Maple syrup. Organic cherries. Coconut oil. Christmas coloring books. Celtic Sea Salt. Easter sticker calendar devotions.
When I start to think of all the random things I’ve ordered in bulk with friends, I have to laugh. I just never know what will be offered in an email that starts out with, “I’m ordering some X and wondered if you wanted to go in on it with me…”
One of this spring’s gems was an offer by a gal in our milk group for frozen, pitted, organic cherries from northern Michigan, literally the cherry capital of the world. They were only $1.75/pound…but they came in 27-pound buckets.
How could I pass it up?
That’s how I ended up on my friend’s porch, coffee mug in hand (for scooping), hacking away at a 27-pound bucket of frozen cherries with my ladle. I split the bucket with another family because I wasn’t sure of my freezer space. Next time, I’ll make room.
In just over two months, we’ve happily consumed every last cherry of our 13.5 pounds, all of them simply in homemade yogurt with a touch of vanilla…except the ones in these photos:
These fruity, nutty crepes came about because I had some coconut flour from Tropical Traditions to try out and was going gluten free for the week. They have to be called a dessert because they’re so delicious, but there’s no grain, no refined sugar, and only a touch of real maple syrup in the whole dish. In honor of egg week, I give you
Cherry Almond Coconut Crepes
adapted from Tropical Traditions
Ingredients (Crepes):
2 eggs (how to find quality eggs)
2 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
scant Tbs real maple syrup
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons coconut flour, sifted
small pinch of nutmeg
pinch of cinnamon
1/3 cup whole milk
Method:
Use a whisk to mix together the eggs, coconut oil, maple syrup, almond extract and salt. Be sure to whisk the coconut oil quickly as the cold eggs may cause it to firm up again.
Stir in the coconut flour and spices, then the milk. You should have a thin batter ready to pour.
Heat a small frying pan over medium heat. This is one instance I was happy to use non-stick, because I didn’t want to fight with each crepe. If you have a great cast iron pan with a small diameter, that would be another great option.
When hot, melt a tiny pat of butter, coconut oil or palm shortening in the pan. Pour a scant ¼ cup of batter in the pan and tilt the pan around to spread a thin layer of batter over nearly the entire bottom of the pan. I recommend you start tilting the pan as you pour the batter for best success in spreading the batter before it cooks.
Cook 1-2 minutes, or until batter is bubbly and looks dry and cooked around the edges. You could really set a timer for a minute; it’s almost exactly that long!
Flip the crepe all at once with the largest spatula you have, and cook the other side for 1-2 minutes more, or until done.
Yes, the photo on the left is a perfect example of what you should NOT do while flipping. The crepe never really recovers. Nicely browned like the photo on the right is what you’re looking for.
Ingredients (Filling):
½-2/3 c. yogurt cheese
½-1 tsp. maple syrup
1/8 tsp. almond extract
Method:
Mix well, beating slightly with a whisk or fork, until you have a nice creamy filling. Line the insides of your crepes with filling and frozen cherries (other berries would be delicious as well).
Optional: for presentation’s sake, you might dust the tops of the crepes with cinnamon, powdered sugar or shredded coconut, and slivered almonds make a nice accent as well.
If you have someone (like my husband) who just doesn’t like cheesecake or cream cheese style desserts, you can easily flavor some plain yogurt the same way, fill the crepe with cherries and drizzle the yogurt overtop like this:
It only took the first three crepes for me to figure out how to get them to look pretty, so I’m sure with my tips (tilt the pan while pouring and flip with purpose, the entire thing at once), you’ll probably only need one mashed up crepe to get the system perfectly. 
It’s worth it to serve a gorgeous, gourmet-quality dessert that tastes like a million bucks and be able to say, “There aren’t any grains or junky stuff in this. It’s a gluten-free, sugar-free dessert.”
Wish you had more healthy snack foods, especially to travel with you when you’re out and about? Check out my eBook, Healthy Snacks to Go, for over 30 recipes to get you on your way with real food, fast!
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This post is part of:
- Tempt My Tummy Tuesday at Blessed With Grace,
- Tasty Tuesday at Balancing Beauty and Bedlam,
- Slightly Indulgent Tuesday at Simply Sugar and Gluten Free
- The $5 Dinner Challenge
Oh my, if you only knew… I have been wondering how/where I could buy sour cherries for literally years now. When we were in Washington (my home state) I could get my hands on them pretty easily but since we moved to Alaska I have been missing them sorely. Would love to know if yours is a source that anyone can use. I would seriously make room for however many I needed to… and your recipe looks to-die-for!
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Katie Reply:
June 10th, 2010 at 4:00 pm
B, I have no idea…so sorry!
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Those look amazing! I had coconut pancakes on Sunday and Monday… I may have to add a little zing to it for next Sunday by making this recipe. Thanks!
