Nici Wickes: Orange and Caramel Custard-filled Crêpes

A weekend spent in Wellington inspired me to re-create a dish from Ortega Fish Shack’s dessert menu: Crêpes filled with a delicate custard and doused in a caramel orange sauce – I swear they’re the best I’d ever had. This is my attempt at these and they’re very, very good.  

Makes 10-12 crêpes. 

  

Ingredients 

• 100g plain flour  
• a pinch of salt  
• 2 eggs  
• 300ml milk  
• butter for frying  
• ½ cup store-bought thick custard  
• softly whipped cream  

  

Orange caramel sauce  

• ½ cup caster sugar  
• 3 tablespoons water  
• zest and juice of 1 orange  
• a splash of brandy or rum  

  

Method 

1. Sift the flour and a pinch of salt into a bowl. Make a well in the centre then break in the eggs and pour in half the milk. Whisk together, gradually incorporating the flour to make a smooth thick batter then stir in the rest of the milk. Leave to rest for 15 minutes.  
2. Heat a little butter in a medium frying pan. Pour about 2-3 tablespoons of batter into the pan, tilting the pan as you pour, until the batter thinly coats the base. Cook over a moderate heat for 30–60 seconds until golden brown on the underside. Then flip and cook the other side for another 30–60 seconds. Repeat with remaining batter.   
3. When the crêpes are cooled, dab a teaspoon of custard and spread it on one quarter. Fold the crêpe in half then over again to form a triangle.  
4. Make the caramel by heating the sugar and water in a small saucepan without stirring until it begins to colour, about 4 minutes. Let it bubble and deepen to a light caramel colour before adding in orange zest and juice and alcohol. Simmer for a few minutes more until it thickens.  

To serve:

Return folded and filled crêpes to the pan, drizzle in the caramel sauce and gently heat until crepes are warmed through. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream. Pure decadence!  

 

LISTEN ABOVE 

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:07):
You're listening to the Saturday Morning with Jack team podcast
from News Talks at be.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Trying to catch up with that cook Nikki Wex, who's
here with us this morning.

Speaker 1 (00:15):
Kilder.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
Yeah, good morning, Jack.

Speaker 2 (00:18):
You have a delicious sounding recipe, a seasonal recipe. At
the moment, do you know I am eating? I always
have this problem right at my other job for TVNZ,
I have this problem when I'm getting made up in
that the makeup ladies always complain that I'm too orange
because I eat. I eat a lot of carrots, like

(00:38):
I would often have two carrots a day, and then
I would and at the moment, I'm eating so many
oranges because they're just so good and it's the cat
and you know, well on your hands, yeah, your hands
go out, look your orange. Yeah.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
So interesting. I mean, I have no sympathy for you
because you blokes in the industry spend about two seconds
in the makeup cheer and us women have to spend
about two hours. So I don't know what story is
with that, but I'm kind of happy.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
To hear that they.

Speaker 2 (01:10):
Anyway are amazing at the moment, So this is sweas recipe.

Speaker 3 (01:16):
They are. They're just beautiful and look, I was inspired.
Last weekend I was down in Wellington. You know, we
hear a lot on the news about Wellington's dying. Didn't
look like it to me. I went to all these
restaurants and they were all jam packed full of people.
I did go back to the old, the old faves
down there. Boy, they have some classic restaurants Bullcott Street, Pistro,

(01:37):
Heaving and a lunchtime on Friday, Darling Old Floriditas and
Cuba Street and then Ortiga for ship which I never miss.
And this is off the dessert menu. So I sort
of hastily put this together for one of my cookbooks,
actually because I love the stition. I never I never
don't order it, and that might be a double negative anyway.

