crêpes

It wasn’t until I moved to Germany that I discovered the joy of the crêpe.  Sure, I knew what they were before I lived there, but they never really called out to me.  “Eat crêpes” was never on my to-do list.  Without them, I didn’t feel like my life was missing anything.  And, technically, it wasn’t.  But then I discovered how much better it is to share your existence with the mildly sweet, delicately thin vehicle of all things delicious, and I was hooked.

So, Germany was my introduction to crêpes.  One of the first things I did when I got off the plane — after moping around homesick for a bit — was go to a fest.  Why?  Because Germans love fests, and they have them all the time.  Sometimes these fests get really fancy, and instead of just your plain run-of-the-mill polka music playing/beer guzzling/pretzel eating/lederhose wearing spread, you can find all kinds of other delectable offerings.  The first time I saw a crêpe stand I stood outside of the glass partition and watched in amazement as the girl behind it methodically ladled batter onto a smoking hot griddle, swirled it round with a wooden stick, flipped it over, and then plopped it onto a paper plate  (folding it over so it would fit) after spreading it with the requested filling.  The whole thing took maybe two minutes.

And then, the first bite: heaven.  Spread with warmed Nutella, which oozed out of  the hot folds, it melted in my mouth.  There was no turning back.  From then on, from every German festival I had the good fortune to attend, to  a sugar filled specimen at the Eiffel Tower, to a cute crêpe themed restaurant in Long Beach, “eat crêpes” has been on my to-do list, firmly planted at the top.  The final frontier was to make them myself.

The thing about homemade crepes is the batter is easy to make.  Ridiculously easy.  A quick 10 second whir in the blender and you’re done.  The hard part is the frying and the flipping.  Your first crepe will probably look like this:

And your second one like this:

But once you get the heat just right and your flipping skills down, they get better with each one.  And by the time you’ve done three or four, they’re beauties like this:

Easy.

Once they’re all made comes the fun part: the filling.  There’s so many to choose from!  I simply raided our fridge and pantry and came up with Nutella, jam, cinnamon-sugar, and lemon/powdered sugar (my favorite).   You could even go the savory route and use egg, cheese or ham.  The sky is the limit here, and you probably have everything you need already in your kitchen.  And you’re left with a little taste of Europe, yet you never have to leave the house.  Which is good for those of us who no longer have German fests or the Eiffel Tower at our fingertips.

Dessert Crêpes
adapted from Crêpes by Lou Seibert Pappas

We ate these as breakfast, though they’re called ‘dessert crêpes’.  If you’d like them savory (to make a ham and cheese crêpe, for instance), simply omit the sugar in the batter.  Please note that after mixing, the batter needs to rest at least one hour.  I found it convenient to mix up the night before. Below you’ll find a list of flavor variations.   For a decadent dessert, serve them with fruit, curd, whipped cream, a scoop of ice cream, a drizzle of caramel, hot fudge; anything your heart desires.

Ingredients:

2 large eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 tablespoon liqueur (Cointreau, amaretto, brandy, etc), optional
2 tablespoon butter, melted

Directions:

In a blender, blend all ingredients 5-10 seconds until smooth.  Pour into a container, give it a whisk to ensure there are no flour lumps, cover and refrigerate at least 1 hour or up to 24.

When ready to cook, preheat oven to 200°F.

Gently stir batter (it probably will have separated).  Heat a 6-8″ crepe pan or nonstick skillet over med-high heat.  Coat with cooking spray.  Lift pan off the heat, ladle in ¼ cup batter, and swirl pan to spread batter.  Swirl in even circles until the batter no longer moves in the pan.  You’ll want to try to make it as evenly coated as possible around the edges so that you do not get wispy edges.  Once batter is distributed place pan back on the heat and cook until almost dry on top and lightly colored on the edges, about one minute.

Loosen edges with a spatula (a regular rubber/silicone spatula used for baking works well here), and then plunge the spatula under the crêpe straight down the middle, lift (so that the sides hang down) and flip.  This should happen in a quick, fluid motion.  Cook on the second side 15-30 seconds.  Repeat with the rest of the batter.  Stack finished crêpes on a sheet pan in the warm oven until ready to use.  I found it easiest to stack the crêpes by sliding them out of the pan onto the sheet.  Fill and serve.

If you’d like to save for later, you can wrap the crêpes in plastic wrap in quantities used for serving and then seal in a plastic bag.  Refrigerate for up to 3 days, or freeze up to 2 months.

Makes about twelve 6-7″ crêpes.

Flavor Variations:

• Espresso: Grind 2 tbsp coffee beans to a fine powder and add to batter when blending
• Chestnut Flour: Reduce flour to 2/3 cup and add ½ cup chestnut flour
• Chocolate: Reduce flour to ¾ cup and add ½ cup cocoa powder.  Replace the 2 tbsp sugar with ¼ cup sifted powdered sugar.