Apple-Butternut-Blueberry Crepes

That title is a mouthful. It also may have some of you scratching your heads, thinking, "Ooh-kaay. Butternut SQUASH?" 

Yes, butternut squash. With apples. And blueberries. How about some cinnamon and maple syrup to go with it? Thinking about it now, I bet some pecans would have gone splendidly with it too. Yum!

I'd been mulling this recipe around in my head for a while. (That's right, I MADE up this recipe. Sort of. With help. You'll see.) A friend of mine introduced me to the paleo lifestyle and one of her first recipes she tried was Cinnamon Maple Butternut Squash. Honestly, I was intrigued. I had NEVER tired butternut squash (in fact, prior to trying some paleo meals I avoided squash like the plague), but how could it possibly taste bad with cinnamon AND maple syrup? Right?

I told her multiple times, it sounded like a dessert or something you'd put in a crepe, but that I hadn't gotten around to trying it yet. Not having tasted butternut squash before, I wasn't sure I wanted to waste crepes, let alone paleo crepes on a dish that may or may not turn out. Especially because paleo flours are NOT cheap and I haven't yet found them in a large enough size where one meal won't wipe out close to half the bag.

Seeing as my family isn't 100% following a paleo lifestyle AND I only needed to cook dinner for the kids and I (my husband says he is against squash with the exception of pumpkin, so if I could make it paletable for the kids and I, maybe he'd try it the next time I make it), I figured we'd go for Real Food Crepes to try out the Cinnamon Maple Butternut Squash crepes. The "problem" still nagging at me though was, "The kids are NOT going to eat this. They're going to be expecting apple crepes as usual." So, I did some research.

What does butternut squash TASTE like? Maybe if it was "buttery" enough or I put in enough maple syrup, I could get away without having to do apple crepes too. I called my Mom. 

"Mom, do you know what butternut squash tastes like? Do you think if I added the apples I usually make with crepes, I could get away with adding the squash too?"

What to do, what to do.

I finally decided to just do it already! 



Apple-Butternut-Blueberry Crepes
(First made 01 Feb 13)

What you need:

For the Crepes:
1 C Whole Wheat White Flour (this is a Real Food ingredient)
2 C Whole Milk (again Real Food, although I consider myself a lactopaleo when I eat paleo)
3 Whole Eggs (I use brown as I do not have my own chickens or a farmer I buy directly from)
Pinch of salt
(I don't add the sugar as I'm going to be using vanilla, maple syrup, cinnamon and end up making a caramel sauce to go with this; I want to cut out as much sugar as possible.)

Put all the ingredients together (in a blender or in a bowl) and mix them together. Put them in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes. I think I put mine in an hour ahead of time, prepped everything for the filling and once the filling was ready to go and the caramel sauce, I made the crepes. (You could probably do the opposite first, but be wary of how long you leave the crepes in a warm oven, they could harden instead of staying flimsy and soft.)

To make the crepes, first you have to understand it takes practice; unless you are just naturally good at making round crepes. And if you are good at making crepes, you need to come to my house and teach me! Mine DO NOT turn out nice and round all the time. This go around then were more oval shaped with little arms sticking out from time to time. The most important part though: that you can fill them with yumminess and roll them. Or leave them open and eat them that way too!

I used a spray coconut oil to coat the pan. This is the ONLY TIME I spray my pan. Let the pan warm up; try to pour your batter BEFORE the coconut oil turns brown. Brown oil means it is really hot and it can make for a frustrating time trying to make crepes (the batter cooks super fast). In fact, I had brown coconut oil last night and it made for a frustrating crepe-making time, BUT they were still tasty! :) I try to pour my batter into the middle of the pan and let the batter smooth itself out. USUALLY I can get pretty round crepes this way. Last night, was NOT one of those times. Until my last three crepes.

Let the batter bubble up and flip it. Let it sit for no more than a minute and put it on a plate sitting in the oven (oven at warm or you may end with a broken plate). Empty out the rest of your batter until you have a plateful of crepes.

I REALLY should have taken a picture of the back side of these (they were brown) and the ones on the bottom; they were NOT all this "pretty"; this is one of the last ones I made.

Or just click on the word "crepes" above the ingredient list and follow their directions. :)

For the Filling:

(I used a combination of recipes for the filling. Cinnamon Maple Butternut Squash and a general search on apples as crepe filling.)

2 Tbsp Coconut Oil - use more if needed; depends on how much you are making
Butternut Squash - I only used a half and used the "neck" part - I also do NOT know how to pick out a squash and the squash I used had been sitting on the island for at least a week. I have NO IDEA if this attributed to the flavor or not
Apples (I used probably two) - I did NOT peel mine, I like the extra nutrients
1/2 C Maple Syrup - I used real maple syrup to keep with pale
Ground Cinnamon
Salt
1 C Blueberries

(You want an even ratio of apples to butternut squash to blueberries and back, so alter the recipe as need be.)

