A Trip to Chinatown and Coconut Crêpe Cake

Saturday was a great day to walk around the city and rediscover places. I have been living in New York for over 10 years and I forget sometimes how beautiful New York is. So, once in a while, I like to be a tourist for a day and pretend it's all new to me. This time I picked Chinatown. Let me start by saying this place is like another country.

The little streets, the signs, the food of course. I feel like I need a passport to be there. I like Chinatown but I don't really go there very often because it's ALWAYS CROWDED and I don't really like to be in places where there is a lot of people. That's why I don't like Times Square or Soho on a Saturday by that matter. But overall, I had fun.

                         

On Sunday, I made a crepe cake I had been planing to do for a while. It's quite a lot of  work, I won't lie, but the final product is so good,  it's hard to describe. I went for coconut pastry cream cover with chocolate glaze. Coconut and chocolate is simply an irresistible  combination for me. I love coconut. That's one of the things I miss from Honduras. The accessibility to fresh fruit right from my backyard. I had a nice variety of fruits and veggies, guava, coconut, lemon, avocado, corn, just to mention a few. But on the other hand, I do LOVE the versatility of New York. I guess we can't have it all.

Ingredients:

Crêpe recipe here

(Do double recipe)

For the coconut pastry cream:

6egg yolks

1/2 sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

2 tablespoons flour

1 cup whole milk

1 1/4 cup coconut milk

1 vanilla pod

2 tablespoons butter

1 teaspoon coconut extract

Sift together the flour and cornstarch. Whisk together the egg yolks and half the sugar until pale. Add the flour/cornstarch mixture and mix until smooth. Place the milk, coconut milk, vanilla pod, coconut extract and the remaining sugar in a saucepan. Bring to a boil and add it to the egg mixture, stirring continuously. Pour back into the saucepan and cook stirring until the cream is thick but smooth, about a minute. Stir in the butter. Transfer to a bowl and cover the surface of the pastry cream with plastic wrap placed directly over the top. Let it cool completely.

For the Chocolate Glaze:

8oz 70% Dark chocolate, chopped

150 grams of unsalted butter cut in pieces, at room temperature

2 tablespoons light corn syrup

Melt the chocolate and butter in a heatproof bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Make sure the bowl is not touching the water. Once the chocolate and butter are completely melted, stir in the corn syrup. cover the surface of the chocolate with plastic wrap placed directly over the top. Let it cool to room temperature.

To Assemble:

Lay 1 crêpe on a cake stand and cover with coconut pastry cream. Repeat until you use all the crêpes. Cover and refrigerate for half and hour. Cover with chocolate glaze and sprinkle with toasted coconut.

Note: Add the chocolate glaze right before serving.