Raspberry Preserves Stuffed Crepes

This has been a week of culinary firsts for me, which I am pretty excited about.  Okay, and there is a little bit of pride involved, too, but only because I did not burn the house down (knock on wood).  I was having a sweet tooth craving a couple of nights ago but, oddly enough, I did not want chocolate.  I am of the mind that chocolate should be a food group, so now you understand why that was a surprising sentiment that evening.  I had watched "Giada at Home" earlier in the day and she had made crepes filled with raspberry preserves, and I suddenly HAD TO have that.  I had all of the makings of the dish at home, already, so I got to it!  Thank You Giada De Laurentiis for this simple, easy and delectable recipe!

 Here are the ingredients that most people have in their pantry every day. Mind you, I added the lemon zest to the recipe to add aroma and flavor to the batter and preserves, myself.*

4 eggs

1 cup whole milk

1/2 cup flour

1 tablespoon sugar

2 pinches of salt (about 1/8 of a teaspoon)

zest of half a lemon*

These ingredients all go into a blender, which makes this a very easy, relaxed recipe.

The next set of ingredients, below,  can go into a cereal bowl and mixed together with a fork or spoon. Easy and flavorful!

1 cup raspberry preserves

1/2 teaspoon Vanilla extract (perfumes the preserves)

zest of half a lemon*

Blend the eggs, milk, flour, sugar, salt and lemon zest to form a smooth batter.  Have handy a 1/4 cup measuring cup to put just the right amount of batter into a crepe or small skillet. Place a tab of butter into a crepe or small skillet over medium-medium-high heat.  Fill the one-quarter measuring cup with batter and in a circular pattern swirl the batter around.  Do the same, picking up the skillet.  You should have a nice flat layer of batter over the skillet.  When it starts to bubble on the top, use a long bladed spatula to flip it over, unless you are a smarty-pants and can flip it professionally.  I tried. Epic Fail.  Working on it!  So, a long bladed spatula worked wonders for me.  When the crepe starts gaining that lovely golden color, time to remove it and plate it.  Repeat until you have used as much of the batter as possible. 

Now, using a spoon, swirl the raspberry preserves mixture (should smell wonderful!) over the crepe.  Simply roll it from one end to the other.  Try to make sure the fold is underneath for a better presentation.  

Regretful Hind Sight:  I thought I had powered sugar in my cupboard but I did not.  And if I were a smarter person, I would have had the bright idea to grate some of the chocolate stash I have on hand (Thank You, my precious students!!!  Lovely holiday gifts!) atop a row of filled and rolled crepes.  I truly love raspberry and chocolate together.  Oh well, I - once again - hope to learn from this experience and grow.  

This recipe is Very simple, very easy and goes so fast you hardly have time make mistakes (unless you are everyone who is me). But, mistakes happen for a reason: to learn from. I am a happy learner.  I hope you are, too, and enjoy this sweet tooth craving recipe as much I did .  And will.  A lot.  

Enjoy!