Tender crepes with a sweet, aromatic filling of wildflowers. These crepes are one of the more creative things I've done with edible flowers over the years and probably my favorite wisteria recipe. There's a number of ways you can make them and adjust the recipe to your taste. You can also use black locust flowers or nasturtium flowers.
Looking for ways to use up large amounts of black locust flowers one year I was inspired by a recipe form Chef Jeremy Fox using nasturtiums. Nothing more than a little dairy, a few cubes of bread, sugar and flowers, the genius part is how the bread thickens the mixture into a thick, spreadable puree that reminds me of pastry cream.
With wisteria especially it's important to make sure that only the flowers are used and there's no green leaves mixed in, as all parts of wisteria besides the flowers are poisonous.
How to Make it
First you'll need a bunch of fresh wisteria or locust flowers. I like to strip them from the racemes / stems for cooking, but I'll leave some flowers whole on the stems so they keep better as a garnish.
The recipe comes together very fast. First you'll put a few handfuls of crustless white bread cubes into a blender, along with the flowers and a tablespoon of butter.
Warm cream, half and half or coconut milk is added along with some sugar and the mixture is pureed until smooth. After pureeing, the mixture should be chilled as quickly as possible, poured into a bowl or other container, and refrigerated until needed.
The finished puree doesn't have the most attractive color, but this is easy to tweak after the fact or before pureeing by adding a drizzle of aronia juice concentrate or some powdered, dried berries, etc.
When it's time to fill the crepes, you'll spread a few spoonfuls of filling on each crepe, fold them up into packets, then briefly warm them in a pan with coconut oil or butter.
Serve the crepes hot garnished with maple syrup, toasted nuts like pistachios, pine nuts or macadamias, and a sprinkle of fresh wisteria flowers.
As I mentioned before, the recipe works with black locust flowers too, I'd actually photographed and tested this for my book but it was cut when we had to remove the fruit chapter.
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Wisteria Flower Crepes
Equipment
- 1 8 inch crepe pan or non-stick pan I use a Kehoe carbon steel pan
- 1 Highspeed blender like a Vitamix
- 1 1 quart mixing bowl
- 1 Spatula
Ingredients
Wisteria Flower Filling
- 2 oz crustless white bread diced ½ inch
- 2 oz Wisteria flowers or black locust flowers picked over for insects
- 1 cup half and half, cream or coconut milk milk, or coconut milk
- ¼ cup coconut oil
- Fresh lemon juice to taste, a good squeeze
- 1 pinch kosher salt
- 1 tbsp unsalted butter
- 1 dash vanilla extract
Crepes
- ¼ cup sugar
- 1 cup whole milk
- 1 large egg
- 1 cup all purpose flour or equivalent
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar
- 1 tablespoon melted butter
- 1 tablespoon cooking oil as needed for the crepes
Garnishes
- ½ cup lightly toasted pistachios, pine nuts, or macadamia nuts or your favorite nut
- maple syrup to taste
- 2 cups fresh wisteria or locust flowers
- 3 sprigs fresh mint leaves
Instructions
Crepes
- Combine all the ingredients for the crepes and puree in a blender. Pour the mixture into a small mixing bowl and refrigerate while you make the filling.
Wisteria Flower Filling
- Bring the milk and sugar to a simmer, then pour into a blender, add the vanilla, bread and locust flowers and puree on high until very smooth.
- Immediately transfer the bread custard to a container, stir in the lemon juice, and chill for a few hours and up to overnight.
Cook the Crepes
- Heat the nonstick pan on high heat until nearly smoking. Brush the pan lightly with oil, then add ¼ cup of the batter, swirling the pan around to make a thin, round crepe.
- Making the crepes will be easier as the pan gets very hot, the first crepe is usually a chef snack.
- When the batter is set, flip the crepe in the pan to gently cook the other side for a second, then transfer to a plate. Repeat the process, stacking the crepes on top of each other.
- Cover the crepes with cling film and allow to steam and soften, from here they can be made ahead and refrigerated for 2-3 days.
Assembly
- Take a crepe, then spread each one with 2 tablespoons of the flower puree, then fold into a package.
- Heat the coconut oil in a wide skillet, add the crepes and brown gently, then serve garnished with maple syrup, extra flowers, toasted nuts like pistachios or pine nuts, and torn leaves of fresh mint.
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