Caramelized Fruit Crepes 11-18-12

CARAMELIZED FRUIT CREPES

   I just ate a scrumptious plate full of almond flour crepes covered with caramelized fruit and walnuts, with no dairy or wheat flour or sugar, and I made the whole dish in about 15 minutes. One of my favorite breakfasts is Cheese Blintzes at IHOP, so I didn't expect to be thrilled with my own crepes, but I was surprised and very, very pleased.

The Crepes:  (made 3, each the size of a small saute pan)   1/2 cup almond flour, 1 egg, 1/2 cup almond milk, 1/2 tsp. of vanilla flavoring. I mixed this up the night before and kept in the fridge in a plastic container. It thickened a little, as I wanted it to, but I could have done it in a couple of minutes at breakfast time. I used Pam-type spray for the pan, kept it very hot, and used 1/3 cup of mix for each crepe. The first one, I flipped the crepe in the pan. After that, I just let them cook a little longer on the first side and slid them onto the plate. These are very tender, meaning they tear apart easily and may not roll up tightly as a flour crepe or tortilla would, and I decided to use them as a base instead of rollups. Same taste, easy to pour the fruit onto, and a lovely base.

The Fruit: Sliced pineapples which had been packed in their own juice (no added sugar)--I sprayed the pan, placed three slices in my small saute pan, let them cook in a little of the juice for about two minutes, flipped to get a little char on the other side, and started adding other fruit.
   Banana slices and a palmful of tiny blueberries (on sale last week at Kroger for $1--not the fat expensive kind I get when I can, but a dollar well spent) went in the pan with the pineapple slices. Then I added a big splash of caramel flavoring (like flavored water, no syrup), and let it all simmer.
   Chopped walnuts--I couldn't let well enough alone, so I added about 1/4 cup of chopped walnuts. They made "well enough" even better. The almond flour crepes have some grainy texture, but the walnuts really enhanced the texture with crunch.

   I poured the fruit right on the crepes from the pan, except I kept about 1/3 for a future meal. One thing I would have done differently is to save the blueberries for a topping instead of adding them to the pan. The blue color masked the charring on the pineapple. I can honestly say, this breakfast was delightful, and I didn't miss the sour cream, cream cheese, or whipped cream from IHOP. Much.