I took off the skin of the butternut squash as my research showed that some people like it cooked with the squash and some think it's too bitter. Seeing as this was my FIRST TIME EVER cooking, let alone EATING, butternut squash, I decided to take the skin off. The smell from peeling the skin reminded me of cutting open a watermelon. (If I peel a butternut squash when making this recipe again and it doesn't smell that way, I'm going to be a little scared of how it's going to turn out.) Cubed it into small cubes (I wanted it to match the apple pieces. You can peel and core your apple if you want to, but I like to keep the peel on from time to time (one less step and one less item to clean up afterwards). 

I used a large pot to cook the apples and a skillet for the butternut squash. I added one to two tablespoons of coconut oil to each, melted it and then added the respective filling. The recipe for the squash mentioned 10-15 minutes for the squash to be soft and 10  minutes is about needed to soften the apples. I cooked both until they were fork tender (I could stick a fork in them). You will need to stir the apples to keep them from burning and you will need to turn the squash to make sure it gets brown on all side and to help cook the pieces through. 

After the 10-15 minutes, I decided I was going to mix the two together, so I added the butternut squash to the apple pot (hence the reason I used a pot; I wasn't 100% sure WHAT I was going to do). I added a 1/4 cup of pure maple syrup, a sprinkling of cinnamon (I KNOW how slow my cinnamon sprinkles out, so I just squeezed the container once, probably about 1-2 tsp; enough to "coat" the butternut squash AND the apples if they were cooking separately), and a pinch of salt to offset "too much sweetness".

Then I started the Easy Caramel Sauce. As I started the caramel sauce, I kept looking at the pot of apple butternut squash mix and decided that blueberries would really add SOMETHING to the mix. So I took out a package of frozen blueberries and added just a bit (maybe 4 oz). Turned the heat back on and mixed them around, just long enough to help defrost the berries a bit and to turn the filling mixture purple. 

And I added a pad of butter. Just a tablespoon or so. Mix it all around until it melted.

The filling ready to be put into or onto a crepe!

Easy Caramel Sauce

(I honestly wasn't sure HOW these crepes were going to turn out and I figured if anything would save a mess, it'd be this easy caramel sauce. NOT paleo and NOT Real Food, but absolutely DELICIOUS. And because I skipped the sugar in the crepes, I wasn't going to feel bad about having a drizzle over my Apple-Butternut-Blueberry Crepes!)

I made HALF the recipe, since I had high hopes of making this mesh up of food work!

2 Tbsp butter

1/2 C brown sugar (I make my own and again with trying to reduce how much sugar is consumed, did NOT pack it down)

1/4 C heavy whipping cream (I've also  made it with Whole Milk)

little bit of salt

Dash of Vanilla

Add the butter, brown sugar, milk, and salt in a pan. Bring it to a boil over medium high heat. Whisk or stir the entire time for 5 minutes or so until it thickens. TURN THE BURNER OFF. Add the vanilla; it'll bubble a bit. Turn the heat back on and cook for another minute.

Refrigerate when done using. 

Assembly:

1) Lay a crepe down

2) Add some filling

3) Roll it

4) Repeat until your plate is full

5) Drizzle some filling over your crepe and a little easy caramel sauce

Viola!

BEFORE I added ANY caramel sauce to the kids' plates, they had to have a bit without. And since they asked for me to cut up their crepes, I did. My oldest is only 5.

IF/WHEN I make this again, I would change a little bit to the recipe and process. I'd cook the butternut squash a bit longer. While there were a couple bites of obvious just squash (based on texture and taste), the squash I picked really just added a buttery flavor to the dish. I did get ONE, "Mom, this apple tastes funny" comment from my eldest (and pickiest), but ALL four kids gobbled down their food without complaint. 

I'd cook the squash longer so that it's a bit more tender. I'd also add more blueberries than I did. Maybe 8 oz (which is about a cup); enough that there seems to be an even ratio of apples to squash to blueberries and back again. The bites of squash with blueberry was out of this world delicious. 

I'd also add more than 1/4 cup of maple. The 1/4 cup of maple came from JUST the Cinnamon Maple Butternut Squash recipe, and you need probably another 1/4 cup for the apple filling by itself. I think with these changes, I could eat this dish without the syrup and make it completely pale; if I ever master paleo crepes! I think I'll add walnuts or pecans next time to; just to give it a little crunch.

Needless to say, my kids ate up EVERY last bit on their plate and I thoroughly enjoyed my crepes as well. I'll just have to see how my husband takes to it and if I can reverse the damage done in his mind on eating squashes!