Crepe Bar

If ever anything were worth savoring, it was this.

The barely sweet confection known is the crepe is the fresh-off-the-press tortilla of all things French and lightly decadent. Swirling its batter in a pan before it, poof, instantly cooks into a delicate final product, time and time again, is a therapeutic exercise, albeit one that requires all hands on deck. It's way worth it though, especially if you munch on crepe scraps while you go.

The whole spread of nuts, fruits and creamy spreads was beautiful to my taste buds, but what I found myself salivating over weeks later was the number one star: Nutella Mousse. Yes, Nutella Mousse, hazlenut-chocolate spread in creamy form. Spread it on a crepe, sprinkle on some strawberries and wrap it up with a chocolate drizzle on top, and you may never crave anything else again. It even transported one person back to Europe, she said.

Warning: If Nutella Mousse miraculously survives its debut and ends up in your fridge, it will quickly and frequently escape for you to violently tear off strips of leftover crepes to dip into it and unite with your tongue.

A spread such as this is perhaps best enjoyed with amongst female company. I often ooh and ahh (literally) over what I taste, but it's rare that other people have equally as expressive reactions like crepes elicit. So epic was this spread that I served it twice in one day, first for breakfast for the ladies in my new home group from church and second for our weekly Sunday evening Downton Abbey watching/face stuff gathering. A crepe bar would also be fun for a shower of some sort.

Side note: Extra Raspberry Syrup and Chocolate Syrup make excellent excuses to make cheesecakes and waffle bars, and might up your hot chocolate intake. Be forewarned in that realm too.

Crepe Bar Elements

Brown Butter Crepes (recipe below)

Nutella Mousse

Whipped Cream

Sliced Strawberries

Sliced Bananas

Chopped Pecans

Sliced Almonds

Powdered Sugar

Raspberry Syrup

Chocolate Syrup

Brown Butter Crepes
Adapted from Smitten Kitchen

6 Tbsp. butter
2 1/3 cups milk (I used skim, but any kind should work.)
6 large eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/8 tsp. salt
1/2 cup granulated sugar

Place butter in a small saucepan and place over medium-high heat. Once the butter has melted, reduce the heat to medium low and let it continue to simmer, stirring frequently. Eventually the butter will start to brown and smell wondrously nutty. At this point, remove the butter from the heat and let it cool to room temperature. Be careful not to let it burn.

Place milk through sugar along with the cooled brown butter in a large bowl and blend using an immersion hand or whisk by hand. You can place all the ingredients in a blender instead if you prefer. Refrigerate the mixture for at least an hour, or up to two days.

Preheat a 9-inch skillet on medium-high heat. If you are not using a nonstick pan (my ceramic pan worked fine without grease), spread melted butter or oil in your pan. Measure 1/4 cup of crepe batter and pour it into the pan. Immediately lift up the pan an rotate it around it so that the batter spreads out evenly in the pan. Let it cook until the top is set, about two minutes. Using a spatula, cautiously flip the crepe over. Let the other side cook 5 to 10 seconds and then remove it from the pan. Repeat the process until you have used all the batter.

You can stack the crepes without any dividers. They won't stick together unless you refrigerate them for a while, in my experience, but you'll want to serve them fresh and warm or at room temperature if possible.