Green Tea Mille-Crêpes

If you follow this blog for a while you probably noticed that I’m a little bit obsessed with crêpe cakes. It started sometime last year with a chestnut crêpe cake or mille-crêpes (a thousand crêpes) as they are sometimes called. I liked it the first time so I made another one, a chocolate mille-crêpes with an orange cream and orange caramel. I liked that too. Very much. So I said heck, never two without three.

I complete the trilogy today with this Green Tea Mille-Crêpes, but who knows, I might pull a Georges Lucas on you and decide to make three more in the future.

I’m not too sure what the obsession is about, the components are pretty simple and consist only of flavored crêpes and lightened pastry cream, but I think it’s the way it’s constructed that turns it into something more than the sum of its parts.

Even if you don’t want to make a crêpe cake the green tea crêpes are delicious on their own. And they look good. It’s a pretty straightforward crêpes batter recipe, although I like to add beer and a touch of Grand-Marnier to mine, along with matcha powder.

I also added Grand-Marnier and some orange zest to the filling, because I believe green tea has an affinity for anything citrusy. And I served the crêpe cake with candied orange zest.

For the complete trilogy check out:

  • Green Tea Crêpe Cake

    • Serves 6
    • For the green tea crêpes:
    • 1 cup all-purpose flour
    • 1 cup milk
    • 1/2 cup lukewarm water or beer
    • 4 large eggs
    • 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
    • 3 tablespoons sugar
    • 1 pinch salt
    • 2 tablespoons matcha powder
    • 1 tablespoon Cointreau or Grand-Marnier
      • For the pastry cream:
      • 2 cups whole milk
      • 6 large egg yolks
      • 1/2 cup sugar
      • 1/3 cup cornstarch
      • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
      • 2 tablespoons butter, at room temp’
      • zest of 1/2 orange
      • 1 tablespoon Grand-Marnier (optional)
      • 1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped (optional)
      • To serve:
      • Candied orange zest (optional)
    • For the crêpes:
    • Combine all the ingredients by hand or in the bowl of a blender. Mix until smooth. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least an hour.
    • Place a 6-inch nonstick or seasoned crepe pan over medium heat. Using a paper towel, coat the pan with a little butter.
    • Pour about 2 to 3 tablespoons of batter into the pan. Lift, tilt and rotate the pan so that the batter forms an even, very thin layer. Cook until golden. Turn the crêpe over and cook a little longer. Remove the crêpe to a piece of wax paper. Continue cooking the rest of the crêpes.
  • Orange pastry cream:
  • In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil over medium heat.
  • Whisk the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together in a bowl. Drizzle a quarter of the hot milk and whisk vigorously. Pour the rest of the milk and keep whisking. Return the custard to the pan and add the vanilla extract and orange zest. Place over medium heat and bring to a boil while whisking energetically for 1 or 2 minutes. The mixture will be thick. Stir in the Grand-Marnier if using.
  • Set the bottom of the pot in a ice-water bath to cool, stirring frequently so that the mixture remains smooth. Cool to 140’F (warm to the touch) and stir in the butter and the orange zest until completely incorporated. Cool and refrigerate.
  • When ready to use, place the put the pastry cream in a food processor and process for 10 seconds for the best consistency. Fold in the whipped cream if using.
  • To assemble the Mille Crêpes:
  • Lay 1 crêpe on a cake plate. Using an icing spatula, completely cover with a thin layer of pastry cream. Cover with a crêpe and repeat to make a stack of 15 to 20.
  • Chill for at least 2 hours. Serve cold. If you have a blowtorch for crème brûlée, sprinkle the top crêpe with 2 tablespoons sugar and caramelize with the torch. Slice like a cake. Serve with candied orange zest.
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  • Scandifoodie

    Love these! Such a gorgeous colour and I adore anything with matcha!

  • http://www.ouichefnetwork.com Oui, Chef

    I agree Zen, the whole is MUCH more than the sum of its parts.  I remember making one of these in France, and being blown away when I was finally able to tuck into it, it was fabulous!

  • Saltyseattle

    Your extended trilogy will be much more appreciated than the likes of Jar Jar Binks & his sad star turn that ruined the series. There is not a thing about these I don’t love.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1405246165 Frank A Fariello Jr

    A thing of true beauty!

  • http://willtravelforfood.com mayssam

    Beautiful!! The most beautiful of the trilogy! And if you do decide to pull a George Lucas, the more the merrier I say!

  • http://www.acookblog.com Peter

    If you do make three more in the future, don’t you DARE come back and digitally insert Jabba the Hut into this post.

  • Anonymous

    I’ll try my best NOT to create a Jar Jar Binks flavor and ruin what I have accomplished here. :) Thank you, Linda. 

  • Anonymous

    I think I need to wait a couple of years now. 

  • Anonymous

    Ha! I can barely handle the html on this blog so digitally inserting Jabba the Hut in a crepe cake is way over my head. 

  • Susanne Voros

    WOW this looks wonderful!  I love how fantastic it looks with lovely layers.

  • Lindsey@Lindselicious

    Gorgeous!  I am in love with crepe cakes too.  Brilliant job.

  • http://www.debskitchencreations.blogspot.com/ Debs @ DKC

    I have to have this now!

