Mini Earl Grey Crepes with Lavender Ricotta

Crepes are classy.

If someone asks you out on a date for crepes, you can be assured they are probably an ok person. Now that we’ve decided on that stone hard truth, it will be the best idea to serve crepes at your New Year’s Eve party. These mini earl grey crepes. Did I mention that they are filled with a lightly sweetened lavender ricotta? Or that they are finished of with a drizzle of sage and lemon infused honey?

All the classy. (Speaking of classy, wait until you see the cocktail recipe I whipped up to wash these down with. Coming soon.)

These crepes are bite sized pockets filled with velvet subtleties and warmth. Lavender and Earl Grey go together like hot baths and epsom salt. The puckering lemon zest keeps this dessert bright and stunning, enhancing the floral herb dance that flies under the radar. In one word: wow!

Real talk: I know that you have enough rooms to sweep and playlists to make. The groceries won’t buy themselves and you’ve barely time to put on that new lipstick you bought before your guests arrive. So why in the world would you make something as tedious as these origami crepes that only a pro could pull off?

Because everything for this sweet you can make the day before. Two days even. The only thing you have to do the day-of is put them together. I’ll show you how. It’s not as tricky as it looks.

The only trick about the crepes is that you’ll need a small pan. I used this mini 5 inch cast iron.

The batter takes 5 minutes to make. You are going to want to steep the earl grey and half & half ahead of time to allow it to cool. Add all your ingredients in a blender and blend away for 1 minute. Let sit 5 minutes before cooking — a perfect opportunity for a minute dance session.

Heat your mini pan on medium heat, melt a small pat of butter, and start making your mini crepes. Pour 2 tablespoons batter into the pan for each crepe. Flip when golden, about 2 minutes! Cook 1-2 minutes more for golden perfection.

My advice, put on a podcast you’ve been meaning to listen to for a while. I recommend 2 Dope Queens with Phoebe Robinson and Jessica Williams, cuz those ladies are fun-ny. Make your 24 mini crepes. Once cooled, wrap in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to chill out before your party tomorrow.

A cinche.

So you’re going to need to get your hands on some dried lavender flowers. I found mine at the health food store. Call around before you spend all day scouring the ends of your town.

Also, you’re going to want to buy the extra smooth, full fat version of ricotta. I swear food companies are always trying to trick me into buying low fat cheese. I’m sorry, but give me all the fats or no cheese at all.

Process those beautiful, little, lavender buds in a spice/coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle. Combine with ricotta, salt and honey.

So easy. So glorious.

As if the first two steps weren’t simple enough. This brings home the award for easiest step.

Warm 1/4 cup of honey in a small sauce pan over the stove (or just in the microwave if you’re like me and despise dishes- 30 seconds people). Add dried sage and lemon zest. Mix. Done.

That’s it. All that’s left is assembly. You can put your feet up for a day or two so you can finish binge watching Lady Dynamite (Do you watch this? So funny!).

So now it’s the morning of your party. Yep, you can put these together that soon. Fold and roll the crepes. Don’t worry, I’ve included some ikea-esque instructions. Make sure you have fancy toothpicks.

Fold crepe over 1/3 of the way.
Flip over. Fold over 1/3 of the length that is left. About an inch.
Start rolling the crepe from one end going all the way to the other end.
Secure with that fancy tooth pick going through the exposed flap all the way through the bottom of the crepe. It will easily stand up.

This should be nauseatingly familiar to all my servers and bartenders out there who have folded 10.2 million napkins so far in their life (think candlestick fold).

If you have a pastry bag and fancy piping tips or know how to make a piping bag with parchment paper, let your classy flag fly and use those. For the rest of us, you can use a sandwich bag to fill your crepes. Just fill a sandwich bag two thirds of the way full with your lavender ricotta. Twist the top to seal, holding it secure in that weird little space between your thumb and pointer finger. Is that a finger armpit? Cut a small piece off one corner of the plastic bag so that a stream about the diameter of pencil comes out.

Fill each crepe to the top by gently squeezing the bag in a circular fashion. Pretend you are filling a tiny ice cream cone with soft serve (you can see how I hold the bag in the photo below). To cut off the flow of the ricotta, stop putting pressure on the bag and give your wrist a gentle twist.

