Crêpes

I've always enjoyed crêpes but it wasn't until I started learning the French language that I decided I wanted to make them. This is my favorite breakfast to prepare. When I have the time it's nice to start the day drinking coffee and listening to French music while making crêpes. I prefer to make them without the use of a crêpe maker. Yes, flipping them by hand can create a few tears from time to time and yes, flipping them by hand means that a few don't turn out, but I think that flipping them by hand is part of the fun of crêpe making.

My sister and her husband are nearing the end of their visit so I decided that I wanted to make them crêpes. This morning I woke up with the sun (all right, all right, a few hours after sunrise), started a CD of French music and prepared crêpes for breakfast.



You can find any number of crêpe recipes online. I chose one from the website Famous French Desserts. This recipe will make about 15 crêpes.

French Crêpes
You will need:
2 cups flour
2 1/2 cups whole milk
4 eggs
2 tbsp. butter (melted)
Pinch of salt
1/2 vanilla stalk or few drops vanilla extract (optional)
Vegetable oil (for pan)

To make the batter:
1. Sift flour and mix with salt in a bowl.
2. Make a well and pour in eggs. Stir well.
3. Slowly pour in milk while stirring. Keep stirring batter until small bubbles form on the surface.
4. Stir in butter.

To make the crêpes:
1. Pour a little vegetable oil on a folded paper towel, and wipe the pan evenly. Keep paper towel at hand while preparing crepes, in case you want to give it another wipe.
2. Pour in 2 - 3 tbsp. of batter and quickly move pan around, so that batter spreads evenly, covering the whole surface with a thin layer.
3. Let cook for about 1 minute. Then, flip with a metal spatula, and cook other side for about 30 seconds.

Fillings for crêpes can include, but are not limited to, fresh fruit, Nutella, powdered sugar and whipped cream.

You can always substitute olive oil for any other kind (unless you need it by the cup fulls) and I always do. If you'd like to use olive oil to cover the pan, go right ahead!

I'm not a fan of using whole milk (or heavy creams) in my cooking; to cut down on the fat content I usually use skim milk. However, my brother-in-law is lactose intolerant so this morning I used rice milk instead of dairy and margarine instead of butter. These substitutions didn't change the crêpe in any way. My nephew has a dairy sensitivity and one thing I've learned is that when cooking for someone with a dairy sensitivity or allergy rice milk is a good substitute, soy milk is not.

Sorry for the poor quality of the photos. It was early and I was wearing my glasses. It's not the best formula for picture-taking!


Preparing the batter.




I think this is some of the greatest stuff in the world! My dad doesn't like Nutella but said he'd like to try peanut butter on crêpes sometime. A lot of people will also put bananas with the Nutella on their crêpes but the bananas in my house weren't ripe enough today.


For a drink, I served a San Pellegrino and orange juice mixture.




I always eat two; one with fresh berries and one with Nutella.