Homemade Crêpes

During the holidays, and thanks to the crazy weather, there were mornings where I woke up to the falling snow and, as a result, almost imprisioned in my apartment. As mentioned previously, whenever I have a bit too much time… Anyway, on one of the nights, after listening to the weather forecast, which called for snow next morning, I started planning next day’s breakfast. For the record, for this meal, I usually have cereal, fruit and (soy) milk. But, for a change, I wanted something special. That’s how I came up with the idea of making crêpes.

Before I continue, there is this “background” question, why crêpes and not pancakes? The answer is… I don’t know! Well, actually I do. I find pancakes a bit generic; in fact, if I *really* wanted pancake, I would just go to MickeyD’s and get it from their breakfast menu. However, this argument has a flaw (or at least here in Vancouver): If I wanted crêpes, I could as well go to one of the many Cafe Crepe here. In the end, I guess crêpes have a certain je ne sais quoi…

Now, the basic recipe, I used Alton Brown’s (Good Eats) – Food Network’s recipe here:

• 250 mL of flour ~ 1 cup. I used Nutri-Blend for this application
• 2 large eggs (important: room temperature!)
• 300 mL of milk
• 125 mL of water
• 45 mL of melter butter (~3 tablespoons). More butter later for cooking.

However, I wanted it to be “sweet” so I also used the following:

• A tablespoon of sugar
• A teaspoon of vanilla essence
• Some cinnamon
• Some nutmeg

OK, I actually did a small modification. That night, I did not have milk. Instead I had a can of evaporated milk and made milk by adding similar volume of water. This had a small impact in the final dish, later on this… As for the recipe itself, I just put all the ingredients in a blender and pulse for about 30 seconds. I must admit I made a small mistake (which made cleaning a bit more difficult later): I dumped all the flour at once. I thing I should have added a bit at a time. After I blended all the ingredients, I transfered it to a bowl and then to the fridge for next morning.

Preparing the batter in advance was on purpose (again, more on this later). So, on the next day, I took out the mix and left it out on the counter for 30 or so minutes to “warm up”. Then, on a pan, in my case, which just happened to be a crêpe pan (this is sheer coincidence! I usually use it to cook eggs), on low-medium temperature, I melted some butter.

Once it starts to brown, I pour some of the batter and swirl the pan to make sure it spreads evenly (and “thinly”).

Sorry for the fuzzy picture; I did not really have too much time to focus

Just like pancakes, when you see bubbles starting to appear on the top, use a plastic spatula to flip it. In my case, this didn’t take more than 40 seconds. Once flipped, I let it cooked for at most 20 additional seconds.

Then I would transfer it on a board (in my case, I placed some paper towel first). Repeat until done with all the batter. Based on the amount of ingredients above, on my 8″ (21cm) pan, I was able to make 7 and a half (the half being a small one, sometimes I also use it to “test” the batter and pan before making the rest).

On that morning, I sliced some banana an some leftover home-made cranberry jelly (60 mL of water, 3 tablespoon of honey, 3 tablespoon of sugar, juice and zest of an orange, 450 grams of cranberry on low-medium until it starts to boil, stirring it occasionally, then remove from heat).

It was quite good, if I can say so myself!

Now, here are some details about the original recipe:

• The batter was a bit “thick”. I thinks is probably due to the evaporated milk. A couple of days later, I made the same batter but using 400 mL of soy milk instead of milk and water. The batter was thinner and, probably as a result, the crêpes were thinner as well.
• If I did not let the batter “rest”, I found the resulting crêpe was a bit too easy to tear. Of course, YMMV.

And here is the result of the “adjusted” version…

In the end, I am surprised it was not as difficult as it might sound. In fact, it was so “easy”, I would certainly make for somebody as a “special” breakfast! ^_^;

Tagged under: Breakfast • Home Cooking