Ube Mille Crepe (Purple Sweet Potato Mille Crepe)

The weather was terrible. Hot, humid and unbearable. I could feel myself getting sickly, complete with blocked nose and general lethargy. Baking is out of the question for this weekend, I think the house is too warm to handle a hot oven. Seeing all the sweet potatoes lying on the kitchen counter, I thought that sweet potato soup with ginger would help, but maybe I could use some of the deep, bright purple ube to make something pretty and cheer myself up. 

I think I chose a lousy way to make myself feel better: I stood in front of the stove and patiently cooked the crepes layer by layer, made a ube puree, and stacked them all to make a ube mille crepe. But I am proud of my masterpiece. If I could do this, whipping cream and layering it to form a Nadeje mille crepe replica will be a cinch. I could make this for DaddyS for his birthday! 

Recipe for French Crepe
from allrecipes.com
Ingredients
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon white sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
3 eggs
2 cups milk
2 tablespoons butter, melted

Directions

1. Sift together flour, sugar and salt; set aside. In a large bowl, beat eggs and milk together with an electric mixer. Beat in flour mixture until smooth; stir in melted butter.
2. Heat a lightly oiled griddle or frying pan over medium high heat. Pour or scoop the batter onto the griddle, using approximately 2 tablespoons (I used 1/4 - 1/3 cup) for each crepe. Tip and rotate pan to spread batter as thinly as possible. Brown on both sides and serve hot.

Ube Puree
Ingredients

2 cups steamed ube, cubed

1-1 1/2 water

2 tablespoons sugar, or more depending on taste

1 tablespoon lemon juice

Directions

1. Combine steamed ube, 1 cup of water, sugar and lemon juice in a food processor. 
2. Pulse until mixture forms puree. Add water, tablespoon by tablespoon to desired consistency. 

To assemble the mille crepe, lay a crêpe on a plate. Pipe or use an icing spatula to completely cover the crêpe with a thin layer of ube puree. Cover the ube puree layer with a crêpe and repeat to make a stack of 20, with the best-looking crepe on top. Chill for at least 2 hours. Set it out for 30 minutes in room temperature before serving.

The most tedious part of making this layer cake is cooking the crepes layer by layer. The batter for the French crepe is actually rather runny, so I portioned the batter to approximately 1/4 cup per layer. Any less and the crepe turned out too thin, not portable and easily damaged. Since I am using ube fillings, I substituted the melted butter with coconut oil, which turned out to be fine as well. The sides of the crepe was very crispy. It took me two to three damaged crepes to grasp the technique and heat. Assembling the layers are not that difficult, likely because the ube puree was rather solid. It will be more difficult if its pastry cream, or equivalent. From this experience I think I could handle making the whole mille crepe with layered cream in between! Taste-wise, methinks a ube lover will love this! Its very creamy, sweet potato-ey and basically full of sweet potatoes. I am submitting this to Bake-Along #25 hosted by Joyce from Kitchen Flavours, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake for Happy Kids again!