Blood Orange Crepes with Cherry/Vanilla Balsamic Filling – Recipe

I received samples from Devo Olive Oil for use in this recipe. All opinions are my own.

I love to make crepes – they are a delightful vehicle for both sweet and savory meals. One batch makes quite a few and they freeze beautifully. I use a basic recipe from my old friend the Betty Crocker Cookbook but this time I played with it a little bit – I made a batch using Blood Orange Olive Oil instead of butter which gave the crepes a lovely citrus flavor. It was not overly present but just enough to make them interesting. I then divided the batter to make half of them sweeter for dessert purposes. In this post I’ll show the recipe for the main batter and then the additions for the half for the dessert crepes. You’ll see what I did with the savory crepes over the weekend.

Blood Orange Crepes with Cherry/Vanilla Balsamic Filling

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Serves 2

For the Crepe Batter:

1 1/2 cups all purpose flour
1 TBS sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 cups milk
2 eggs
2 TBS Blood Orange Olive Oil

For the Dessert Crepes:
(added to half the batter)
1 TBS sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

For the Cherry/Vanilla Balsamic Filling:

1 1/2 cups pitted sweet cherries. It’s fine if they are frozen. Mine were.
1/4 cup Vanilla Balsamic vinegar
pinch of salt

Whipped cream if desired

Make the crepes:

I used an 8″ pan to make my crepes. Obviously if you use a larger pan you will need more filling and have fewer crepes overall. I have found that I like the smaller size. Making crepes is not hard, you just have to master the swirl when the batter hits the pan. I’ve made a little video that is embedded at the appropriate point in the recipe.

In a large bowl combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Whisk to combine. In a separate bowl whisk together the milk, eggs and blood orange olive oil. Add the liquid mixture to the dry ingredients and stir to combine.

To make both sweet and savory crepes divide the batter in half. For these dessert crepes I enhanced the batter with the additional TBS of sugar and the vanilla bean paste.

Heat an 8″, nonstick pan over medium heat. Brush a little of the blood orange olive oil in the bottom of the pan. The first crepe usually fails. Don’t worry if it does. Add about 1/4 cup of batter to a hot pan and swirl to put a thin coating of batter all around the bottom:

If you cannot see the video you can view it on YouTube HERE

After about a minute, much like a pancake the bubbles will all disappear and you can easily flip the crepe to lightly brown on the opposite side. Keep making the crepes until you run out of batter. You will need four for this recipe. They do freeze very well, just be sure to put a piece of wax paper, parchment, freezer paper or foil in-between each crepe in your freezer package.

Make the Filling:

I was cooking for one this night so that is why it does not look like

Place a saute pan over medium heat. Add the cherries, pinch of salt and the vanilla balsamic and heat through until the two combine to make a filling with a syrupy sauce.

Divide the filling between the four crepes and roll. Pour the leftover sauce over top and serve with freshly whipped cream.

This is an adult dessert; it is not too sweet but really quite tasty. The cherries are beautifully complemented by the vanilla balsamic which sweetens just enough by being concentrated and reduced. The sugar in the crepes and whipped cream is really all you need. Perhaps a dusting of powdered sugar if you wanted. The mild citrus flavor in the crepe comes through to pair very well with the filling. I really enjoyed these and will be making them again.

You can shop for the oil and balsamic at Devo Olive Oil.

Disclosure: I received samples from Devo Olive Oil for use in this recipe. All opinions are my own.