Buckwheat Crêpes with Smoked Salmon, Herb Cheese & Capers

Isn’t everyone always looking for new hors d’oeuvres recipes? I know I am. Well, I have a great one for you.

This one came about when I was teaching a class on crêpes recently. I forgot about how much I like them and how easy they are to make until I tested recipes for the class. Their versatility is endless. I taught basic crêpes, buckwheat, chickpea and lactose free. My fillings ranged from seafood, to chicken, to a variety of greens, to crêpe suzette filled with orange butter and flambéed for the finale. They ran the gamut from appetizer to entree to side dish to dessert.

The easiest is this appetizer crepe filled with everything you’d put on a bagel. Well, almost everything. I substituted chopped green onions for the red onion slices and omitted the cucumber, because they are too difficult to roll up in a crêpe.

First you make the buckwheat crêpes. Then you spread them with the spice cheese thinned with a little sour cream to make it more spreadable. Sprinkle on the green onions and capers, top with thinly sliced smoked salmon and roll up. The rolls are best refrigerated for at least an hour to allow them to firm up. Slice on a diagonal, put them out on a pretty platter, pour a glass of wine or a cocktail and you’re ready to party.

Buckwheat Crêpes with Smoked Salmon , Herbed Cheese & Capers

Buckwheat Crêpe Batter

2 large eggs
1 1/2 cups whole milk
1/3 cup (40 grams) all-purpose flour
2/3 cup (84 grams) buckwheat flour
2 teaspoons sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons melted butter

 Filling
1 package (6 oz.) Herb and Spice Cheese
About 4 to 6 tablespoons sour cream or crème fraiche
8 Buckwheat Crêpes, recipe follows
About 1/3 cup chopped green onions
About 1/3 cup capers, drained
8 to 10 ounces sliced smoked salmon

1. To make crepe batter: Mix all ingredients in food processor or by hand with a whisk until smooth.  Set aside for at least 15 minutes.
To prepare ahead: Batter may be refrigerated up to 2 days.

 2. To make crêpes: Stir batter well. Rub butter over the bottom and sides of an 8-inch skillet. Heat over medium high heat until hot.  Lift pan from the heat and pour 1/8 cup batter into the bottom, while tilting the pan to allow the batter to cover it entirely. The first crêpe is usually a dud, so you get to eat it. If the batter is too thick, stir in 2 teaspoons water. Sometimes it will need even more water. The correct consistency will lightly coat the bottom of the pan when you tilt it.

 3. Cook about 1 minute or until the underside is golden. Gently insert a small spatula into one edge of the crêpe to see if the bottom is lightly browned, then turn it over and cook for 30 to 45 seconds.  Turn out onto a sheet of foil, putting one on top of the other.

 To make ahead: Crepes may be refrigerated for up to 2 days. Buckwheat crêpes do not freeze well. Bring them to room temperature before trying to separate.

 Makes about 12 to 14 crêpes.

4. To make the filling:  In a small bowl, stir cheese with enough sour cream to make spreading consistency.

 2.     Lay one crêpe out on a flat surface. Spread with 1 1/2 to 2 tablespoons cheese, covering the crêpe completely. Sprinkle with green onions and capers; press in lightly.

 3.     Cut one slice of salmon into 1-inch strips. Lay about 3 strips on the crêpe, leaving 1-inch of space in between. Roll up tightly and repeat with remaining crêpes. Wrap in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 4 hours.

To prepare ahead: Rolls may be refrigerated for up to 2 days.

 4.     Before serving, cut off lacy ends of crepes and diagonally cut crepes into 1-inch pieces, making 4 to 5 pieces per crepe.

 Makes about 32 appetizers.

Glazed Blueberry-Maple Scones

This recipe was printed in the NYTimes by Dorie Greenspan. It is from Joanne Chang’s Flour Bakery + Café in Boston. Anyone who follows Dorie knows that her recipes are written in such detail they are fool proof.

If you’ve had the chance to eat any of Chang’s baked goods from one of her nine well known Flour bakeries in Boston/Cambridge, you know that everything she makes is special. This recipe with her unique technique for mixing in the butter in two stages makes for an incredibly tender, flaky scone.

If you have a mixer with a paddle attachment, the entire recipe can be made with that attachment. The technique is a little different from most scones. Rather than mix all the butter into the flour until it is the size of peas, half is mixed in until incorporated, like sand, the the other half is only mixed in for 10 seconds. That allows for most of the cubes to remain whole, which means lots of flaky batter with dots of melted butter in the baked scones. They are so delectable, you won’t need to serve them with more butter.

Before I made them, I thought that a glaze of powdered sugar blended with maple syrup would be too sweet. But not to worry. The scones aren’t very sweet, so the glaze blends into the batter perfectly.

The whole-wheat flour mixed with the all-purpose flour is paramount. It really adds a wonderful depth of flavor to the scones.