Put your crepes on a fancy plate or platter. Lightly drizzle the crepes with your infused honey.

You can even add a little powdered sugar.

And you’re done!

Serve alongside these bacon wrapped scallops and brussles sprout skewers and you’ve got a party on your hands.

Need a delicious and interesting vegan option for your New Year’s Eve party? Stay tuned until tomorrow. I’ve got some beet burger sliders that are the perfect thing.

Need a delicious and interesting vegan option for your New Year’s Eve party? Stay tuned until tomorrow. I’ve got some beet burger sliders that are the perfect thing.

You may have seen me before. Friends and family will know that I started a blog in 2013, ten months after my daughter was born. It was a little space called Keeping Willow . And it was about everything. But mainly it was about the confusing feelings I was having about motherhood and our cultures perceptions and expectations of women and mothers. It was basically a documentation of my postpartum identity crisis. And I sustained it for 2+ years.

And then my feelings started to change. I wasn’t so concerned about how people perceived me as a mother anymore. I got over some of my angst. And to be honest, I was exhausted. At the time, I was working 50+ hours a week, helping care for our home, managing the finances, doing the grocery shopping, etc, etc, all on top of doing most of the heavy lifting in raising our daughter Willow (my partner is not a dead beat, he’s just a grad student).

So I gave myself permission to take a break. To reassess what I wanted.

The idea for Pop Kitchen was born out of that break. Because my favorite posts on Keeping Willow were the recipes.

Am I done with Keeping Willow? Not sure. If it ever resurfaces, it will have a different angle, but right now my focus is here.

This is my second post for Pop Kitchen. What you should expect this week is an overload of recipes you can use for your New Year’s Eve party. Classy recipes. Food that looks really difficult but actually is not. That’s all classy is anyway, right? Fooling people into thinking you’ve got it all together. And with this recipe line up, you will have it all together!

When you try these and the other NYE recipes I post this week, let me know! Rate the recipe and share your thoughts and questions in the comments below. Use the hashtag #popkitchen and tag me @pop_kitch when you post recipes you’ve made on Instagram. I’ll share my favorite photos on Pop Kitchen’s account.

Stay classy folks.

Recipe

Mini Earl Grey Crepes with Lavender Ricotta

Ingredients

2 cups half & half
2 bags earl grey tea
2 eggs
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp sugar
1 Tbsp melted butter
¼ tsp sea salt
½ tsp vanilla extract
Butter for pan
½ tsp dried lavender buds
1 cup full fat, extra smooth ricotta
¼ tsp sea salt
2 tsp honey
¼ cup honey
¼ tsp lemon zest
a pinch of dried ground sage

Instructions

First, put on the album A Seat at the Table by Solange. That album has all the class. Now you can make the crepes. Warm the half & half in a small sauce pan until steaming but not boiling. Add the bags of earl grey and allow to steep for 5 minutes. Being careful not to break the bags, squeeze all the half and half out of the tea bags. Stick the half & half in the fridge to cool.
Once the earl grey and half and half mixture is cooled mostly, add all the ingredients for the crepes into a blender. Blend on high for 1 minutes. Allow to sit for 5 minutes before making the crepes.
In the meantime, warm up a small 5 inch cast iron or non stick pan over medium low heat for about 2-3 minutes, depending on your stove. Add a small pat of butter. Once the butter has melted, add 2 tablespoons of crepe batter to the pan, swirling it around so that the batter covers the entire pan and their are no holes. A perfect circle.
Allow to cook until golden brown, about 2-3 minutes, and flip with a spatula. Allow the other side to brown. This will take less time, about 1-2 minutes. Repeat until you have 24 mini crepes.
For the ricotta, grind the dried lavender buds in a spice/coffee grinder or with a mortar and pestle. Combine with the ricotta, honey, and salt.
For the honey infusion, warm your honey for 30 seconds in the microwave or until warm and runny in a sauce pan over the stove. Combine warm honey with lemon zest and dried ground sage.
To assemble: fold crepes as instructed in the post above. Fill the center pocket with lavender ricotta and drizzle with honey.

Notes

Notes You can make crepes and ricotta 1 to 2 days before serving. Assemble and make honey the day of. Sprinkle with powdered sugar for extra class.