Crepas de cajeta I (Cajeta Crêpes I)

Cajeta is a delicious caramel confection made from goat's milk. It is one of those things you take for granted, like ketchup, until you no longer have it. When we first moved to Canada, cajeta was hard to find, and we would ask anyone who came from Mexico to bring us some. We became nostalgic for the bottled, commercial cajeta, not to mention the traditional, hand-made versions. Thankfully, at least the bottled cajeta is much easier to find now (in any store that sells Latin American products). In Mexico, our favorite way to have cajeta was sandwiched between two wafers, Oreo style, in a treat called "oblea". The wafers are the same as the wafers used in Catholic communion, but not blessed, of course. We loved going to church, and afterwards, we could always count on a lady outside selling Mexican candies, and we'd have our after-church wafer. In Canada, our favorite way of eating cajeta has become in crêpes.

Apart from making the crêpes (which you can even buy already prepared), the recipe is fairly simple.

Ingredients

12 crèpes. You can get the traditional recipe for crèpes as per Julia Child here. Add the zest of half a lime.

1 cup cajeta

1 cup whipping cream

1 tsp vanilla extract

zest of ½ lime

1 oz Grand Marnier

Preheat the oven to 350°.

Mix together well the cajeta, cream, vanilla and lime zest in a sauce pan. Heat the sauce for a few minutes on a low flame.

Spread a bit of the sauce on the inside of each crêpe and roll the crêpe up. Place the rolled crêpes in a glass baking pan and add the rest of the sauce until it covers the crêpes in half, or until it is all gone.

Bake the crêpes for 15 minutes. Once you take them out, heat the Grand Marnier in a sauce pan for a very short time, then drizzle the heated liquer over the crêpes. At the table, light the crêpes up with a lighter or a match. Serve immediately, making sure you add a good amount of sauce on each plate.

Notes

You don't have to use a complicated crêpe recipe, and in a pinch, you can get already-made crêpes in the supermarket, but it certainly won't be the same.

Of course, you don't have to light the crêpes up, but it certainly adds a wonderful flair.