P.S. I LOVE cherries!!
.-= Primal Toad´s last blog ..What Is The #1 Thing You Are Grateful For? For Me, It’s Life =-.
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I am so excited that you posted this! I went gluten-free just a few weeks ago, and happened to have ordered both coconut flour and frozen cherries from my natural foods co-op. I’m excited to see that this only calls for 2 eggs. I made some awesome blueberry coconut muffins–they were delicious, but it took 6 eggs to make them! I will *definitely* be trying this recipe!
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I was definitely curious when I got to Christmas coloring books. The cherries sound wonderful and the crepes look delicious.
.-= Linda´s last blog ..Slow Cooker Sloppy Joes =-.
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I’d also really like to know your source. My family loves cherry banana smoothies.
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Katie Reply:
June 11th, 2010 at 3:48 am
Jill,
I wish I knew! For me, the source is just “my friend’s porch”. I didn’t even get the bucket, so I don’t have the name of the farm. If I find out, I’ll add it to my local resources page that is going up in 2 weeks as part of the Go Local! Challenge.
That said, frozen cherries from Meijer ain’t half bad in smoothies!
Katie
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Emily Lorenz Reply:
June 14th, 2010 at 2:10 pm
Doing some catch up reading and excited to see you are going to do a local resources page! I can now stop feeling like a hound.
I hope the cherry source turns up!
Emily
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I’d love to order bulk foods – how do you do it?
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Erin Reply:
June 10th, 2010 at 9:39 am
One source I know of is azure standard. There are more, but they are the ones I am going through now (just starting out). You order a minimum of $50 and then it is sent to a drop off point and you go to pick it up. Orders go in monthly (at least here in my area). BUT I found a local health food store that carries raw milk, fresh eggs, CSA drop point for produce etc. and saw that they had some azure standard products, got to talking to the owner and found he can order for me and he earns some money on it, I can order every 2 weeks, and its closer than the drop points near me. SWEET!! Good luck figuring it all out! Another blog to check into is heavenlyhomemakers.com she has a lot of good info too!
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Katie Reply:
June 11th, 2010 at 3:54 am
Pam,
Katie
All sorts of ways! Country Life Natural Foods is a local (sort of) Michigan bulk foods retailer that our raw milk farm will make big orders from. I make an oil order from here every so often, a friend ordered Celtic sea salt from their website, I believe…it’s all so random and totally different, but if you start knowing the right people, these things will just start happening. Even Amazon offers bulk organic foods that you could go in on with friends to save shipping. Good luck!
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Love it! My husband really enjoys taking desserts to work and telling people they’re healthy.
He doesn’t like yogurt or cream cheese though. 
But I do! Might have to try this….
And if I can manage super-thin rolled, oiled tortillas I think I can manage these. ha.
.-= Kate´s last blog ..Creating a Meal Plan: Dinners =-.
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these sound so good and look delicious
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Yum! Can’t wait to try these. If it’s any consolation, I had a friend from France who said the first crepe never turns out. (That’s pretty much been my experience too!)
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Yum! I have to get on the coconut flour and coconut sugar train. I’m missing out on a lot of yumminess!
.-= Melodie´s last blog ..A Big Sister’s Love =-.
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Yum! I just tried these today.. but I used strawberries and vanilla extract because thats what I had and they were delicious!
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Cherry source? I’m wanting some now…
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These crepes look wonderful and I LOVE coconut! Thanks for the recipe and linking to Tempt My Tummy Tuesday.
.-= Lisa@BlessedwithGrace´s last blog ..Summer of Swag =-.
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I love crepes! I’ve never tried them with coconut flour but I will…bookmarking to try soon.
I wish I had friends to order in bulk with…I just buy them and find a way to stock them. We bought a second refrigerator…a deep freeze is next.
Thanks for linking to SIT!
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Those look amazing.
Right now in our local grocery store (Oakland, CA) we can find cherries for as low as $0.59 lb.
I’m not sure why they are so cheap this year but I’m having fun enjoying them.
.-= kendra´s last blog ..I Break for Berries =-.
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Recipe for Gluten Free, Sugar Free Slightly Indulgent Tuesday, 6/8/10 // Mar 5, 2011 at 6:38 pm
[...] Cheesecake)2. Myra @ My Blessed Life (Layered Mediterranean Dip!)3. Jenn Cuisine (Mini Pavlovas)4. Kitchen Stewardship (Cherry Almond Crepes GF SF)5. Beth Stedman (Poor Man’s Potatoes and Greek Shish Kabobs)6. Ellie @ beansandpeas (Wicked [...]
How many is this suposed to serve? I doubled the recipe and it wasn’t quite enough to satisfy our family of 4.
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