Crepes of Wrath
We've been reading a ton of Petzi books to our son. All of the drawings of Petzi eating crepes forced me to make crepes this weekend (yes, forced me... my life is so tough).
These were good in the morning, but the best part has been having extras in the fridge. I pull one out, spread on some Nutella, and zap it in the microwave for 20 seconds and they are as good as new.
I've used a few different recipes in the past, but I really like this one from Beth Hensberger's Bread Bible. It is extremely simple.
Crepes
Makes 15 to 20 crepes
3 eggs
1 cup whole milk
2/3 cup water or light beer
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons melted butter (add a dash of salt if you are using unsalted butter)
Mix everything together with a blender, hand mixer, or whisk until it is smooth and the consistency of cream. Cover with plastic and refrigerate.
Lightly grease a skillet or crepe pan and heat over medium heat. Pour a scoop of batter onto the pan and tilt the pan to spread the batter around (or use a plastic scraper to do so). After a minute or so flip the crepe over and bake until the other side is slightly browned, 30 seconds or so.
Serve with whatever filling you like. We did Nutella and black current jam. Both were excellent.
As I mentioned, leftover crepes can be wrapped in plastic and stored in the fridge for a good long while. We actually didn't have any left over, but I made a second batch the next morning because we enjoyed them so much. It is almost time for me to make a third batch!
If you want to try and interesting variation, try putting vanilla into the mixture and then use brown sugar, cinnamon, and finely chopped walnuts as the filling. HEAVEN!!!!
There is a family tradition at my house involving crepes. We make it for birthdays and for some reason never make it until another birthday (maybe because it just wouldn't seem right?). Anyhow, the recipe I use is from "The Joy of Cooking" and it doesn't have butter in it. I really like the way it comes out, and it has a pale color (unless you keep it on longer, then it's golden brown to burnt!). I have never seen another crepe recipe without butter before and was wondering why most have it. Is it just a taste thing?
If you enjoy sourdough, you might like to try these, http://www.recipezaar.com/136074
I like these spread with a good jam.
Thanks for that link. I just made these this afternoon and they are very delicious. We used a shrimp salad with fennel & celery seed, ham & cheese, mango and Meyer lemon/powdered sugar for the choices of fillings. They all dissapeared! Quickly.
i have been making crepes a lot these days for my cafe. I use pure olive oil for the fat component of the batter and canola spray for the pan I add the batter to the pan at the first fine waft of visible smoke. The most popular filling just now is smoked chicken in a sour creamy wine sauce (plus chicken stock,spring onion, garlic and dijon mustard and seasonings). We place a little cranberry sauce on the filling, then slices of camembert and topped with mashed kumara flavoured with tangelo zest; and then the crepe is rolled up and heated in the microwave if ordered. i sell heaps!
We made them again this weekend with a raspberry sauce and nutella. Soooo goood! Messy though:
What an awesome picture! Worth a thousand words!!
I had to check out this thread. I just bought a blue-steele crepe pan and made the most to-die-for rasberry chocolate jam. Thinking some crepes are in order.
Is it best to make the batter the day before or is it ok to make it up that morning?
The recipes says to make it up the day before, but I've done it the morning of and never noticed any ill effects.
For really good crepes you want to have little to no gluten development. If you're using all purpose wheat flour you develop gluten by mixing and the gluten breaks down when you let the batter sit. Try using a cake flour (less of the proteins that develop into gluten), add a little lemon juice (the ascorbic acid breaks down gluten), or use some buckwheat flour, which is a traditional Breton crepe flour (no gluten developing proteins).
Love the photos!
Floydm,Your photo depicts sheer ecstacy. I love it.Some of my grandkids are coming down for Christmas, so I will try Nutella and (we're coming into summer here) and mashed fresh raspberries and probably ice cream. Yum! They love pancakes and are Nutella fans. And your crepes look light and velvetty too!
Our best selling crepes just now are smoked chicken in a creamy white wine sauce (with other ingreients) wrapped with Brie and cranberry sauce. The range of new ideas also submitted here are interesting and innovative but in some cases mind-boggling!
