilla bean and slice it open with a sharp knife. Peel the bean
open and scrape the seeds out with the knife. In a small pot, bring the milk with the
vanilla bean with scrapings to a boil, set it aside to cool for 10 minutes; remove
bean. Fill a large bowl with cold water (or ice). In a medium sized pan or small pot,
whisk the egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch together. Gradually whisk in the hot milk.
Place the pan over high heat and bring it to a boil, whisking vigorously for 1 to 2
minutes. Set the bowl in the ice bath or cold water and stir until the temperature
reaches 140F (60C) on an instant-read thermometer. Stir in the butter. Cool, cover,
and refrigerate.
The next day, bring the batter and pastry cream to room temperature. Place a nonstick 8-
inch pan over medium heat. Swab the surface with the oil, then add about 2-3
tablespoons of batter and swirl to cover the surface. Cook until the bottom just
begins to brown, about 1 minute, then carefully lift an edge and flip the crpe. Cook
on the other side for no longer than 5-10 seconds. Carefully flip the crpe onto a
baking sheet lined with parchment. Repeat until you have 20 perfect crpes.
Use a mixer to whip the heavy cream with the sugar - it won't hold strong peaks. Fold it
into the pastry cream.
To assemble, lay a crpe on a plate. Pipe or use an icing spatula to completely cover
the crpe with a thin layer of pastry cream (about 1/4 cup). Cover the pastry cream
layer with a crpe and repeat to make a stack of 20, with the best-looking crepe on
top. Chill for at least 2 hours. Set it out for 30 minutes in room temperature before
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inkle the top crepe with granulated sugar and caramelize with the torch.

I know it wasn't necessary, but I went out to get a kitchen torch anyways. They weren't too
expensive, I was bracing myself to spend around $30 for one and was surprised to find it on
sale for $13 at the Bay! The torch isn't filled, so we made a trip to Canadian Tire to find
butane fuel, $5.



I made the crpes batter and pastry cream the night before. The next morning, I stood in
front of the stove for hours to cook those crpes. Then I stood for another hour at the table
icing each layer. I even sprinkled the top layer with sugar. Then along comes Howard to
perform the fun part. Caramelizing!

At least I got to take the photos.

I'm kidding, it was great seeing him have so much fun with the torch. And the torch was
worth it. That top crunchy layer is the best. I mean, the cake is amazing as a whole, but if it
were just layers of crunchy crpes, that would be awesome too!



We are highly recommending that you try making this cake. Sure, the edges will be ruffled
(Howard picked out our black ruffled cake stand to go with this cake) and not as neatly
stacked as Lady M's, but the cake itself is tasty and the texture is delicious!