Crepes are so easy, low in calories, and cheap, and make just about anything you serve with them so classy you will be wondering why you don't serve them every day of the week.
The Ingredients:
6 oz plain flour
¾ pint milk
2 eggs
2 tbsp oil plus a bit more for cooking
sugar to taste (optional)
The Tools:
Frying pan (or crepe pan if you are lucky enough to have one) about 8 inches
Pallet spatula
Bowl / liquid measuring cup for mixing the batter
Kitchen scale
Stove
Plastic shopping bag or parchment paper to separate the crepes in the stack
The Method:
1. Mix flour, eggs, oil, and milk until very smooth and let batter stand 20 or so minutes
2. In the mean time put your pan on a moderate heat. My burners go from 1-6 so I put it on to three just to get the heat on and the pan warm. This is on an electric stove so adjust if you are on gas
3. Once you are ready to start cook whack the heat up a notch or two and put a tiny drop of oil in your pan
4. Pour about a ¼ cup of batter in the pan and swirl it around to make a thin coating on the bottom
5. Cook on one side until the top is dry and the bottom is golden brown
6. Carefully use your pallet knife to lift the crepe and turn it over
7. Cook on the other side until golden brown
8. Remove from the pan onto a plate and cover with piece of parchment or plastic bag
9. Continue cooking the crepes and layering them on the plate with parchment or plastic bag in between until all the batter is used
The Science:
What you are making is pretty much a omelet with some flour added to it.
Mix the batter thoroughly. You don't want any lumps and it will activate the gluten in the flour. This will ensure that the crepes have an elasticity that will make them easy to turn.
Crepes are meant to be flat. This is why you let the batter sit before you make the crepes. It lets the air you put into the batter while mixing it escape.
Trouble Shooting
The Problem: My crepe never goes brown!
The Solution: Turn up the heat! Make sure your pan and oil are very hot before adding the batter
The Problem: My crepe sticks to the pan
The Solution: Turn up the heat! I really don't know why this works but these first two problems are generally related.
Also make sure that you are using a good pan. One that is very scratched is never going to produce good crepes because you will need to add too much oil to the pan to keep them from sticking.
Your crepes could also be sticking because you are making sweet crepes (with sugar in the batter) which will stick to a hot pan if you don't use enough oil.
If your pan is good enough you really do not need much oil. Really just a drop should do it
The Next Step
Crepes truly are the easiest way you can posh up a meal. Anything you can have on a bun or in a sandwich you can cram in a crepe and people will think they are being served some sort of complicated French delicacy. Ham and cheese, ricotta and spinach, chicken salad, you NAME it.
Just roll them up, put them in a shallow baking dish, grate over some cheese, and bake for about 20 minutes.
Serve with a fresh green salad or other veg like asparagus or green beans. For something more dinner than lunch make up a sauce to pour over them.
Sweet crepes can be served with ice cream, chocolate sauce, apple sauce, or just about any sweet thing you can think of. One of my favourite recipes for crepes is Crepes Frangipane in which the Frangipane bit is far the more complicated part of the operation.
They freeze superbly. If I do a dinner for two including crepes I will only use two each for a main and one each for a starter or dessert. The rest can go into the freezer for next time. They can be made up weeks in advance which really helps if your honey is turning up on short notice.
And yet they are so simple provided you have the right tools.
These are good for breakfast, brunch, lunch, or dinner. You can even pull them out for a late supper, dessert, or tea.
It almost doesn't matter what you put in them. People will be so impressed with your apparently advanced cooking skills they won't notice that it is what they may have had on their shrimp salad sandwich yesterday.
Recommendations
A good pan and a good pallet knife/spatula are the secret to no fail crepes. If you do not have either of these items I would suggest that you make the investment.
You don't need a specialist crepe pan but a good 8 inch shallow non-stick fry pan is an indispensable tool.
Crepes are almost impossible with out a pallet knife or spatula. I have had a certain amount of success with a regular spatula/egg turner but the thinner the edge the better.
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