Actually, i was. But then I live in another part of the world than you. I understand your point of view though; and that one doesn't have to rely on published recipes for great crepe fillings. One which I am going to introduce in my cafe is viz. 2 flat crepes on which will be placed a fruit salad of mangoes (tinned), fresh pineapple and kiwifruit, maple syrup and topped with grilledsmoky bacon. It tastes really nice because I have pinched the idea fron another cafe miles away from mine!
OH!! No wonder these kids look so happy!! They look so good!! on the menu for tomorrow.
I love savory crepes, esp. those filled with creamed spinach. Several nights ago I made creamed kale using a 1 pound bag of Trader Joe's colorful kale strips. I can't tell you how good that kale was--even better than spinach. I bet that would make a great filling too.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/bobby-flay/creamed-kale-recipe/index.html
--Pamela
Pamela, I love to sneak healthy things in food that my kids think are just something neat and not God forbid "good for them" ! They love spinach artichoke dip ( they think it's just good dip !) They might just love this as well. I have tried egg rolling, tortilla-ing, ravolli-ing everything healthy under the sun. I know the recipe wasn't meant to sneak good foods to children, but I will take the help where I can get it! Thanks for the idea Pamela.
Audra
Livign in Brittany France we make our savoury crepes out of ble noir flour which I think is akin to your rye flour or buckwheat? its just a mixture of500 g of buckwheat flour 2 eggs salt and water all mixed together by hand, you just keep going until you have a batter that is creany but not too liquid then leave to rest preferably all day . We don't use butter except to grease the crepe pan. crepes will freeze well if you layer them with grease proof paper between each.
My Welsh grandmother used to make this recipe to celebrate her grandchildren's birthday. She served it for dessert, instead of a cake.
The recipe as she wrote it.
1 qt. milk
4 cups sifted flour
7 eggs
1 cup water
1/2 tsp. salt (my guess, she mentions adding salt in the directions, but forgot to specify how much in the ingredients)
currents, butter and granulated sugar (for topping)
To one pint of the milk add sifted flour and salt. Beat until smooth. Add the rest of the milk gradually until the batter is quite smooth. Beat eggs and mix with the batter.
(She doesn't mention adding the water, I think it's a "just-in-case" the batter seems too thick, at least that's the way I've treated it.)
To bake:
Put enough oil (she used Crisco) to just cover the bottom of a frying pan. Pour in enough batter to cover the bottom (not too thick). Sprinkle currants over the batter. Brown lightly. Turn, once only, and brown other side.
Remove to a large plate, butter top and sprinkle lightly with sugar. Stack one on top of the other.
(I remember she was very emphatic that they only be turned once.)
Serve warm.
Grandmother used to serve it like a torte, cutting wedges of the stacked froice like one would a layer cake.
I've used a crepe pan, oiled with unsalted butter, and soaked the currents in rum or brandy. Haven't made them in many years, but your discussion triggered fond memories.
David G
My kids always loved crepes hot, sprinkled with sugar, rolled and drizzled with maple syrup. Dave
My family and I love pancakes so that's what we've been eating all these years. Until last week I came across this post and decided to make some for breakfast. I had a SD sponge going for breads so I used a little leftover to make the crepe batter. Topped the crepes with fresh raspberries, banana, canned peach, whipped cream, and a dust of powdered sugar. So little did I know the two boys went crazy about crepes! I was late home tonight so I decided to make breakfast crepes for dinner. You've got to see their faces. Never thought eating breakfast for dinner could be so exciting! LOL
Here's one for you! Make these crepes, then cream 8 0z cream cheese with about 4 TBSP's of confectioner's sugar and 1 tsp vanilla. Take one big can of fruit (I use mixed fruit) in heavy syrup-pour into sauce pan and thicken with some of the the fruit syrup mixed well with 2 Tbsp of cornstarch until thickened.
Spread the cream cheese on the crepe, roll up, then pour some of the thickened fruit over the crepe.
YUMMY!!
My grandmother was Hungarian and she made Polaschinta (sp?) which is a sweet crepe with homemade jelly/jam as the filling. We knew my Hungarian mom was in a good mood when she would make these for breakfast!!
55 years ago, my dad awed my slumber party guests at breakfast with fresh sweetened strawberry slices in crepes, topped with powdered sugar. I think they all fell in love with him that morning. I'd love to serve them to my grandchildren while I tell them about their great grandfather.