Mont Blanc Chestnut Crepe Cake
An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella
Serves: 16
Preparation time: 10 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour
Assembling time: 15 minutes
Makes about 30-40 crepes (depending on thickness and diameter)
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2 cups plain all purpose flour
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1/2 teaspoon salt
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12 eggs
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1.2 litres/40.47 fl ozs milk
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Butter for frying
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700ml/24.7ozs sweetened chestnut puree (or you can use your favourite jam)
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2 tablespoons rum (optional)
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600ml/21 fl ozs. pure cream
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3 tablespoons icing or confectioner's sugar plus extra to dust over just before serving
Tip: You can make the crepes up to two days in advance.
Step 1 - Make the crepe batter first. Place the flour and salt in a large bowl and in the largest jug you have (or a bowl with a spout), whisk the eggs and milk together until combined.
Step 2 - Make a well in the centre and gradually whisk the eggy milk mixture into the flour. Don't worry about any lumps, strain these through a fine sieve.
Step 3 - Heat a frypan or a crepe pan on low to medium heat and add a little butter to the pan. Place a 22cm/9 inch collar from a spring form tin on the pan and pour a ladle full of crepe batter-I put in just under a ladleful and tilted the pan as you want the crepes to be thin but also the batter to cover the bottom of the pan. Don't get anxious if there are holes or your crepes aren't perfect-they stack on top of each other. Take a butter knife and trim around the edge of the collar to release it from the cooking batter and remove the collar. When one crepe side is cooked, gently flip it over. Stack the crepes on top of each other. Cover and cool completely.
Step 4 - Whip the cream and the sugar until stiff peaks form and set aside. Loosen the chestnut puree with the rum or with a little of the cream if it is too stiff but it should be spreadable. Trim the crepes using the same collar just to make it precise (optional) and then spread one crepe with the sweetened chestnut puree and then place another on top and spread that with the whipped cream and keep alternating until you are on your last crepe. Sift icing sugar on top of this just before serving (use snow icing sugar if you can as this doesn't melt as easily as regular icing sugar).