Chestnut Crêpe Cake
Chestnut Crêpes, Honeycrisp Apples, Opaline Lace Tuiles, Sugar Cane Chantilly, Apple Butter
Pastry Chef Jennifer Yee of Resurgens Hospitality Group | Atlanta
Yield: 2 cakes
Adapted by StarChefs | February 2018
INGREDIENTS
Chestnut Crêpes:
220 grams chestnut flour
30 grams melted butter
150 grams eggs
3 grams salt
20 grams sugar
345 grams milk
Opaline Lace Tuiles:
Softened butter
Sugar
Apple Sauté:
2 Honeycrisp apples, peeled and diced small
30 grams sugar
20 grams purple ribbon sugar cane syrup
½ gram ground cinnamon
40 grams butter
10 grams cider vinegar
Apple Rosettes:
1 apple, peeled
Sugar Cane Chantilly:
500 grams 40% heavy cream
85 grams purple ribbon sugar cane syrup
2 grams salt
To Assemble and Serve:
Apple butter
METHOD
For the Chestnut Crêpes:
To a Vitamix blender, add all ingredients plus 65 grams water; blend well. Cover, refrigerate, and rest batter overnight. Heat an 8-inch, nonstick pan on medium flame and lightly coat with nonstick spray. Per crêpe, pour in 32 grams batter and cook until underside is golden brown. Flip and cook 1 minute more. Repeat to make 24 crêpes. Cool.
For the Opaline Lace Tuiles:
Heat a convection oven to 425°F with fan on low. Brush a silicone mat with a thin layer of butter. Sift a thin, even layer of sugar over butter. Using a 3-inch-wide palette knife, mark triangle shapes (the size of a wedge of cake) in the sugar, encouraging a thicker border of sugar around the triangle for reinforcement. Gently place the silicone mat on a sheet tray and bake 4 to 5 minutes, until sugar caramelizes; cool 2 minutes. Sugar should be pliable. Place a sheet of parchment paper on top of tuiles and gently invert mat from tray onto a clean, flat surface. Carefully pull mat away from triangles. Store Opaline Lace Tuiles in an airtight container with silica gel or desiccant.
For the Apple Sauté:
In a mixing bowl, toss to combine apples, sugar, syrup, and cinnamon. In a sauté pan over medium heat, brown the butter, add apple mixture, and cook until apples soften slightly. Finish with vinegar, cool, and reserve.
For the Apple Rosettes:
Heat oven to 250°F. Peel a strip of apple flesh about ½-inch wide and 4- to 5-inches long. Coil the strip into a rosette and place on sheet tray. (Every portion of cake should be garnished with 2 to 3 rosettes). Bake 15 minutes, until edges of apples look dry and shriveled, but maintain the rosette shape; cool.
For the Sugar Cane Chantilly:
To the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a whisk, add all ingredients; whip to medium-firm peaks.
To Assemble and Serve:
Place 1 crêpe on a cake board and evenly spread 25 grams of Sugar Cane Chantilly to the edge of the crêpe. Repeat 10 times, topping the last layer of cream with a crêpe. Chill at least 1 hour before cutting. Spoon about 2 teaspoons of apple butter onto the side of a serving plate. Place a wedge of crêpe cake next to apple butter. Warm Apple Sauté and place 1 teaspoon next to the apple butter. Dress the top of the cake with more Apple Sauté and garnish with an Opaline Lace Tuile. On a heatproof tray, lightly torch the edges of the Apple Rosettes. Place Rosettes artfully on plate and cake.
