I was wrong. Very wrong. Crepes are easy, all it takes is a good base recipe which one can adjust pretty liberally, and things still work. My basic recipe is as follows:
Whisk:
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup flour
- 1 cup milk
- pinch salt
- 1 TBS sugar - optional, skip for savory crepes
When the mixture is smooth, add
- 1 cup water (or milk)
- 1/4-1/3 cup melted butter
Whisk well. Let rest in the fridge for a couple of hours, overnights is fine. If you are in a rush, leave out for about 1/2 hour and make crepes right away.
To cook crepes, preheat a crepe pan on a medium-high flame. My favorite pan is a 10 inch cast iron griddle. When I am in a rush, I reach for non-stick pans like this one, mine is a discontinued model from Calphalon. Traditionally, one uses shallow steel pans - just like a carbon steel wok, these need to be seasoned before use, or the result will be a complete disaster. The truth is that any pan will do - non-stick ones are a bit easier to start with, but not really needed.
When a pan is hot, I usually add some cooking oil - avocado oil is my choice because of it's high smoke point. Swirl the oil around the pan, and make sure the pan is not so hot that the oil smokes.
Ladle some of the batter into the pan. For my pans, I use about 2.5 ounces of batter. I got a 3 oz ladle for this, it makes things easier when I use 3 pans at once. Swirl the batter to spread it evenly around the pan, or use a crepe spreader that you have dipped in water.
Cook on one side for 30 secs to a minute, depending on how hot your pan is. Flip with a heat-safe spatula, cook for another 20-30 seconds, and remove the cooked crepe off the pan. I like to stack cooked crepe on a large plate.
One can get fancy and flip a crepe with a wrist flick. I am faster with a spatula, no fat is splattered, and no crepe ends up on the floor. Your choice!
Repeat until you use all of the crepe batter. I do not add any oil or butter after making the first crepe, but you can if you wish. I get 12 to 20 crepes out of this recipe, depending on the size of the pan I use.
Fillings
While one can eat crepes as is, fillings are what crepes are all about. Here are a few options:
- spread some jam over the crepe and roll it
- Nutella is always a favorite with my friends
- melted and preferably tempered chocolate, whatever kind you like
- sliced fresh fruit is awesome, and you can add some whipped cream on the top
- mix sour cream, some sugar, and some ground almonds - ratios are your choice, I go heavy on almonds, lighter on the cream, and light on sugar
- lemon juice and sugar mixture
- orange butter, and if you choose to flambe the crepes, you get Crepes Suzette
- a mixture of ground walnuts, sugar, cinnamon
For savory fillings, I really like a simple slice of cheese, and sometimes a slice of prosciutto or ham. I like to fold the crepe in half and toast it on the pan so that the cheese melts. Yum! Pretty much anything goes here - sauteed mushrooms are great, scrambled eggs are fun, steamer vegetables, steak and avocado... Really, crepes are an awesome vessel for a variety of flavors, only our imagination is the limit.
Variations
I almost never use the base recipe, but tend to go for a variation. The basic ratio of eggs to flour to liquid to fat remains pretty much the same throughout. Here are a few options - note that one can combine them:
- Use melted coconut oil instead of butter. I almost always do this.
- Add 1/3 cup of almonds to the batter.
- Use coconut milk instead of cow milk. If you use full-fat coconut milk, you can skip on adding the butter to the batter.
- Use soy milk instead of milk.
- Replace some or all of the flour with buckwheat flour. Pay attention to the liquid so that the batter consistency is good.
Note that one can make buckwheat crepes without eggs. I have not tried that yet - I do not mind adding the egg for some protein to this carb-heavy dish. Besides, if David Lebovitz doesn't bother, I feel that I can postpone that experiment.
