Vegan Chocolate Crepes

Well, it was birthday time again in our house this past weekend!  Our youngest turned 14.  What the heck?  Good thing we waited to have kids until 9 years after we got married, or I could possibly be a grandmother by now!

One of Ashlyn’s favourite things about her birthday is getting breakfast in bed.  Six of her friends threw her a surprise birthday party at our house and they were sprawled out all together on mattresses and blankets in the basement, so the breakfast in bed didn’t actually work out, but the requested crepes did! Seven tired girls and three other family members rose from the depths for their dose of sweet breakfast!  Plates were scraped clean and once again an egg-less, milk-less, butter-less creation reigned! 🙂

I was kind of hoping that she would want pancakes, french toast, or smoothie bowls, as that is more in my wheelhouse, but she was pretty determined that crepes was where it was at.  I was pretty determined that they were not going to fail as I had never made them before, and I know that crepes’ main ingredients are usually eggs, milk and butter.  But, as you might have gathered by now, pretty much anything can be recreated in a plant based version.

Now, I am certainly not going to suggest these are healthy, but hey, you only turn 14 once! I filled these with strawberries and bananas to try to up the health meter.  You could make them even healthier by filling them with berries such as blueberries, blackberries and raspberries.

Here is a little note on the amazing properties of blueberries: They are full of antioxidants and anthocyanins.  Antioxidants prevent important cells in your body from being oxidized.  These antioxidants remove the products of oxidation called free radicals, by offering themselves up for oxidation instead. When you ingest anthocyanin, (which is the dark purple colour in plants such as grapes, eggplant, cherries, etc), it is secreted in the thin layer of cells that line your entire cardiovascular system and lends its antioxidant power to those cells.

To read some more information on blueberries and their benefits, all back up by research studies, please click here.  Bottom line, they are said to be one of the “power foods” – the healthiest foods you can eat.  They are also very supportive of brain health.

Below is Dr. Barnard’s video on the benefits of blueberries on brain health.  He talks specifically about blueberries at the 11 minute mark, but the whole video is great.

Now, it’s just too bad that Dr. Barnard doesn’t do videos on how amazing chocolate crepes with maple syrup are for you!

I have been running into some of you who have tried out some of my recipes. How exciting is that! I hope you try this one.  I couldn’t find what looked like a good crepe recipe in my recipe books so I reached out to Terri from www.eatplantbased.com .  I met her on the cruise and she said she didn’t have a recipe herself, but to try out the www.thevegan8.com website.  (A blog dedicated to recipes with 8 ingredients and less.) Et Voila!  Chocolate Crepe recipe!

Here is a little tip… Instead of trying to quickly circle the crepe mix around in the pan, I found that just gently pushing the top layer of the crepe mix out towards the edges and letting the base stay on the pan worked better.

Chocolate Crepes

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Serves: makes about 8 crepes

Nutrition facts: 200 calories 20 grams fat

Ingredients

• 3/4 cup potato starch (not potato flour), or organic corn starch (this is what I used)3/4 cup almond flour1/4 cup tapioca starch1/4 cup + 2 Tsp. unsweetened cocoa powder1/2 teaspoon fine sea salt1/4 cup pure maple syrup2 tablespoons softened coconut oil, vegan butter or pecan butter2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract1 1/4 cups unsweetened almond milk 

Instructions

1. Please make sure to use a non-stick pan.  I save one for these kinds of uses as non-stick is not the best to use due to the chemicals it leaches into your food.  More about perfluorooctanoic (PFOA) acid that non-stick pans are treated with and it's potential side effects here...
2. Make sure your fillings (fruit, etc) all prepped and set aside.  As soon as the crepe is ready, you can then insert the fillings and fold it over.
3. In a large bowl, combine the first 5 (dry) ingredients and whisk well.  In a smaller bowl, combine the next 4 (wet) ingredients and stir well.
4. Pour the wet into the dry ingredients and stir until combined, for a minute or so until it thickens up.  Add a bit more milk if it seems too thick.
5. Set aside for 10 minutes.
6. Warm a small frying pan over low-medium heat.
7. Make sure to spray the pan before each crepe.
8. Gently pour 1/4 cup of the crepe mix into the centre of the pan.  I couldn't swirl the batter around fast enough before it adhered to the bottom of the pan, so I coaxed the top portion of the batter out gently.
9. Let cook for a couple of minutes, then quickly flip to the other side and let cook for another couple of minutes.
10. Remove crepe from pan and place onto plate.  Put filling along the centre of the crepe then roll up gently.
11. Serve with maple syrup, whipped coconut cream and cocoa nibs for some delicious added crunch! www.thevibrantveggie.com