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Today is Candelmas, a.k.a. Crêpe Day, and all over France little boys and girls are enjoying delicious crêpes, and frankly we’re jealous. Why, you ask, when crêpe joints are cropping up all over Seattle? These days you can’t go two feet at the farmer’s market without running into some crêpe-in-hand child with Nutella all over his face. But the truth is that we don’t really like these crêpes: they ooze with icky fillings and lack the essential crispiness that is in fact the crêpe’s namesake.
For all of you that studied French, you’ll probably remember that the little pointy accent on top of the e generally means: an s used to be here; thus crêpe becomes crespe, from the latin--this couldn’t be more perfect--crispus. We’ve obviously oversimplified this linguistic progression, but it does make our point about the crispy edges abundantly clear.
Thankfully, all of the failings of the purchased crêpe are easily solved by making them at home, a process which is both easy and totally enjoyable. Crêpes can be made on a whim; the batter consists of on-hand ingredients, and the best fillings are simple, a dollop of jam or a squeeze of lemon. And while a crêpe pan is a nice perk, fine crêpes can be turned out of any seasoned frying pan.
We have a particular love of crêpes because they are what we make when nothing else will entice us out of bed. Not only do they rouse us with the promise of deliciousness, they also function as a sort of snooze button. The batter has to rest for around 20 minutes, so we like to hurl ourselves out of bed in a state of semi-consciousness, throw the batter together and then get back in bed. When we actually wake up enough to start cooking them, nothing eases us into the day like standing over the stove eating a crêpe while we cook the next one.
What we have to say on the subject of crêpes cannot be contained on this, Crêpe Day, so we hope you’ll bear with us for the rest of the month while we explore the ins and outs of perfect crêpes. Next week we’ll discuss buckwheat crêpes, but for today we’ve included our favorite basic crêpe recipe after the break. It’s ever so slightly sweet and perfect for a cold morning.
Sweet Crêpes
This is the basic sweet crêpe recipe that we’ve been using since we were 12. It’s from the Joy of Cooking. Perhaps there are better, but we’re quite happy with this one, especially this time of year with a squeeze of meyer lemon and a sprinkling of sugar.
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup milk
1/4 cup water
2 large eggs
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 tablespoons sugar
pinch o’ salt
When you mix up this batter, the only thing you want to be careful about is preventing any lumps from forming. You can do this two ways; by throwing everything into your blender and whirling it until smooth, OR by starting with the dry ingredients, and slowly whisking in part of the liquid, say the eggs, until you have a paste (no lumps). Then slowly add the rest of the liquid while whisking until you have a nice smooth batter.
At this point it is necessary to rest your batter for 20 minutes or so. We know you are itching to skip this step, but the thing is: when you mix the batter, you start to develop the gluten in the flour (the protein which gives bread its structure), so you need to rest the batter and let the gluten relax. Because you don’t want tough, bready crêpes, do you?
Heat your crêpe pan to medium-high heat, brush with a little butter and ladle in about 1/4 cup, depending on the size of your pan, of batter. Immmediately tilt and swirl the pan so that the batter forms a thin even layer on the pan. This takes practice, but not to worry, even a crêpe that looks like a Rorschach ink test will taste good.
When your pan is at the perfect temperature, you’ll know because the batter will set the moment it hits the pan, but it won’t be so hot that it bubbles and leaves holes in the crêpe. You can play with the temperature as you go along until something seems right.
Fill your crêpes however you desire, and make sure to eat them right out of the pan so that they are hot, delicious and crispy.
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Used this recipe today and it worked great! My first time making crepes, awesome! Thanks I never knew how easy it was.
Yay, I'm so glad! Check back on Friday, we're doing buckwheat crepes...