Introduction
Crêpes are very thin pancakes made from a runny batter of flour, eggs and milk. Eat them for breakfast, as a dessert or at a crêpe party, rolled around sugar and lemon, jam, chocolate spread or, without the sugar in the batter, ham, cheese and egg.
They come from Brittany, in the west of France, where crêpes and buckwheat galettes are still the everyday food of crêperies. In France, crêpes are eaten on Candlemas (la Chandeleur), on 2 February. The batter rests for best results; the first crêpe usually fails while the pan finds its heat, and everyone knows it.
Ingredients
- 250 g plain flour
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tablespoon sugar (leave it out for savoury crêpes)
- 4 eggs
- 500 ml milk
- 50 g melted butter, plus a little for the pan
- to serve: sugar and lemon, jam, honey or chocolate spread
Tools
- A large mixing bowl
- A whisk
- A non-stick frying pan or crêpe pan, about 24 cm wide
- A ladle and a spatula
Preparation
- Put the flour, salt and sugar in the bowl and make a hollow in the middle. Break in the eggs.
- Whisk from the centre, adding the milk little by little, so the batter stays smooth. Whisk in the melted butter. The batter should be as runny as single cream.
- Leave it to rest for 30 minutes to an hour, if you have the time.
- Heat the pan over a medium-high heat and wipe it with a little butter on kitchen paper.
- Pour in a small ladle of batter, tilting and turning the pan at once so it covers the bottom thinly.
- Cook for about 1 minute, until the edges lift and the underside is golden. Turn it with the spatula and cook for 30 seconds more.
- Stack the crêpes on a plate as you go, butter the pan now and then, and serve with your fillings.