Chocolate Filled Crepes

I love crepes.  I like chocolate crepes.  So, I was very excited when I saw these in the frozen food section at Trader Joe’s!!

Apparently THIS is my excited face.

We used to live in Paris, and I loooved getting crepes from the little stands on the street corners.  I especially loved the simple butter and sugar crepes…  Ahhhh, just writing about them brings back memories and makes my mouth water!  If digital cameras had been around when we lived there, I am quite certain I would have photos of us sitting at some café eating crepes, but sadly, that was back in the time of 35 mm film…  I do, however, have a couple of old Paris vacation photos.  😊

David, long hair and leather jacket, sipping coffee at a Parisian Cafe circa 1998
(You cannot tell me this look is not sexy...)

Us, touring the Paris sewers in 1989.  It looks like I am wearing a shirt I borrowed from someone who wore
 8 sizes bigger than me, no?  What was I thinking... 

All that being said, I guess you could say that I have sort of high standards where crepes are concerned.  However, I do not know how to MAKE CREPES myself, so I do not have a lot of room to judge or criticize other people’s crepes!  However, review is what I am here to do, so let’s set about reviewing these TRADER JOE’S CHOCOLATE CREPES, shall we?

Here's the box!  

First, they are frozen and so easy to prepare.  You just put them on a plate, bung them in the microwave, and voila – it is crepe time! 

My first reaction the first time we had these was, “Well, they are better than not having any crepe, that’s for sure.  But it is definitely not as good as having a “real crepe” on the streets of Paris.  The crepe part is a little bit rubbery, but it is nice that it holds all of the chocolate filling in.  you can pick it up like a sandwich, you don’t even have to use a fork if you do not want to.  In my opinion, the chocolate filling tastes a bit like melted ganache.  The size of each crepe is rather small, but that is not a negative in my book.  We have had them for snacks, dessert, and breakfasts (I prefer breakfast with a nice cup of coffee or cappuccino). 

Look!  A bit of chocolate is peeking out!  So pretty.  I served them with blueberries
 from TJ's,  a fig from our garden, and cappuccinos.  

I think these would be good if you added fresh whipped cream, or strawberries, or banana slices on top.  That would add some pizazz, but even without those additions I think these are a winner.  I give them a 4.25.

David’s opinion:  “I think these are very good.  I like the rubbery crepe quality of them, because the taste of the crepe is really quite flavorful.  I love that they managed to figure out how to make it a nice little sealed rectangular pocket so that stuff doesn’t gush out at the bottom.  I think the taste of the chocolate is quite nice – it is dark chocolate-y and there is not too much of it.  if the crepe itself didn’t taste so good I might say there wasn’t enough chocolate, but as it is I think it is a great balance.  I am going to give this a 4.25.”

These things are CHEAP!

Price:  $2.69 (which comes out to a whopping .38 cents per crepe, cheaper than a candy bar!!)

Rating:  4.25

Bonus Paris photo - lunch outdoors for my birthday - 2007