We have entered the infamous false spring here in New York, where we get a glimmer of warm, sunny weather, only to be thrown back into the winter chill a day or two later. While the weather is telling me spring is not quite here to stay, I’m ready to embrace the change of seasons and bring a bit of spring into my cooking, starting with this strawberry mille crepe cake.
I once made a crepe cake back in middle school and was quite randomly inspired while riding the subway one morning to have another go at it, some 20 years later. My family traditionally celebrates mardi gras by making crepes for dinner, but amidst some chaos at work, mardi gras completely passed me by this year. So it felt fitting to get my crepe fix in some other form, adding in strawberry for a a bit of color and spring flavor.
For the crepes, I largely followed a recipe from Claire Saffitz, adding a bit of lemon zest to complement the strawberries. When I was planning the filling, I saw that most recipes make a pastry cream that is lightened with some whipped cream, sometimes with gelatin to help stabilize the filling. After painstakingly cooking and flipping 25 or so crepes, I wasn’t looking to spend hours on the filling. My main priority for the filling was a nice strawberry flavor, so I went back to a technique I learned from Sohla El-Waylly’s cookbook Start Here (which she apparently learned from Stella Parks), where you pulverize freeze-dried fruit in a food processor with sugar, and pour in heavy cream to make a deliciously fruity stable whipped cream.
This seemed like the perfect vehicle to add strawberry flavor. Since I wanted this filling to be pretty thick and have good body to it, I used a combination of heavy cream and mascarpone, along with freeze-dried strawberries, sugar, and a bit of vanilla. The filling came together in just a minute in the food processor. If you want to amp up the strawberry flavor, you can also add a bit of strawberry jam, homemade or store-bought, to a couple of the layers.
This strawberry mille crepe cake truly is a perfect prelude to spring and one that is very meditative to make, as you cook crepe after crepe and stack layer upon layer, to make a stunning cake. The best part is making the first slice, where you can see the fruits of your labor in the dozens of perfect layers.
Strawberry mille crepe cake
Course: Cakes and custardsDifficulty: Weekend baking project1
8 or 10-inch cake30
minutes1
hourThis strawberry mille crepe cake has delicate layers of crepes and strawberry mascarpone whipped cream for a light and airy spring or summer dessert. The crepe recipe is adapted slightly from Claire Saffitz, while the technique for using freeze-dried fruit in the filling is borrowed from Stella Parks and Sohla El-Waylly.
Ingredients
- For the crepes
1 stick (1/2 cup) unsalted butter
1 1/2 cups (188g) all-purpose flour
generous 1/3 cup (72g) granulated sugar
5 large eggs, room temperature
2 3/4 cup whole milk, room temperature
1 tsp Diamond Crystal kosher salt
zest of 1 lemon
- For the filling
Generous cup of freeze-dried strawberries
1/3 cup (67g) granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups heavy cream, cold
1 cup (8 oz) mascarpone cheese, cold
pinch of salt
2-3 Tbsp strawberry jam (optional)
confectioners’ sugar, for serving
Instructions
- Prepare the crepe batter
- The day before you plan to make the cake, start the batter. Place the butter in a small saucepan and allow to melt. Continue cooking over medium low heat, stirring occasionally, until golden brown and fragrant (should smell nutty). Once the butter has reached a light amber color, remove it completely from the pan and set aside.
- In a large mixing bowl, and the flour, sugar, eggs, milk, salt, and lemon zest. Beat with an electric mixer or mix using an immersion blender. Then, continue beating while slowly streaming in the browned butter. Beat/blend until the mixture is uniform and smooth. Refrigerate overnight or for at least 8-12 hours.
- Cook the crepes
- Remove the batter from the refrigerator and strain to remove the lemon zest and any clumps. Allow to sit out for about 45 minutes to an hour to remove the chill before cooking.
- Melt a small amount of butter in a dish and set aside. Warm an 8 or 10-inch non-stick skillet (non-stick is a must for this recipe to work) over medium heat. Once warm, reduce the heat to medium low and lightly brush the pan with oil. Pour about 1/4 cup of batter if using a 10-inch skillet (you can fill the quarter cup measuring cup about 3/4 of the way if using an 8-inch skillet). Pour into the skillet with one hand and swirl with the other to fully coat the pan in a thin layer of batter. It should be just enough to cover the bottom. If needed, pour a little bit of batter to fill any gaps.
- Cook for about 2 minutes on the first side, until the sides start to curl under and the bottom has nice golden brown spots. Flip and cook briefly for about 30 seconds on the other side. Transfer the crepe onto a piece of parchment paper and cover with a kitchen towel. Continue following the same method, building a stack on the parchment paper and lightly covering with a kitchen towel while you cook the next one. You should get roughly 20 crepes if using a 10-inch skillet and a few more if using an 8-inch skillet.
- Once all of the crepes are cooked, place them covered in the fridge just until cooled, about 1-2 hours. You can keep them in the fridge up to overnight, but if doing so, make sure to fully cover. They may start to stick together as they sit in the refrigerator for longer.
- Make the filling
- When ready to assemble, prepare the filling. Add the freeze-dried strawberries, sugar, and salt to a food processor and blitz until you have a fine powder. Add the heavy cream, mascarpone, and vanilla. Stir with a fork to moisten all of the strawberry mixture. Then pulse a few times, being careful to pause regularly to check, until the mixture is light and fluffy and forms soft peaks. This comes together quickly so do not be too aggressive with the food processor.
- To assemble the cake, add a crepe to your serving plate. Top with a dollop (roughly 2-3 Tbsp, depending upon the diameter of your crepes) of the strawberry filling and spread evenly into a flat layer, leaving a small gap around the edges. It should be just enough to coat the whole crepe and will look quite thin. Top with another crepe and another dollop and repeat. If you would like a more intense strawberry flavor, on a couple of the layers (somewhere between 1 and 3 layers would be about right), you can spread a thin layer of strawberry jam.
- Cover and let set in the refrigerator for at least 3-4 hours. Before serving, dust with confectioners’ sugar or a combination of confectioners’ sugar and blitzed up freeze-dried strawberries.
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