Although nothing beats a just baked warm scone from the oven, these reheat beautifully, even two days later.

Be sure to leave plenty of room between the scoops for the scones to expand. Eight to a half-sheet are perfect.

SCONES
1 ⅔ cups/240 grams whole-wheat flour
1 cup/130 grams all-purpose flour
1 ½ teaspoons baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon kosher salt
¾ cup/170 grams unsalted butter (1 1/2 sticks), cold, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
½ cup/120 grams crème fraîche, Greek yogurt or sour cream, at room temperature
½ cup/120 milliliters maple syrup
⅓ cup/80 milliliters buttermilk, at room temperature
1 large egg yolk, at room temperature
1 cup/125 grams fresh blueberries

GLAZE
½ cup/60 grams confectioners’ sugar
2 to 3 tablespoons maple syrup

1. In a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, briefly mix both flours, the baking powder, baking soda and salt on low speed. Add half the butter and paddle until fully mixed into the flour, 2 to 3 minutes. (This will coat the flour with butter so the scones are tender.)

2. Add the remaining butter to the bowl of the stand mixer. Pulse the mixer three or four times to mix the pieces into the dough while keeping them whole. (This step will give you small pieces of butter in the dough, which will help the scones be a bit flaky.)

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together the crème fraîche, maple syrup, buttermilk and yolk until thoroughly mixed. Stir in the blueberries. With the mixer on low, pour the blueberry mixture into the flour mixture, and paddle on low for about 10 seconds to get some of the liquid mixed into the flour. Stop the mixer, and mix the rest of the loose flour into the dough by hand: Gather and lift the dough with your hands and turn it over in the bowl several times until all the loose flour is mixed in. Shape the dough into a ball, wrap it well and refrigerate for at least 1 hour or for up to 1 day. (This gives the flour time to fully absorb the liquid.)

4. Heat the oven to 350 degrees, and position a rack in the center. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

5. Using a 1/2-cup measuring cup or ice cream scoop, scoop out 8 mounds of chilled dough, and place them on the baking sheet a few inches apart. Bake scones for 35 to 45 minutes, rotating the baking sheet midway through the baking time, until the scones are evenly golden brown and firm when you press them.

6. While the scones are baking, make the glaze: In a small bowl, whisk together the sugar and enough maple syrup to make a thick, spreadable glaze. Use immediately, or store in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 1 week. Rewhisk before using.

7. As soon as you remove the scones from the oven, use a pastry brush to brush them with the glaze while they’re warm. Let cool on the baking sheet for 30 minutes, then serve.

Caramelized Baked Pears

Caramel is the trendiest ingredient. With the addition of salt and soy, it is even used to dress up fish. My latest obsession is to coat pears with it. I admit to experimenting with this recipe many times before I was satisfied with the result, but even the imperfectly coated pears were delicious.

I was hoping to make the caramel in the same pan the pears baked in, but that didn’t happen. Instead, after the pears are baked, you need to transfer the juices to a small saucepan and reduce them with some cream until thick enough to coat the pears. The amount of cream is really up to you—a little more or less will work, too.

First cut the pears in half through the stem end, core and cut out the stem. If you want to fancy them up to look like the photo, make cuts about 1/3-inches apart almost, but not completely through the pear. You still want each half to be in one piece. I do this only because I like the way they look after they are baked. The same with the sugar and cinnamon I sprinkle on top before baking. I like the way it gives them a beautiful bronze glow.

Although I prefer Bartletts, D’anjou also work well. To test for ripeness, press gently near the stem. You don’t want them ripe. Once they have turned yellow, they are too ripe to bake. If they are very firm and green, keep them on the counter overnight. They ripen very quickly at room temperature.

So, before pears are replaced by peaches, grab some firm, but ripe ones, and bake up this recipe. You can always use caramel ice cream topping, but then what would you do with all those delicious juices the pears exude during baking?

Make cuts almost, but not all the way through the pears. This gives them an attractive appearance once baked.

Baked Pears in Caramel Sauce

2 large ripe but firm pears, Bartlett preferred
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1/3 cup brown sugar, packed
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 cup whipping cream
 

1.  Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2.  Peel pears, cut in half lengthwise, and remove cores. Lay each half-cut side down. Slice the pear almost, but not entirely through to the bottom. This gives them an attractive look after baking.

 3.     Melt butter in a small bowl. Brush the tops of the pears lightly with butter.

4.     Stir brown sugar, and vanilla into remaining butter. Spread on the bottom of a 9-inch pie plate.

5.     Arrange pears cut side down in brown sugar.

6.     Stir together granulated sugar and cinnamon. Sprinkle over tops of pears.

7.     Cover with foil and bake for 30 to 45 minutes or until pears are tender when tested with a knife. Remove pears to plates.

 8.   Pour syrup into a small saucepan. Add cream and bring to a boil. Boil slowly until thickened slightly. Spoon over pears.

Makes 4 servings.