Sourdough Surprises: “Oh, Crap” Crepe Cake

I had a gut feeling about the the challenge for this month's Sourdough Surprises. I was thinking pancakes. Maybe because I haven't done them in a while, and I have my tried and true recipe. It turned out to be crepes – so I wasn't too far off. And my first thought was “Oh, crap.” I have a hard enough time with pancakes. Crepes?

But a challenge is a challenge, and then I remembered a Crepe Cake I had seen on Delish. I had a plan.

I tweaked the suggested recipe just a tad for my tastes and my roughly 100% hydration starter:

“Oh Crap” Sourdough Crepe Cake

Serves 4

Adapted from heartlandrenaissance.com and Delish

1 cup sourdough starter
2 eggs
2 Tablespoons melted butter
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 cup of milk

1/2 tsp almond extract

1 box prepared chocolate fudge pudding

Whisk all ingredients in a bowl. Add milk until it reaches a very smooth, thin batter consistency, I normally use about 1/3 cup of milk but depending on the consistency of your starter, you might use a bit less or a bit more.
In a not too big, but not too small frying pan (about 8″ – 10″ is perfect) heat the frying pan over medium high heat. Once hot, add a teaspoon or so of butter, allow it to melt quickly and then immediately pour in 1/4 cup of crepe batter, tilting the pan with a circular motion to allow the batter to coat the  bottom of the pan and create a circle of crepe.
Cook the crepe for about two minutes, until the bottom has splotches of light brown.  With a spatula, very carefully loosen the crepe and flip over. Cook for about 30 seconds and decant onto a plate.

Allow crepes to cool. Stack on plate, topping each with about 2 tablespoons of pudding and spreading to cover

As you can see, I got a little egregious. For one thing, the ladle I always thought was 1/4 cup is actually only about 2 1/2 tablespoons, so they turned out too small and therefore the cake ended up too tall. For two, I was assembling it while hungry. So hungry I cut into it before I remembered to snap a picture! So the “Oh Crap” thought that came to mind when I saw the challenge is now the official name of this cake.

The good news: In my nonstick skillet, they required very little extra butter. Plus, I actually found them easier than pancakes. And the cake was especially delicious with the almond extract.

You never know what you're capable of until you try. I'm definitely putting this recipe in the keeper file. And next time, hopefully it turns out even better.

Now on to the next challenge...