  • ww

    i have a question if I may. I’ve noticed that crepe recipes differ quite widely in the number of eggs used. I’ve noticed anything from 1 egg per cup of flour and milk to 4 like in your recipe. What do the extra eggs do and how does it change things? I usually use just one but noticed that the crepes were a bit rubbery. Wonder if that’s the cause??? Thanks!

  • http://bethmichelle.com Beth Michelle

    GORGEOUS! These are just so beautiful. 

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_OXRYCEPH6CLK7QGZQLRVJL4HDI Bella

    I wish I could take a bite out of that slice!  Desserts like this one are deadly at first sight!  Thanks for posting! 

  • Anonymous

    In the words of a good friend of mine would react to your beautiful crepe cake: “NOM NOM.” 

    It looks as good as my favorite crepe cake in NYC, Lady M.

  • Anonymous

    Eggs have a lot of different purposes in baking, in this case they bind the ingredients together and add tenderness to the finish product. If you use less eggs it will be more rubbery. A crepe batter is similar to a custard batter when you look at it. The difference is in the way it’s cooked. 

  • http://chefpandita.com Yuri

    OH.MY.GOD! Must try this asap. Gorgeous 😀

  • http://gigiv.livejournal.com/ gigi

    This sounds amazing. Thank you! I will try it! 

  • http://www.katherinemartinelli.com Katherine Martinelli

    Stunning! This looks absolutely incredible. I love crepe cakes too! Very Hungarian :-)

  • Lisa

    How creative and such a wonderful blend of ingredients.

  • shirley@kokken69

    I have always meant to make a crepe cake…Pierre Herme has a lovely photo of a chocolate version in his Chocolate Dessert book… but procrastination as usual. Who knows, once I get over the inertia and make my first one, more may follow. This is a great one to follow ! Chocolate first, then this!

  • http://www.delicious.com/wilhelminarussell Ruth Lopez

    Extremely pleased to find this great site. Thank you for spending some time to share with you this.

  • Kajal – Aapplemint

    Perfect ! You can make me these whenever we meet next !! 
    And maybe the chocolate ones too … would be hard to refuse :-p

  • http://www.vodkitchen.com Jon Van Dalen

    Green tea and orange zest is a brilliant combination – one I can’t wait to explore more. Great stuff!

  • http://www.alternativeeating.wordpress.com Anki

    Looks so yummy, I love both green tea and crepes, a wonderful combo

  • Martin

    Which Grand-Marnier did you use? Red or Yellow Label? Red uses Cognac and Yellow uses Brandy, the red one being the more expensive bottle.

  • Anonymous

    I always use the Red Label, but the Yellow would work too. 

  • Jenni8181fksu

    the way u take pic of food is destroying real food. learn how to get great image of great food first.

  • http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1136362232 Vera Trifonova

    I love crepes and even more i love everything with matcha. This recipe is just plain gorgeous! I m so going to make it!! 
    I found your blog yesterday right before going to bed. I was looking for orange suffley, I literally could not sleep at night after seing that picture in your blog. It gave me such incredible amount of inspiration!!! Thank you chef Zen!! 

  • Anonymous

    Thank you, Vera. And welcome! :)

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_QUNGOSUA4CLFAMDTG4UEMFHECM Hashim

    Checked the ingredients and found healthy ingredients in green tea crepe cake recipe. Love the presentation as the color combination was appealing.

    personal trainer san antonio

  • http://yireservation.com/ Yi @ Yireservation

    I’ve been getting mille crepe from lady m for the past year…I know it’s not a cheap dessert but I can’t help I think I have an addiction to mille crepes…will try to make this at home one day using your recipe. Thanks!

  • http://yireservation.com/ Yi @ Yireservation

     I made this mille crepe following your recipe. It came out good but I think there is definitely room for improve. I posted an entry on my blog. Thanks again for your great recipe!

  • http://justonecookbook.com/blog/ Nami | Just One Cookbook

    I stopped by from Yi Reservation.  My gosh so pretty!  Mille crepes are one of Japanese favorite, and I love matcha version you created.  What a beautiful color!

  • http://www.spokanefitnesscoach.com/ Revend

    It is new kind of recipe for me. I never tried this. Thanks for sharing  green tea crepe cake recipe. I have noted its ingredients and will try to make it today.

  • http://twitter.com/SushiQueenUK SushiQueen

    So Beautiful, and looks so delicous!

  • Anna Lei

    Do we have to leave the mixture in the fridge? What does it do?

  • Jo

    The crepe machine I have is 12inch, should I just double the amount for everything ?

  • Sally

    I made this today.

    I had to substitute corn starch with all purpose flour/ butter mixture and orange zest with lemon zest.

    In addition to that I used 1 cup almond milk instead of regular milk in the crepe batter. I added another 1/3 cup of almond milk in the batter to make it more liquid. Making it more liquid helped with the spreading of the crepes when poured on to the pan. ( I didn’t have a crepe pan, i just used a regular ~6inch non stick pan)

    In stead of butter/ napkin I used extra light olive oil.

    It turned out pretty good :) The lemon was a bit strong. I should have added less lemon juice. Overall I like how the crepes had that matcha flavor. What’s green tea crepes without the green tea flavor right?? The almond milk actually brought out the taste of green tea more :)

  • guest

    Can I substitute the beer for anything else?

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