(01:58):
It's orange and caramel custard filled crapes. The trick with
a crape when you're making sort of crape susettes or
whatever is to get them very very thin. These eight
no American pancakes. So look about one hundred grams of flour,
which is plain flour, which is about half a cup
of scant half cup into a big bowl, a pitch
of salt in there, make a well in the middle

(02:19):
and then break in two eggs and then pour in
around about one hundred and fifty mils of milk. We're
going to use about three hundred meals all up. But
first of all, I just like to give all of
that a whisk together, and you gradually, gradually, gradually incorporate
the flour from around the sort of sides. You'll have
a thick batter. Then then you stir in the rest
of the milk. And I say stir because you don't

(02:40):
want to overwhisk this flour because all it does is
activate the glutens and make your crapes quite tough. So
then leave that batter to rest for about fifteen minutes Jack,
and I think that's key. You'regain to get a nice
tender crape at the end of it. Okay, when time
to cook, this makes about ten to twelve crepes. Heat
a little bit of oil and kind of a heavy
based fry pan I think of better than a thin

(03:03):
based one. Pour about two to three tablespoons of the
batter to the pan, and the trick is to pour
and tilt as you go to get that really thin coating.
If you've ever been to a sort of farmer's market,
you'll see those beautiful French people making galettes, and they
are sort of they use another tool that kind of
spreads it out, but we don't have those at home.
So just tilting that pan all around until you've got

(03:25):
a beautiful thin coat up. The first pancake is never
your best pancakes, so do not do not mind about that, okay,
and then the second one will be better, And about
thirty to sixty seconds until it's kind of got golden
freckles on the underside on the pan side of it,
flip it over, cook it for another thirty to sixty seconds,
and I just don't know how hot your stovetop is,
hence the thirty to sixty seconds. Repeat with all the

(03:48):
remaining better and leave them to cool at this stage.
And then they can if you're not serving them immediately,
they can sit there covered, you know, for a day
or so, you know, before you do it. And then
I'm going to fill it whether and I'm sure it'll tiger.
They make some beautiful, clean patissier, but I use because
I'm a little bit hacky. Sometimes half a cup of
straw bought thick custard. I love the meadow lee. I

(04:10):
love meadow lee, it's a good one. And mix that
with some softy whipped cream and then you've got a
sort of cheetze cream pat if you like. And when
it comes time to serve these, you want to add
a a sort of heaped teaspoon of custard into one
quarter of the crapes and then fold the crape in half,
then over it to form a triangle. Then you're going

(04:30):
to sort of warm these in a pan when it
comes time to serve them, Jack, and I'm going to
I'm going to suggest you serve them with this orange
caramel sauce. And it's easy. Half a cup of cast
of sugar into a pan or a salt spin if
you like, three tablespoons of water, the zest and juice
of one orange. So it's really zesty. It's really punchy
with all that orange juice, and you really want to

(04:52):
heat that until well, you actually you want to heat
the sugar and the water until it's a sort of
a dark caramel color and let it bubble and deepen
in that color. Then add your juice and also a
little splash of brand your rum if you like.

Speaker 2 (05:06):
Just is it that little lead?

Speaker 3 (05:07):
Sure? Oh no, little edge little edge similar off so
that you cook that alcohol off. You don't have to
do the alcohol. The orange juice is fine, and then
after a few minutes you'll notice that it's nice and thick,
and that's sort of that's a nice pour inconsistency. So
then when you're ready to serve return all your love,
you folded crape parcels into the pan they can overlap,
slightly drizzle in the caramel sauce, and then gently heat

(05:30):
it until the crapes are really warmed through. Serve it
all with a doll up of whipped cream. Pure delicious sounds. Yeah,
this is only if you can't get to Wellington, Okay, ah, yeah,
I mean it's really good. I mean I grew up
on crapsy ets. Mo meus to cook them all the
time at dinner parties and she would have us making
sort of forty and fifty crapes all day. So I

(05:53):
love those. But this is just it's just it's magical
having a little bit of custard in there. It's amazing.

Speaker 2 (05:59):
Yeah, that sounds amazing. It does. Thank you so much, NICKI.
We'll make sure that recipe is up at newstorksb dot
co dot NZ so you can cook along.

Speaker 1 (06:07):
For more from Saturday Morning with Jack Tame. Listen live
to News Talks at B from nine am Saturday, or
follow the podcast on iHeartRadio