Chocolate Crepes Suzette – Spectacular French Flambé Dessert

Chocolate Crepes Suzette is a chocolatey twist on traditional French flambéed pancakes with orange sauce. Since trying them, it’s been hard to imagine Crepes Suzette without chocolate as it works so well. Crepes Suzette is a classic French dessert where pancakes are soaked in orange sauce then flambéd in alcohol. I will forever associate them with Patsy Kensit, who played the role of Crepe Suzette in the 1986 David Bowie film, Absolute Beginners.

I almost set fire to my hair and broke my camera making these Crepes Suzette.  It wasn’t my day, I dropped the digital SLR camera on the floor, and had to make do with my Canon Ixus point and shoot for these pictures instead.

As a child, the only flambéed food served was Christmas pudding. My grandparents used a particular ceremonial candle stick and a huge antique (dented) spoon with an ornate handle. After an ongoing debate about particular spirits burning better than others, they’d set fire to the pudding using whisky. It was always a theatrical moment but with a sense it wasn’t quite working properly. Furthermore, Grandma felt whisky was less classy than brandy.

The most suitable spirit I had in the house today – instead of the traditional liquor for Crepes Suzette, Grand Marnier – was amaretto. Thus almondy amaretto liqueur became my fuel of choice.

First time around the amaretto didn’t burn. I was panicked, thinking I’d broken my camera and time was ticking to finish pictures before it got dark. I warmed up more amaretto, poured it onto my now swimmingly good pancakes, and lit the match.

Woof!

There was an impressive flame around 9″ high. I hadn’t bargained for that and got a nice warm face. By the time I’d grabbed my camera (which refused to focus on anything because the flames were moving), the flames had died down.

Fortunately my camera was not permanently injured either and my husband sorted out the kinked zoom mechanism so that it no longer pointed 10 degrees to the right.  That’s a relief, I was nearly in the doghouse there…

There is no requirement for chocolate in Crepes Suzette either but since I was creating this for Morrison’s and I noticed one of their own brand products was Dark Chocolate with Italian Orange Peel, I thought it would add a chocolate dimension to a traditional pancake favourite. And who doesn’t love an added chocolate dimension? You don’t need this particular dark chocolate for the chocolate crepes suzette, any dark or dark choc orange version will do.

Making the Chocolate Crepes Suzette

You need some pancakes already made. For an indulgent dessert allow two pancakes per person but if you feel that would be a bit much after a big meal, you could stretch it to eight people. Particularly if you serve a small scoop of ice cream alongside. I am a sucker for hot desserts served with ice cream.

For a reminder how to make your pancakes check out my earlier post, pancakes with fudge sauce.

Preparing orange segments for crepes suzette

Here I used fresh clementines in my chocolate crepes suzette. You can equally use oranges. As with my recent Scotch pancakes stack with pink grapefruit , removing the skins, pith and any pips from each segment may be fiddly, but it will improve your enjoyment of the dish.

Making orange syrup for crepes suzette

Using a small saucepan, you melt the butter, sugar and orange juice together, simmering until you have a syrup.

Melting the chocolate

Meanwhile melt the chocolate in a double boiler pan. (affiliate link) As I mentioned in the recipe notes, you could alternatively melt chocolate in the microwave. If doing that you need to take care to use medium power and short bursts, stirring in between. Microwaved chocolate is vulnerable to scorching suddenly thus a double boiler (or simply a pyrex dish over a pan of simmering water) is more reliable.

When the orangey syrup and molted chocolate are both ready, spoon some of the syrup onto a flameproof dish. A tarte tatin dish is ideal, or a heavy based frying pan. The advantage of a tarte tatin dish is that it looks nice serving the chocolate crepes suzette at the table.

Then with each pancake, spoon melted chocolate onto one side of it. Fold the pancake into quarters and place upon the orange syrup in the tarte tatin dish. Repeat until the tarte tatin contains all of the pancakes. Tip over the remaining orange syrup. Place the tarte tatin dish upon a low heat to warm.

Flambéeing chocolate crepes suzette

Using the now empty orange syrup pan, warm the amaretto liqueur. When warm, tip it over the pancakes and immediately light with a match. A bright flame will burn quickly so stand back and keep your hair out of the way. After the flame has died down, serve the folded pancakes on a plate with a spoonful of the orange syrup. Finally scatter over the deseeded and peeled orange segments.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Chocolate Crepes Suzette

Traditional orange flambé pancakes with chocolate filling.

Prep Time15 minutes mins

Cook Time5 minutes mins

Total Time20 minutes mins

Course: Dessert, pudding

Cuisine: French, Traditional

Keyword: chocolate pancakes, crepes suzette, mardi gras, pancake day

Servings: 4

Calories: 667kcal

Equipment

• 1 double boiler pan (or microwave, see below)

Ingredients

• 80 g dark chocolate (a variety with orange flavour works well)
• 100 ml orange juice (approx 2 oranges' worth)
• 150 g butter
• 75 g caster sugar (superfine baking sugar)
• 8 pancakes made already or shop bought (if you must)
• 100 ml amaretto liqueur
• 1 orange or 2 clementines. peeled, broken into segments then pips and pith removed

Instructions

• Make your crepe style pancakes if you haven’t already done so. Set these aside.
• Melt the chocolate in a double boiler with a knob of the butter.
• In a small saucepan, melt the rest of the butter with the orange juice and sugar.  Bring to the boil before turning down to a low heat and cook for a further 10 minutes until the sauce goes syrupy and clear.
• Heat a couple of tablespoons of the orange syrup on a low heat in a flameproof dish such as a tarte tatin dish or a large frying pan.
• Take a flat pancake and spoon melted chocolate over one quarter of each one. Fold into quarters then laying in the dish slightly overlapping. Repeat until all pancakes have been folded with the chocolate and put in the dish or frying pan. Pour over the remaining orange syrup and scatter over the orange segments.  Allow the chocolatey pancakes with orange syrup to warm for 2-3 minutes. Keep the heat low so they don't scorch.
• Meanwhile, warm the amaretto liqueur in the now empty orange syrup saucepan. Once the pancakes have heated through, pour the amaretto over and immediately light a match to set fire to the alcohol thus flambéeing them.  The alcohol will burn fast with a quick flame that dies down after a few seconds. Stand back!
• Serve immediately. Spoon sauce over each of the pancakes on the plate.  Allow 2 pancakes per person.

Notes

If you don’t have a double boiler you can use the microwave the chocolate but take care only heating the chocolate for 40 seconds and then 10 seconds at a time  so that you don’t burn it. Or you can use a heat proof bowl over a saucepan of water. 

The calorie quantity here is based on two pancakes per person. If it's following a big meal with different courses, you may find that one pancake, the sauce and a small scoop of ice cream is more appropriate.