UpDate: It is recommended to store the garlic confit in the refrigerator and for not longer than 3 weeks due to the danger of botulism!

Left to my own devices, I can say unequivocally, that I would positively, absolutely NEVER, NEVER have gotten around to trying Martha Stewart’s Darkest Chocolate Crepe Cake.  I would certainly like to think that I would have at some point in time chosen to make crepes but when or how soon I would have done that I can just have no idea now BECAUSE Brilynn (Jumbo Empanada) had the Daring Bakers do that crepe cake.  I really do thank you from the bottom, middle and top of my heart for that challenge. 

Because of the challenge and my feeling that I should make regular basic ordinary crepes before I made chocolate ones, I can now say

Hooray for Crepes

The first recipe I found was in The Cook’s Book in the section by Dan Lepard.

1 c (125g) AP flour

2 extra large eggs

pinch salt

1 c (250g) cold milk

2.5 t (40g) butter

This seemed a very good recipe especially with ...

A little lemon curd...  A little raspberry curd... A touch of leftover hazelnut cream and strawberries.  They made a nice light little sweet treat after dinner for several nights.  

As easy and as nice as these were, I thought I’d like to try something with a little more flavor and body, something ... savory.  I tried the recipe with whole wheat pastry flour in place of half the all purpose flour and all I could taste was the whole wheat; not what I was looking for.

And then Plunk from out of the blue ... How to Make Delectable French Crepes in the April issue of Saveur!  

In Brittany in Northern France the traditional crepe is the Buckwheat Crepe.  Gluten Free Buckwheat with a nutty even sour flavor, now that sounded really good to me.

First, I made the recipe in Saveur, they were very good.    Then I wanted to see if I could cut some of the fat.  And the crepes I got were just as good!

Buckwheat Crepes

Adapted from Saveur

1 1/2 c low fat milk

1/2 c water

1/4 c egg beaters

1 1/3 c buckwheat flour

1/3 c A P flour

1/2 t salt

All the liquids in a blender and mix.

Whisk together the flours & salt.  Add the flours into the blender and pulse on low 10 to 15 times until well blended.  Scrap the sides down several times. 

Refrigerate several hours or overnight.  This allows the flours to hydrate and bubbles to dissipate.  What happens if you skip the resting of the batter?  In his baking book, Alton Brown says “the bubbles will blow up and tear round holes in the crepe or make it lumpy.”

I’ve been mixing up batter and then using it over the next 3 days.

So now I had some really tasty buckwheat crepes, what am I going to put in them that might interest you?

Why do we buy (too many) cookbooks?  Ah, forget it, I know you’re always buying one and wanting two more before you’ve made a recipe from the last one you bought!  Yeah, well, a little fairy told me. 

This is why I want a cookbook.  I don’t know what I’m looking for!  I want to look at the bookshelves and pick some likely suspects and then go hunker down for some inspiration.  I found it in Thomas Keller’s Bouchon.  A very simple spinach saute using a garlic confit.  There really isn’t even much in the way of a recipe.

What’s garlic confit?  First off, it is super good over the top great tasting nutty garlic flavor that’s fantastically easy and versatile to use!

Wikipedia gives the derivation and meaning of confit...

The word comes from the French verb confire (to preserve), which in turn comes from the Latin word (conficere), meaning "to do, to produce, to make, to prepare." The French verb was first applied in medieval times to fruits cooked and preserved in sugar syrup or honey.

I guess you could buy it but it’s so easy to make especially if you buy your garlic at Sam’s and have 50 heads you’re trying to use up.

Peel however many cloves you want to preserve as confit and cut off the root end.  I had about 70 cloves.

Place the cloves in a sauce pan.

Over the lowest heat possible, cook the cloves until they are soft.  I used a diffuser under the pan and eventually moved the pan so that it was only half on the burner.  Mine took about 50 minutes.  Store unused cloves in a covered container

Using a non stick skillet and a teaspoon of the canola oil that used to cook the garlic in, a teaspoon of butter, some chopped shallot or onion and 4 to 5 cloves of the garlic confit mashed, pile the spinach in the skillet.  Use tongs to turn it over until it’s just barely wilted.

The spinach filling in the crepe is divine all by itself.  Add a little or a lot of cheese and you’ve got the stuff of dreams!

I guess it’s just a fancy cheese sandwich but it ‘sur is good.  Next I’ll be trying sautéed mushrooms, after that ...

If you don’t already swear by the garlic confit, do give it a try.  I think you’ll be astonished.  I don’t want to be without it.